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Posted

So it's been a few months since I posted here...but I've been regularly checking in. Hi Mark and Geo! 

 

So as a few of you know, I have a hobby of building watches. The one thing I hated was relying on some of the very few companies that actually print dials. Here is the USA there are only a handful that do this type of work! I was lucky enough to find an antique dial printing machine on eBay. It was just a vessel to move the dial from printing plate to paint application. I found a willing company to "Fill in the Blanks!" I won't name them here because I don't want to seem like I'm Selling this company!

 

Anyway, they were a very big help when it came to me having questions. The sales, engineering and billing staff were first rate! They helped me pick the proper printing pads, helping me design and then produce my printing plates and then help me choose the proper ink and also recommended how to prepare the inks, pads and thinners to get the best results! 

 

So, here I am....First try at printing a dial....

 

post-90-0-45007000-1429664182_thumb.jpg

 

I designed the dial myself using a free online software. The dial is printed in 3 stages.

The first step was printing the hour chapter. Then, the second step was to print the sub seconds chapter. Lastly, I printed the name of the manufacturer that I will be using for this build.

 

This was more of a proof of concept to me...Now, I can't wait to try new designs and styles! And, Now I have more control of what I build! That's very important to me...Cheers!

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Posted

Fantastic job Don! Congratulations on another achievement and landmark in your watchmaking skills!...and good to see you active again!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

Posted

So it's been a few months since I posted here...but I've been regularly checking in. Hi Mark and Geo! 

 

So as a few of you know, I have a hobby of building watches. The one thing I hated was relying on some of the very few companies that actually print dials. Here is the USA there are only a handful that do this type of work! I was lucky enough to find an antique dial printing machine on eBay. It was just a vessel to move the dial from printing plate to paint application. I found a willing company to "Fill in the Blanks!" I won't name them here because I don't want to seem like I'm Selling this company!

 

Anyway, they were a very big help when it came to me having questions. The sales, engineering and billing staff were first rate! They helped me pick the proper printing pads, helping me design and then produce my printing plates and then help me choose the proper ink and also recommended how to prepare the inks, pads and thinners to get the best results! 

 

So, here I am....First try at printing a dial....

 

attachicon.gifIMG_20150421_172832402_HDR.jpg

 

I designed the dial myself using a free online software. The dial is printed in 3 stages.

The first step was printing the hour chapter. Then, the second step was to print the sub seconds chapter. Lastly, I printed the name of the manufacturer that I will be using for this build.

 

This was more of a proof of concept to me...Now, I can't wait to try new designs and styles! And, Now I have more control of what I build! That's very important to me...Cheers!

Been trying to find an antique one too.. outcome looks good

Posted

Hi Don, it's great to hear from you again!

Last week week I was just wondering how you were getting on, and now we know...............brilliantly. This really is a huge step forward for you, having full control over the design and quality is so important, and I can only imagine the satisfaction you get when seeing your completed watch.

I look forward to seeing more of your high quality productions in the future.

Cheer,

Geo! :)

Posted

That seriously looks fantastic! Is this screen printing or pad printing?  Or something else?  I would like to try my hand at this sometime down the line as well.  Can you tell us more about the process and equipment?

Posted

On the look out for one of these, the only manual ones are in china and i can imagine the tax is a killer that makes it that bit out of reach at the moment, interested how you get on with it...

Posted

Will you be using Studebaker movements? :-)

I just did a watch with a Studebaker movement... Funny, it took a long time to get the dial back from the refinishers!

Posted

I just did a watch with a Studebaker movement... Funny, it took a long time to get the dial back from the refinishers!

 

Don, I thought I was being funny, knowing that Studebaker Automobiles were made in South Bend. Little did I know that the same family had a watchmaking company and called it the South Bend Watch Co.  facepalm-smiley-emoticon.gif

 

I love Studebakers and was fortunate enough to visit the museum in South Bend on a recent visit to the US. Now I think I want a Studebaker watch!

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    • Hello and welcome to the WRT forum.
    • interesting video nice to see the machine what it can do now I wonder what it costs and I'm sure it's not in my budget. Plus the video brought up questions but the website below answers the questions? What was bothering me was the size of his machine 4 mm because I thought it was bigger than that? But then it occurred to me that maybe they had variations it looks like four, seven and 10. With the seven and 10 being the best because way more tool positions in way more rotating tools. Although I bet you all the rotating tools are probably separate cost https://www.tornos.com/en/content/swissnano   Then as we been talking about Sherline. Just so that everyone's aware of this they have another division their industrial division where you can buy bits and pieces. I have a link below that shows that just in case you don't want to have the entire machine you just need bits and pieces. https://www.sherline.com/product-category/industrial-products-division/   Let's see what we can do with the concept I explained up above and bits and pieces. For one thing you can make a really tiny gear very tiny like perhaps you're going to make a watch. Then another version the center part is not separate it is all machined from one piece. Then fills gear cutting machines have gone through multiple of evolutions. A lot of it based on what he wanted to make like he was going to make a watch unfortunately eyesight issues have prevented that. Another reason why you should start projects like this much sooner when your eyesight is really good or perhaps start on watches first and then move the clocks then local we have from the industrial division? Looks like two separate motors and heads. Then it's hard to see but this entire thing is built on top of a much larger milling machine as a larger milling machine gave a very solid platform to build everything.   Then like everything else that had multiple generations are versions the indexing went through of course variations like above is one version and the one below was the last version. Now the version below I mentioned that previously and somewhere in the beginning to discussion and somebody else had one in their picture. As it is a really nice precision indexing. Then I wasn't sure if I had a the watch photos here is his unfinished watch. No he wasn't going to make a simple watch like none of his clocks were simply either what would be the challenge and that.    
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