SKX007 spruce up.

Thanks lads, yes it bounced back nicely. It's surprising what some wet and dry wrapped around some wood can accomplish. A dremel and diamond paste polish and the correct attachments finishes it off.

Great news! Hope it keeps on keeping on for you:) If only we could replace our bits with nos parts lol.

When this watch is not on wrist what else do you wear?

A couple more from the kitchen table when time allowed…

Further to the suunto observer, a core.

Water ingress. Gently cleaned it up and with stiff abrasive eraser/isopropyl and it's matching zebra rubber contacts on the lcd side. Read out is grand now. I've seen this before and would not swim with a suunto core imo.

Had one before many moons ago, this one I bought cheaply to fix by swopping the dead movement. It's a standard ronda 515 movemnt but with the tall pinion stack to allow for the gtls vials. Still available new for twenty odd quid. Was kinda bummed when I saw this thought as it's likely repairable with a dab from my conductive pen

A slip by the previous lad during battery change must have broke a strand on the coil. You have to slightly torque the contact arm in its direction to fit and remove a battery. Anyway, for the sake of a score it can have the new movement.

Re the radioactive light emitting vials this is an old model so I was worried it was going to have exhausted it's half life and not glow. A wiser man on such issues advised it wouldn't be and to my delight its still does output. It's obviously much dimmer but still very readable in the dark. My phone doesn't do it justice, its brighter to the eye than this suggests

I popped the crystal to measure and ordered a generic sapphire in 28 x 2mm for a fiver but while it's out I polished off the worst of the scratches.

Caseback seal was dead so replaces it with an skx007 one which fit perfectly and I best guessed the dual crown seals. By best guessed I mean you're looking for a slight push fit in refitting to crown tube and a nice glide-y resistance when turning it.

Passed with flying colours, as did the previous SSC021P1 solar diver.

Looks good on a rubber single pass nato.

I also don't buy black pvd watches so with that out of the way I present to you my black pvd watch... Another non runner bought cheaply which needed considerable fiddling to get running again.

Here it is in a sea of ceramic vibratory media washing off the contradiction.

Which did not really strip the finish, at least in a timely manner. Aluminium oxide will be my next try. I did note that this media and process will leave a lovely glassblasted/matt/burnished finish on uncoated steel. It will also remove minor scratches and graining. Armed with this knowledge I used more direct methods and left the the above to remove all traces of that.

Which it did very well.

I'm confident I can get this down to a no hands two step process with this 4mm ceramic as a finishmedia and maybe aluminium oxide or something suitable for stronger initial stripping. That's the goal anyway and I've loooads of other stuff this can be used for besides. The caseback came out great (not native to the 7A38 but used in place of the oem one I didn't want refinished.

Here's a good snap that shows the scratched/polished section of the fold over that was covered by the clasp. Under magnification there's no open pores or injury to the surface but scratches and swirlies are removed. It does this without removing much edge definition etc. It seems better in this respect than blasting or tumbling.

Yes, a pst

But from 02

The later gen one had the scissors iirc, this must be late in the run. If you have an old one send it on, I'm like doc macstuffins for them lol. I peen any slop of the pliers head, repoint the drivers and re-face the cutters if dented.

I do a bit of sharpening for hunters down this way so give them a nice toothy edge too

Pops hairs!

The blast is great, I have one somewhere, a more comfy package with the rubber guards but slightly thicker for it. A pst is so pocketable. Great tools in a bind. My young fellas bike was locked by someone's random lock once, I hacked sawed it off in ten mins with my pst lol.

I've seen vids of the man himself engraving his sig but never knew he was here. Brill that you have them.

His story of how the pst came to be a success is a great study in how a fantastic product still needs hard work and luck to make it. His early designs were so innovative and yet he struggled to get them on shelves.

That model wave you have is much more compact than the later evolutions and the juice should never have been shelved, I have a c2 but not your c4. Great models and signed too. They've got to be appreciating, keep them!

While we're lm geeking out...

My early oddities, my sideclip is awol in the garage otherwise would be here in this line up. I have users of all these too, these are the drawer queens. Having a brother in the states helped sourcing them.

Star of the show for me though...

A full sized pliers for the Johnny pocket!

We're all coming out of the woodwork lol.

Do, love to see it!

Cool! That show rocked, was right up there with Night Rider, V and the A Team. So the Tinker seemed to feature largely. I wonder today would he have the Vic spirit x multi tool instead of a cellidor vic?

@banie01 i remember having one of those survival knives as a nipper lol. The hollow handle had an assortment of various useless wet light matches, hooks and line and button compass. Very nostalgic but mind you a 13 stripping bark from a stick with one now would probably have the special branch arrive under blues and two with weapons drawn haha.

Finished the two 7A38 restomods

Caseback re graining removed the most of the scratches, quite presentable. That three jaw chuck is a winner. The tumbling did a good job on the pvd case and bracelet.