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Picked up this Alaska Medal case for an early Elgin B. W. Raymond. The case was in fair condition, but I though it would be fun to clean it up a bit. I used to do stringed instrument finishes in a former life, so I setup my old polishing wheels and gave it a go. You can see some pitting on the edge of the back closest to you Here's my buffing setup. I used my 10 inch (25.5 cm) , double wheels on each end of the arbor. One side is dressed with Menzerna Compound (brown), Item # 3169. The other side has Extra fine (ivory), Item # 3174, although to be honest, I can’t remember the last time I put any of the ivory on the clean wheel. The double wheels that make up the course side. I know the guy on YouTube makes a big noise about a hard wheel for buffing, but I’m really not trying to push a lot of medal around, so I have good success with this setup. I find you have less heat and cutting with a softer wheel. I have bigger wheels (16 inch) too, but don’t really use them much for this application. Not that they wouldn’t work, they're just really expensive, so I save them for finishes, when someone talks me into doing an instrument repair. My motor base RPM is 1725, and I have 2 to 1 reduction ratio on my pulleys, so my finial RPM at the buffing wheel is 850 or so. Any faster than that and the whole system shakes so much it dances across the floor. Here’s a link to Steward –McDonald. When I did finishing on a regular bases, I’d by my stuff from them. http://www.stewmac.com/SiteSearch/buffing%20menzerna%20compound.html Here's the case after buffing but before polishing. You can see the pitting is gone. I'll post another case clean up sometime and use a junkier case so you can really see the difference.

Ok, revised advice. I took the Crystal once again as there were two small hairline scratches that were just bugging me, and tried to remove them using pumice. That made it worse. Then I used my drumel again and tried to buff out the new scratches; that didn't work. Then I got out the 1200 grit and worked a full sheet of rubbing followed by the 2000 grit and a half sheet of rubbing; THAT WORKED! So new technique should be Drumel with 240 grit drum for the first shooting and major scratches followed by a quick drumel buff with number 6 High Gloss, followed by 1200 grit, Two Sheets of hand rubbing and 2000 Grit 1 sheet of hand rubbing (sanding). DO NOT GO IN CIRCLES while rubbing; back and forth is best. Thanks. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The same one in this pocket watch Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

PROJECT GREMLIN ATTACK ON RUTEX 17 JEWEL MANUAL WIND;) This one was a lousy watch to work on, haha. Sometimes, you just have to walk away and rethink these things over when problems occur. On Saturday morning, I felt like servicing another military watch. This particular one was seized meaning none of the hands moved when shaken or by using the crown. I disassembled, cleaned, oiled and reassembled. Wouldn't ya know the damn thing would stop after 10-30 seconds. I spent lots of time troubleshooting and mis-diagnosed the problem at first. (I thought it was the hairspring/balance pivot) After "walking away" without throwing it, I thought things over. I went back last night, disassembled it again and carefully looked at each part AGAIN. Curses to the man that couldn't secure the barrel cover to the mainspring barrel. (me) So, I have a mainspring barrel installation tool on order that will close it PROPERLY from now on;) In the meantime, I will start re-checking every friggin' part BEFORE I put everything back together, haha. This project turned into a 13 hour ordeal and I'm glad it is not only behind me, but the problem has been solved;) Pictures are below, feel free to ask questions....I love questions, LOL;)

And that's it for now. When I do some more luminous painting I'll post it here.

This one is another JLC military. Hand luminous was completely missing, however original dial luminous was intact. I decided to add a bit of patina and age to the hands to get this to match the original luminous.

If you have a lathe use that with emery cloth or sticks and make sure it's very fine.

Lol. Happens to the best of us. Those pusher circlips are best removed after you have stuffed some rodico (or blutack) under. And then push the clip down into the rodico. They won't ping off then :) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk