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PVD Coating


Chronus

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Just a quick post to see if anyone would be interested in having their watches PVD coated a la PAM028. It'll have to be sent in disassembled.

Imagine your PAMs (especially 028 and projects) or Subs and SMPs, even FMs PVD'd ... a great look!

Basically, the more volume, the lower the price could be, but at present the cost is around 170-200 possibly additional return shipping from Australia.

Any interest, please post here. Thanks!

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To add some more details, though I don't know the whole process the whole way through,

it would entail:

1) acid dipping;

2) micro bead blast

3) PVD coating

If ou prefer RBJ's go ahead with that, after the "blowing the dust off the dial" I've always been wary with that one.

Originally, I'd planned to ask finepics to get my 028 PVD'd as well as a Jimmy case project, but as this is not possible (and he was chargng around $110-120 I think after arranging a repeat deal) I want to finally get it done. The problem is one single piece is $170-200, but with more volume there could be scope to get it cheaper, it just depends how many.

Willith, I think you are in Australia (am I correct?) so getting your handgun done should be fine. I would be wary of sending it overseas, but you would know more about gun laws etc than I will. :thumbsupsmileyanim:

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Chronus-

I think you would get a fair amount of interest. I need to get a 28 done. But I would suggest you check in with Chieftang as last I heard he was pursuing this. I know you know what it should look like in terms of bead blasting (size of beads, length of blasting, etc.) and the proper Tialn process. I don't know if he ever followed through but last I heard he was doing a trial run on one of his own. He found that he had to send it initially to one of the recognized names for bead blasting and had then found a good tialn coating service locally. My 09 should be coming back from Mark shortly and his guy did it exactly right. Jack at IWCC does it properly as well but he has jacked his prices up north of $600.

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Chronus-

I think you would get a fair amount of interest. I need to get a 28 done. But I would suggest you check in with Chieftang as last I heard he was pursuing this. I know you know what it should look like in terms of bead blasting (size of beads, length of blasting, etc.) and the proper Tialn process. I don't know if he ever followed through but last I heard he was doing a trial run on one of his own. He found that he had to send it initially to one of the recognized names for bead blasting and had then found a good tialn coating service locally. My 09 should be coming back from Mark shortly and his guy did it exactly right. Jack at IWCC does it properly as well but he has jacked his prices up north of $600.

We'll have to see this develops. If we get lucky, perhaps Chieftang can be a good source in North America, then the one in Australia, and hopefully somewhere in Europe too.

I sent chieftang a PM last night, so hopefully he mails me sometime and we'll see where we go from there.

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Just to add some info here... I will be the one getting the PVD organized from this end... here in Australia, if everyone is interested in going this route.

Chronus will be organizing evryone's watches and getting it all to me.

The reason for this is that I have not the time to deal with everyone individually, but do have the time to organize the total of the watches, getting them to and from the factory, and back to the owners.

The process will include acid dipping the components, micro bead blasting, and TiALN coating. It will all be done at one location/factory, so no multiple handling... decreasing the risk of issues arising.

This will mimic what I have done on my PAM 196, which has come out beautifully, although my photos don't do the overall appearance justice:

300267-2815.jpg

300267-2816.jpg

300267-2817.jpg

300267-2818.jpg

300267-2819.jpg

This TiAlN coating is not jet black, but a very dark grey/charcoal which has a very slight violet hue. The coating is very scratch resistant and is approaching diamond like hardness. This is the same coating we engineers apply to wear components in machinery and also is used to coat metal and woodworking tooling for surface hardness and to prevent tool wear.

The micro bead blasting gives the material a very nice satiny finish and also case hardens the material... similar to the tegiment technology used by Sinn.

Price is yet to be determined, that will come when we have an estimate on the interest, but Chrono's above prices are typical of a small run.

The more we get in the less expensive it will be per unit.

Sorry Willith, if you're not in Australia, gun components (or knives, weapons of any kind) will not be possible due to customs/security issues.

I highly doubt my price will drop to $120... if someone can get a quality job done for that, then all the power to them... I might even send mine!

As for RBJ's prices... If you want to go that route, then go for it... the rest can all read about it later as we have so many times before.

Please don't PM or email me regarding this, leave all questions in this thread. As mentioned above, I truly don't have the time to deal with individual questions or issues.

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We'll have to see this develops. If we get lucky, perhaps Chieftang can be a good source in North America, then the one in Australia, and hopefully somewhere in Europe too.I sent chieftang a PM last night, so hopefully he mails me sometime and we'll see where we go from there.
I didn't receive a PM from you. In any event, I would say this pricing is somewhat high. IndWatchWorks will do the "satin blast" for $75. They are high recommended on Paneristi and the satin blast is their pre-PVD process. Then I've got a PVD guy who will do the coating for $40ish. I don't know anything about an acid dip, though. What is the purpose of this?

Anyhow, I've got it on my projects list to put a watch case through this process myself and report on the results. It's just not at the top of my list right now. :(

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I didn't receive a PM from you. In any event, I would say this pricing is somewhat high. IndWatchWorks will do the "satin blast" for $75. They are high recommended on Paneristi and the satin blast is their pre-PVD process. Then I've got a PVD guy who will do the coating for $40ish. I don't know anything about an acid dip, though. What is the purpose of this?

Anyhow, I've got it on my projects list to put a watch case through this process myself and report on the results. It's just not at the top of my list right now. :(

I think the acid dip is to remove impurities like oils and grease and things like that from the watch case prior to pvd coat....

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I think the acid dip is to remove impurities like oils and grease and things like that from the watch case prior to pvd coat....

Yea, the PVD coating companies all do some sort of surface prep. Whether it's an etching with acid or not, I don't know. But the company I've been talking with does tooling in quantities of thousands a day. Decorative coating is just a side job for them, so durability is paramount.

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