I need some help

[freddy333]

Hmmmm... Channeling the underside of the insert is a definite no-go.

The only thing I can suggest is to maybe use some automotive grade double stick tape and press the bezel on that way. It would be non-permanent, provide a bit of build up to the backside of the insert and allow the insert to be secured to the bezel.

Thoughts?

Yes, that makes complete sense. The effect would be similar to using silicone sealant.

[ubiquitous]

Unfortunately, not an ideal solution, but at this point there isn't a whole lot to work with

I'll give this some more thought.

[freddy333]

Unfortunately, not an ideal solution, but at this point there isn't a whole lot to work with

I'll give this some more thought.

Thanks. I am sure that 1 of us will come up with the right solution.

[freddy333]

When you install the bezel, the spring inside it expands as you slide the bezel over that ring. As soon as the spring reaches the lower lip of the ring, it contracts & locks the bezel down on top of the ring.

I have reduced the height of the ring by grinding down the top of the ring to the dotted red line in the picture. This leaves just enough material for the spring inside the bezel to latch/lock onto. Trouble is that the ring is still a bit too tall & it comes into contact with the underside of the insert. The problem is that if I remove any more material from the top of the ring (to lower its profile so the insert can sit lower into the bezel), I will weaken or break the right-angle 'lip' on the side of the ring that the bezel spring needs to lock onto.

I need to find a way that will either allow the insert to sit lower into the bezel without removing more material from the ring, or I have to find a way to 'lock' the insert into place in the bezel even though the insert is only contacting the bezel around its edge.

[Nanuq]

It's not the solution you want to hear, but you're gonna have to grind that crystal retaining ring way down anyway to get the super-thin rehaut that a 6536/42 has. My rehaut stands very slightly proud of the case, and my retaining ring is triangular in cross section. This accomodates my very thin bezel and equally thin insert.

How about if you grind down your retaining ring until all the parts fit, then apply a flaring tool (like for plumbing work) to flare out a new lip around the top edge, onto which your bezel will snap?

I still think your insert is so thick that it will never fit completely down into the bezel properly. How about a thicker bezel with a deeper channel?

[freddy333]

It's not the solution you want to hear, but you're gonna have to grind that crystal retaining ring way down anyway to get the super-thin rehaut that a 6536/42 has. My rehaut stands very slightly proud of the case, and my retaining ring is triangular in cross section. This accomodates my very thin bezel and equally thin insert.

I would, but the ring on this case is not there to retain the crystal, it is there to retain the bezel. If I grind it down any more than I already have, I will grind off what is left of the right-angled 'lip' that runs around its outer circumference (which is what the bezel spring latches onto) & the bezel will not stay on the case.

How about if you grind down your retaining ring until all the parts fit, then apply a flaring tool (like for plumbing work) to flare out a new lip around the top edge, onto which your bezel will snap?

Great idea, but I do not have the tool or experience using 1.

I still think your insert is so thick that it will never fit completely down into the bezel properly. How about a thicker bezel with a deeper channel?

That would work. But I would pretty much be starting over trying to locate a bezel that will fit both the insert & this case.

[Nanuq]

On my case the crystal fits down around the rehaut lip and the retaining ring presses down over the whole mess. Do you think you can have someone machine a ring for you out of brass bar stock? It would be pretty easy.

[Guest carlsbadrolex]

Nanuq, I love when you draw pictures... Will you draw me a polar bear eating a vice presidential nominee please?

[freddy333]

On my case the crystal fits down around the rehaut lip and the retaining ring presses down over the whole mess. Do you think you can have someone machine a ring for you out of brass bar stock? It would be pretty easy.

Right. Like a Rolex case. Unfortunately, there are 2 things that would prohibit my doing that with the Silix case. 1st, the crystal sits inside (as opposed to outside) the vertical ring. 2nd, the ring's height had to be reduced in order to give the insert room to sit low enough into the bezel & there is not enough rise left to be able to fit a retaining ring even if the bezel were not in the way.

I superimposed the Silix case over your drawing so you can see how its construction differs from your case

[Nanuq]

Nanuq, I love when you draw pictures... Will you draw me a polar bear eating a vice presidential nominee please?

Sure thing! Always glad to help.

Here's Joe Biden...

[vlydog]

1958 Rolex GMT-Master 6542 on the bay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1958-Rolex-GMT-Master-...p3286.m20.l1116

[Nanuq]

@Freddy: how about this?

[freddy333]

@Freddy: how about this?

Great idea, but it will not work on the Silix case, because the crystal sits inside of the vertical ring. On the Silix, the bezel resides where your crystal is, so a retaining ring would not work. Unfortunately.

Also, because the bezel is designed to fit the wider right-angled 'lip' of the case opening, if you grind off the 'lip' & cut another groove into the side of the narrower ring shaft, the bezel would then be too large. That would bring me back to square 1 - in search of another bezel/insert to fit a reduced diameter groove.

But a clever idea.

[TeeJay]

Correct. The outer lip (part of the bezel that holds the insert) is not related to this problem & should not be modded in any way.

The inner lip (the 'ring' I have been referring to) is what is causing the problem. The bezel insert is supposed to fit down into the bottom of the bezel, but that ring, or inner lip, as you called it, is sticking up where the backside of the insert is supposed to be. The red ring is in the way.

The ring, as you see it in the picture you photoshopped, has already been ground down as far as I can get it without damaging the lip that runs around its outer circumference (this is the other lip that the bezel spring latches onto).

Do you see the flat-sided wire spring that runs around the inside of the bezel

Well, that spring latches onto the underside of that lip that runs around the side of the red ring (the 'inner lip' as you called it). The following picture shows the ring you marked in red before I ground it down. The right-angle below the top forms a 'lip'.....it is this lip that the bezel spring latches onto

The bezel spring latches onto the bottom of that lip. As you can see, there is very little material left between the dotted red line (the current top of that ring) and the right-angled lip below it (covered by the blue arrow). There is also a small black rubber gasket that sits in the groove, which you can see in this picture (the gasket is pushed down & out of the way by the bezel spring when the bezel is installed).

The outer ring (blue) is not related to this problem. You can ignore the blue ring.

Hi Freddy,

In addition to the outer blue ring, there is also an inner rim of metal (marked with a secondblue ring) in addition to the raised ring marked in red... THat was the one I was wondering about if it could, or could not be filed down with the ring marked in red.

Something you could try, would be to use the round 'engraving ball' of the Dremel to gradually remove the raised ring (in red) piece by piece. That would not touch either of the 'blue rings', either the one on the exterior, which I understand cannot be removed, or the very small ring on the interior, which was the one I only noticed on a second look at the picture

[freddy333]

Hi Freddy,

In addition to the outer blue ring, there is also an inner rim of metal (marked with a secondblue ring) in addition to the raised ring marked in red... THat was the one I was wondering about if it could, or could not be filed down with the ring marked in red.

Something you could try, would be to use the round 'engraving ball' of the Dremel to gradually remove the raised ring (in red) piece by piece. That would not touch either of the 'blue rings', either the one on the exterior, which I understand cannot be removed, or the very small ring on the interior, which was the one I only noticed on a second look at the picture

TeeJay - The inner blue ring is not related to the insert problem (nor is the outer blue ring), so it would not matter whether it was ground down or not. I modified this pic to show where the crystal sits (in relation to the 3 rings)

[ubiquitous]

Sure thing! Always glad to help.

Here's Joe Biden...

Lollers!

Awesome..

[freddy333]

Here's Joe Biden...

Definitely not Biden. Were it Biden, he would not say 'Ouch'. He would say, 'Don't put words in my mouth. What I said was, 'Ouch, that hurts. But it's not up to Congress to react every time an Alaskan bear wants to go fishing. Nor is it my personal purview, or responsibility, to exploit, or outline, or explain the situation as it is a global issue with far-reaching goals. What was the question?..........Do I have any pets? Yes, goldfish. Now, that's what I said.'

[JoJo35]

Definitely not Biden. Were it Biden, he would not say 'Ouch'. He would say, 'Don't put words in my mouth. What I said was, 'Ouch, that hurts. But it's not up to Congress to react every time an Alaskan bear wants to go fishing. Nor is my personal purview, or responsibility, to exploit, or outline, or explain the situation as it is a global issue with far-reaching goals. What was the question?..........Do I have any pets? Yes, goldfish. Now, that's what I said.'

Hahaha!!! that's perfect!

Back on subject, I had originally thought that the piece you had to grind down was a removable crystal retaining ring. It's starting to kinda hopeless, as I can see you cannot remove any further metal from that part without the bezel falling off. I wonder if anyone might have a retainer ring laying around with their supplies. If you could find a retainer ring, you might be able to grind the existing metal clean off, and install the crystal with the correct retainer ring

[freddy333]

Back on subject, I had originally thought that the piece you had to grind down was a removable crystal retaining ring. It's starting to kinda hopeless, as I can see you cannot remove any further metal from that part without the bezel falling off. I wonder if anyone might have a retainer ring laying around with their supplies. If you could find a retainer ring, you might be able to grind the existing metal clean off, and install the crystal with the correct retainer ring

But there is no vertical metal left adjacent to the crystal around which to place a retaining ring even if I had 1. Remember, the only vertical metal near the crystal has been ground down to a nub (with just enough of the right-angled 'lip' left for the spring inside the bezel to latch onto & keep the bezel attached to the case).
While not a perfect solution, I am thinking that either Ubi's suggestion of double-sided tape (which I am somewhat hesitant to use because removal of the insert would result in the paint on the underside of the insert remaining on the tape (instead of on the underside of the insert) or a bead of silicone sealant around the perimeter of the bezel (so the insert would be semi-permanently held onto the bezel only around its edge) might do the trick. I still think there is a better solution lurking out there in the ether somewhere, but it remains to be discovered by someone more clever than I am.

[TeeJay]

TeeJay - The inner blue ring is not related to the insert problem (nor is the outer blue ring), so it would not matter whether it was ground down or not. I modified this pic to show where the crystal sits (in relation to the 3 rings)

Gotcha. You want to reduce the height of the ring marked in red, and that would allow the insert to sit flat. If you were to use the sandpaper, from the inside of the rehaut, (possibly taking away the inner blue ring in the process), you would be able to get the 'red ring' lower. Alternately, if you only wanted to reduce the height of the 'red ring' and nothing else at all, I would suggest using the round engraving tool for the Dremel, and 'touching' it point by point onto the 'red ring', and gradually reducing it's height that way Best of luck with the project

[freddy333]

Gotcha. You want to reduce the height of the ring marked in red, and that would allow the insert to sit flat. If you were to use the sandpaper, from the inside of the rehaut, (possibly taking away the inner blue ring in the process), you would be able to get the 'red ring' lower. Alternately, if you only wanted to reduce the height of the 'red ring' and nothing else at all, I would suggest using the round engraving tool for the Dremel, and 'touching' it point by point onto the 'red ring', and gradually reducing it's height that way Best of luck with the project

TeeJay, I think you missed a bit of the story (or I am not explaining it well enough).

Yes, the red ring is the only part that needed to be lowered to allow the insert to lock down into the bezel. The thing is that I have already ground the red ring down as far as I can without compromising the lip that runs around its outer edge that the bezel spring needs to lock onto. The problem is that the red ring is still slightly too tall, but I cannot remove any more material from it (no matter what I use or what angle I remove it from) without damaging/removing what is left of that 'lip' (you cannot see the lip in the last picture because it is hidden by the bezel).

Do you see how the bottom of the bezel (green line) clips around the bottom edge of the area in blue (that is the right-angled 'ring' I keep referring to that is part of the front opening of the case)? I ground down the blue area, leaving just enough of the right-angle 'lip' for the bezel to clip to. If I remove any more material from the blue area, the bezel will not stay on the case

I am not sure if I am explaining it clearly enough, but, again, the entire problem is centered around the fact that the red ring is blocking the insert from sitting down deep enough into the bezel, but it is impossible to lower the red ring any further without losing the ability to lock the bezel onto the case.

Does that make sense?

[Nanuq]

Okay I have the answer but it won't be easy. You grind down the blue lip then machine a thin groove in it around its perimeter. Then buy an assortment of *thin* e-clips and c-clips from the hardware store to fit inside the bezel and around the machined groove. There are a zillion sizes out there. You'll also use the original hexagonal retaining spring as a new spacer between the bezel and the e-clip.

Trial and error will solve this. And lots of precise measuring and machining.

[freddy333]

Nanuq - Now THAT is a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, a bit beyond my skill & equipment level to execute. If I only had a machine shop & about a dozen cases to experiment on..........

But very clever!!!!

[LAWatchFan]

I don't mean to be "captain obvious" by why not shape blue lip as follows:

The steel is pretty strong and you don't need much to maintain the integrity of the lip holding the bezel on. (I even show a small chamfer to help guide the retaining spring into its slot a little better.)

This may be a difficult task (though it would be simple work with a lathe) but you could probably get approximately there with a dremel, a steady hand, and patience.

Good Luck!

-Pete

[freddy333]

The steel is pretty strong and you don't need much to maintain the integrity of the lip holding the bezel on. (I even show a small chamfer to help guide the retaining spring into its slot a little better.)

This may be a difficult task (though it would be simple work with a lathe) but you could probably get approximately there with a dremel, a steady hand, and patience.

Another interesting idea & I appreciate your input, but this is the problem