Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Post pics of your watches ***Please NO QUOTING PHOTOS***
Options
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,075 Mod ✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 59004
Me the other day concerning my 1916 Longines...
So, I figured what the hell, no time like the present.Including "lume" I sourced in a arts and crafts shop back in the nineties and very inexpertly globbed on, cos I knew even less back then.
One of these days I'm gonna redo it right.
First, off with the hands and remove the old gloopy toy shop "lume" from the dial and hands. Horrid stuff actually and was dug in like a tick.
:eek: The enamel dial wasn't so much an issue, as little will stick to that material, so just gently work at it with a toothpick and it came off. The hands were a nightmare. The usual gently mechanical pressure came to nought, so broke out the last resort for this kinda thing; acetone. Caveat acetone will dissolve things like lume, but it also breeds rust like crazy, so straight after the dip in it that loosened the lume, right into a bath of WD40 to neutralise it and to drive out any damp. The stuff is OK in my experience with blued hands, but they're real blued hands not paint. It'll strip paint like a bugger so beware. Given what I'm working with is over a century old I was bricking it TBH. But it worked.
Anyway old glop gone, new lume made up with a hint of a tint(s) to mimic the colour of what the original radium would have looked like when new(the original radium nasty stuff was removed in the 90's via an ultrasonic clean).
It's slightly darker than in the pic. To paint the dial I used a brush just like the painters did originally(QV Radium Girls). So being somewhat rough and ready is OK with these. Later the lume was "printed" on and far more precisely. Ever time I do this I'm reminded of how so many got sick and died from doing this with radium and I feel a great respect for the skills of those women. It took me an hour taking it handy, they'd do a dial in minutes or less. I used a tiny brush. More hairs on the top of Sean Connery's head. In the past I've used watch oilers and toothpicks to do hands, but have found a tiny brush more controllable myself. Go with thin "coats", about the consistency of milk and surface tension will fill the spaces. It gets easy with practice TBH. I usually give two or three very thin passes on it allowing 15 minutes between "coats". Ditto for the dial. The more thin coats the better, but be careful not to overload the hands or they'll foul each other as they pass every hour.
First coat after a couple of seconds of exposure to the evening "sunlight".
Next hands back on.
Checking to make sure everything lines up on each of the hours and don't foul each other or the seconds hand. Looking OK and with the knobbly texture of the original hand painted numbers.
All back together and after a charge from the last dregs of the setting daylight...
Now I'm crap at taking lume shots and it's a tad shaky, but that's using an older iPhone and after 15 minutes in the dark. :eek: Glows like a mofo and is so far easily legible after an hour(it even illuminates the dust on the crystal). The lume I got years ago from someone who had Seiko lume as part of a dealer closing down sale or some such. Apparently it's the best lume and in my experience it is.
Took over twenty years and the abuse it has suffered at my hands, but I finally sorted my fave oul thing. Daft I know, but I'm well chuffed and all aglow myself now. 
Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
0 -
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
Me the other day concerning my 1916 Longines...So, I figured what the hell, no time like the present.
First, off with the hands and remove the old gloopy toy shop "lume" from the dial and hands. Horrid stuff actually and was dug in like a tick.:eek: The enamel dial wasn't so much an issue, as little will stick to that material, so just gently work at it with a toothpick and it came off. The hands were a nightmare. The usual gently mechanical pressure came to nought, so broke out the last resort for this kinda thing; acetone. Caveat acetone will dissolve things like lume, but it also breeds rust like crazy, so straight after the dip in it that loosened the lume, right into a bath of WD40 to neutralise it and to drive out any damp. The stuff is OK in my experience with blued hands, but they're real blued hands not paint. It'll strip paint like a bugger so beware. Given what I'm working with is over a century old I was bricking it TBH. But it worked.
Anyway old glop gone, new lume made up with a hint of a tint(s) to mimic the colour of what the original radium would have looked like when new(the original radium nasty stuff was removed in the 90's via an ultrasonic clean).
It's slightly darker than in the pic. To paint the dial I used a brush just like the painters did originally(QV Radium Girls). So being somewhat rough and ready is OK with these. Later the lume was "printed" on and far more precisely. Ever time I do this I'm reminded of how so many got sick and died from doing this with radium and I feel a great respect for the skills of those women. It took me an hour taking it handy, they'd do a dial in minutes or less. I used a tiny brush. More hairs on the top of Sean Connery's head. In the past I've used watch oilers and toothpicks to do hands, but have found a tiny brush more controllable myself. Go with thin "coats", about the consistency of milk and surface tension will fill the spaces. It gets easy with practice TBH. I usually give two or three very thin passes on it allowing 15 minutes between "coats". Ditto for the dial. The more thin coats the better, but be careful not to overload the hands or they'll foul each other as they pass every hour.
Next hands back on.
I'll take it off your hands if you dont like it. !The narrower a man’s mind, the broader his statements.
0 -
Should that not be 1000ft for (300m)? -It's hardly 3000 metres with another zero hidden behind the hands there...??
Surprised with that myself. There's another zero there. Definitely safe to wear in the shower! Not normally a fan of Breitlings as I find most too busy but I like this one.
0 -
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
I've been wearing this one a lot lately. It's a Casio M640 I got in from Japan. It has a Casio tough solar movement. It radio syncs to atomic time, has a dot matrix display for functions such as timer stop watch, world time etc.
I only used the timer today in order to ring someone back in 20 minutes:-)
0 -
-
Just a quick shot.. 5 months waiting.. it's beautiful.. condition to my eye is pristine.. need a link added.. they came with it.. did someone say any Omega authorized dealer should do for free? I was going to add myself but figure it's worth maybe in this case getting a pro to do it..
'll more pictures later.
Thanks,
Mick0 -
-
Advertisement
-
![[Deleted User]](/applications/dashboard/design/images/defaulticon.png)
This discussion has been closed.
Advertisement