Jump to content

Lubricants to use with Rolex 3135


Recommended Posts

37 minutes ago, rodabod said:

Slightly off-topic: has anyone ever tried Epilame on clock bushes? The oil does tend to creep due to gravity and natural spreading.

I know a guy who does, he does really high end restoration and custom fabrication though. He uses an eye dropper to dose the bushings, probably uses more in Fixodrop value that what most normal clock services would cost!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Hey! It's Halloween, so lets resurrect an old thread!

Epilame- it's expensive. I was going to try and make some myself... Then I discovered this stuff:

"HOROTEC episurf-neo", which is supossed to be the same thing, but it's like 1/10th the cost.

Any comments on it?

image.thumb.png.c10cc2eca3ade6fd192512fd02f5a5a6.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Their website looks impressive so does the tech sheet. But can we really trust the product if it's this cheap obviously we should be suspicious.

Then the second link is being irritating because it's not letting me show you the link that I found so you go there in search for Epilame You'll see all the supplies to go with your inexpensive product. Unfortunately no expensive products to compare to.

There isn't any reason why cheaper products especially if they're being sold as a watch product can't work. Then what was interesting is on another watch site and I was thinking it didn't look that inexpensive because their cost was basically twice what is costs here. I think the 50 mL bottle was close to $100. It's one of the interesting problems of online watch supply people that sometimes they're not always that she you need to shop around.

There isn't any reason why other products can't work just as well and conceivably be cheaper. Some of these products are used in industrial applications and they obviously can't be superexpensive.

What would be an interesting experiment to try would be to do it the old-fashioned way sort of. The original product is stearic acid and I read a patent once about vapor application was very very good. There is a cleaning machine out there that's name I can't remember that it actually vaporize stearic acid for applying it to the watch parts. Supposedly with the vapor you get a really thin even coding versus the fluids that if you're not careful they evaporate with time and the concentration changes and you can end up with a thicker coating than you want that may be bad but I don't know how but. I is know I've met people to get really excited about how it's all applied heated treated etc. and dropping apart into the bottle itself is a total sin even though that's a convenient way to do it.

https://www.surfactis.com/en/produits/episurf-2/

Then the second link is being irritating

https://www.jewelerssupplies.com

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I was looking into (and found a reasonable cost small sample picked out) of Steric acid. The only issue I want resolved is the carrier, and then the concentration in solution. 
 

I want to avoid alcohol, as it would limit use on pallet forks. I believe it is water soluble but that’s not an ideal solvent for steel parts. Acetone may work but I’m not certain. Toluene is on the list too. 
 

The $100 bottle for applying it is another hurdle; but I’ve been working on that and may have a lower cost solution. I know another member here was also working on a home made bottle but I never saw how that turned out. I was thinking a second bottle would be good for dilute oil for reversers too. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Tudor said:

Yes, I was looking into (and found a reasonable cost small sample picked out) of Steric acid. The only issue I want resolved is the carrier, and then the concentration in solution. 
 

I want to avoid alcohol, as it would limit use on pallet forks. I believe it is water soluble but that’s not an ideal solvent for steel parts. Acetone may work but I’m not certain. Toluene is on the list too. 
 

The $100 bottle for applying it is another hurdle; but I’ve been working on that and may have a lower cost solution. I know another member here was also working on a home made bottle but I never saw how that turned out. I was thinking a second bottle would be good for dilute oil for reversers too. 

I have one of the machines John mentioned above that heats the stearic acid to make a vapor. It works great, but I do in practice use Fixodrop on customer watches. If you want to try the vapor method it just needs to be heated to about 80 degrees C, with the parts in a basket or something not in contact with it, in a container that can be closed. 30 to 60 seconds is enough time.

 

The first liquid epilame that Moebius marketed was Aretol, which was stearic acid in a solvent carrier. I don't know what the solvent was, but it wasn't alcohol. I have spoken to old watchmakers who mixed their own using pure isopropyl alcohol (99%) mixing 1:100 by weight. I have tried that and find that it leaves a visible film, didn't follow up with different ratios as I have the vapor method and Fixodrop. But if you try it with alcohol don't worry about it melting your shellac, it only needs to be in contact a few seconds. In fact the above machine, the Greiner U2, uses alcohol as the rinse for all the parts. The way it is designed the balance and fork get rinsed by themselves for a short time in fresh alcohol (it distills the alcohol continuously), then dried as the other parts get rinsed and the rinse is drained back into the distiller then regenerates for the final rinse. It's a very cool machine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can heat some on a hot plate and see how it does.

I have sample panels of cold rolled steel and titanium I can mess around with, to see how an oil drop holds shape over time.

I think I'll order the acid and play around with it a bit. It seems I have some time as the new oil I ordered has been a week in transit with no expected deliver date... Something up with FedEx lately.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
On 1/30/2020 at 9:33 AM, rodabod said:

Slightly off-topic: has anyone ever tried Epilame on clock bushes? The oil does tend to creep due to gravity and natural spreading.

as it would be astronomically expensive to dip your clock plates in you could brush it on. Brush it on both sides of where the pivot goes. Then follow up with a piece of peg wood to clear out the hole and may be just a tiny bit of the countersink. I think that would work it would keep your oil word supposed to be.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Someone had asked about Epilame coating (from ye old Rolex service bulletin):

image.png.897f523c70850481bde29a96fefe0bd0.png

 

And I have yet to try mine. I will do on the 565 I need that damn spring replaced and then I'll do the usual suspects and see how it does (Episurf Neo).

I also bought two of the $100 German bottles (for much les than $100 for the pair) out of Germany, but they are being transported via mule team, and they aren't good swimmers at all... Still need screens, but I'm less concerned with that. One will be for Epilame and the other will be for Lubretta.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Tudor said:

Someone had asked about Epilame coating (from ye old Rolex service bulletin):

image.png.897f523c70850481bde29a96fefe0bd0.png

 

And I have yet to try mine. I will do on the 565 I need that damn spring replaced and then I'll do the usual suspects and see how it does (Episurf Neo).

I also bought two of the $100 German bottles (for much les than $100 for the pair) out of Germany, but they are being transported via mule team, and they aren't good swimmers at all... Still need screens, but I'm less concerned with that. One will be for Epilame and the other will be for Lubretta.

I thought I posted here and my question disappeared for some reason ? Anyway, thanks Tudor. I hope my Fixodrop will arrive shortly and then I can service my Rolex Submariner. I don't have the specialty bottle but I'll try to improvise something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • Hi. Use a PVA based glue, gorilla glue it dries transparent then do as advised by Old Hippy, smoothe down using very fine  0000 wire wool and either French polish or beeswax for a finish.
    • Hello and welcome to the forum.    Enjoy
    • The problem with oil in particular 9010 is it likes to spread. This is why you're supposed to use epilam anywhere it's used to keep the oil in place. Then you want to splurge on money you could buy 941 it's actually an oil that existed before 9415. Then the problem with the grease yes it stays in place but if you have too much you lose amplitude. Then if you get really obsessed with this he would follow Omega's recommendation for escapement lubrication. One of the problems with internal documents of the watch companies is typically are never going to see Them.But a few of them out in the wild for instance at this link Below I searched for the keyword of working. In particular working instructions of the Omega watch company for which there is way more than This but this is all they have. So you want to download number 40 as were going to talk about that and also download Number 81. Plus anything else that looks interesting https://www.cousinsuk.com/document/search?SearchString=Working Then number 40 covers lubrication of the watch. Most interesting is lubrication of the lever escapement under three different conditions with Lubrifar Which you probably no longer have has been washed off without which is what you have and then a course with epilam. Notice how they go supers super minimalistic with the 9415 because if it's too heavy you lose amplitude. Then if you lose amplitude the group will be disappointed with you and the end of the world will come.      
    • You would always get an answer John, you dont need to be dramatic or humerous to get one, but it was appreciated anyway 🙂 Kind of, for those of us that wish to stay in touch and continue to learn from each other in case the forum ever dissappears then yes i suppose so . I  hope that you would also count yourself in , what we learn from you is invaluable,  how you benefit from that exactly I'm not sure, being able to teach ? I did say is it ok to ask mark for some input John and suggested that he might read the thread that explains how some of us feel. I dont see how its really discussing forum policy, but in all honesty i wish i had never even bothered now.
    • While you might have seen it as a humorous/Dramatic remark was done very deliberately so I could get an answer. Let me quote myself? The simplistic of this entire discussion is the group would like the last forever.   If you go to the top of the discussion group you'll find something to click on that says staff. Then you click on Mark's name and you find out interesting things? For instance he was last here on Saturday so yes he is here. If there is a crisis or a problem he is going to be here. You will also find a list of his activity although that's only the public activity. There's a lot of work that goes into running message boards and he probably does a lot of stuff in the background that we don't see to keep it going. Unfortunately message boards do not run themselves. Then regarding this did you notice you can message Mark and ask him. Then if somebody, we could elect somebody from this discussion such as @Neverenoughwatches To reach out I would really keep the message super simple like? You could refer him to this discussion but I would really keep it simple Like for instance the group enjoys his message board and what could we do to keep it going Forever? Then regarding all of the other suggestions comments helpful remarks or ideas? When was the last time any of you bothered to read the message board rules? This is covered which is one of the reasons I did the dramatic things I did to provoke a response of the basics as opposed to starting to suggest or seemingly suggesting all sorts of ideas which are covered by one of the rules found in the section on rules. In other words I'm going to quote something from the rules of the message board.  
×
×
  • Create New...