Threaded gold genuine crown for day date 1803 Rolex

[Timelord]

New Years greetings to you ALL! 
 

Anyone ever had experience with a threaded gold crown ( crown no longer screws onto case tube)?  Can the internal threads of crown that mates onto tube be reconditioned on the inside?  My understanding is that they are gold capped with a normal metal sleeve that contains threads!  
 

Due to the drying market of parts, was hoping that something could be done as the aftermarket ones with the logo are plated and buying a good second hand one could be risky with how much life they have resulting from wear and tear!  
 

thanks!  

[automatico]

"Can the internal threads of crown that mates onto tube be reconditioned on the inside?"

 

The short answer is probably not. 

It would be hard to do unless you have a very short 'bottom out' tap/thread cutter of some sort...or handy at making gravers and cutting threads on a lathe.

'Bottom out tap' = made to dead end, they basically cut full sized threads all the way to where they bottom out.  Besides that, you would need to remove the telescoping clutch in the crown first, or have a special hollow tap.  It could be done but not without a lot of hassle, providing there is enough 'meat' left on the threads inside the crown to begin with.

 

On 5.3mm crowns you can sometimes run the crown down on a stainless steel case tube and straighten the threads up.  I have a few steel 5.3mm case tubes but no steel 6.0 tubes.  The steel 5.3mm tubes came from ST and I do not know if they have 6.0mm steel case tubes or not...or even if steel 6mm tubes are being made.  They do make steel 7.0mm case tubes of course but the crown threads are too big for dress type crowns.

 

First thing to do is clean the threads inside the crown as good as possible with a toothpick etc and see what's what.  The case tube can be changed fairly easily and this along with cleaned up threads may give a year or two more service.

 

"My understanding is that they are gold capped with a normal metal sleeve that contains threads!"

 

Right, old style crowns have the internals made of something else, usually nickel silver with a cap crimped over it like a bottle cap.  Later 'monoblock'

crowns are solid one piece...steel, gold, platinum, pirate skulls etc.