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Decals print dials


Bart Cordell

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I used a gen 16610 Sub dial from Ebay that was trashed for $25. I filled in those marker holes using solder. Sanded smooth, soldered on dial feet for ETA. The date window is a bit larger, and so much better than the cartel dials. 


How about filing them with marine weld epoxy, sanding then painting the dial black before you apply the decal?


But solder or epoxy are not brass colored.



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You're getting ahead of yourself... you don't realize you've created the world's first GMT Moonphase dial!




And I can use it one day every month only.

How about a brass/copper coloured spray paint after filling the holes?

Thought of it. But I will loose the brass oxydation effect on some parts of the dial. Sorry, don't know how to explain.


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Mine lined up each marker hole with the marker on the decal. The lume covered the small dot of solder.

Anything under the decal and on the dial will show up as a 'bump'. The decals tighten as they dry. With the red letter we talked about earlier, just a light thin swipe of red on the dial under the decal made a bump and looked bad. Jewelers have to repair gold, plated and brass/bronze things. I wonder if they have a brass colored solder. 

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Can't wait to see how the gold leaf under the decal dial turns out. You have given me so much inspiration, and confidence to continue working on my dial project. Thanks for documenting your projects.

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The gold leaf tends to wrinkle easily while applying. Also if the sheet breaks you may end up with an overlapped area. That may make the surface non smooth and those variations might be enhaced by the decal. Just my 2 cents.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

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On 9/8/2016 at 1:10 AM, JoeyB said:

I used a gen 16610 Sub dial from Ebay that was trashed for $25. I filled in those marker holes using solder. Sanded smooth, soldered on dial feet for ETA. The date window is a bit larger, and so much better than the cartel dials. 

Soft solder is very soft and porous, difficult to sand smooth.  So I recommend silver solder, ( just sharing in case others try).    Silver solder will give a higher quality finish to help achieve which ever texture/finish needed.

On 9/8/2016 at 4:41 AM, JoeyB said:

Mine lined up each marker hole with the marker on the decal. The lume covered the small dot of solder.

Anything under the decal and on the dial will show up as a 'bump'. The decals tighten as they dry. With the red letter we talked about earlier, just a light thin swipe of red on the dial under the decal made a bump and looked bad. Jewelers have to repair gold, plated and brass/bronze things. I wonder if they have a brass colored solder. 

There is a copper colored solder you can buy, but it won't be a perfect color match to brass.

 

I can't find a link to copper colored solder but beading makers and jewelers get it online. But here is good quality silver solder I get from hardware store.   But you will need a perfectly clean dial for solder to flow, and the challenge of quality silver solder is that the required temperature is high.    You can't use an electric solderer.   So that might be why some are recommending to fix the holes with epoxy.    You could melt the brass dial if you are new with hard soldering with torches.   But it's easy with practice.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1382484&KPID=1133536&cid=CAPLA:G:Shopping_-_Solder1_-_New&pla=pla_1133536&k_clickid=978fed33-3a9f-4cb0-9019-5cbcfdef9478

Edited by RickFlorida
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On 9/8/2016 at 2:19 AM, jackflash said:

How about filing them with marine weld epoxy, sanding then painting the dial black before you apply the decal?

I make jewelry, and I found that if you have two different materials ( brass is hard, the epoxy soft), it is difficult to sand them both flat together.   Even on a perfectly smooth surface.  The soft epoxy will want to move/tear while the hard brass will achieve the finish you will soon see a concave hole in the epoxy.   Better to solder the holes with quality silver solder or copper colored solder.

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8 hours ago, slay said:

3D printed?

I printed the hands because I'm on a deadline and the method I invented for making brass hands hasn't been refined enough yet, so I'm sticking to these for now. The dial is not 3D printed though  

I'm working on a custom watch where the "theme" is that I've invented as many methods as I can for producing the parts. Not just for the sake of reinventing the wheel, but for the sake of modernizing. 

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