Making Bracelet End Links

[Stevo2022]

This is an awesome post! And it's very interesting to see what other people have done with it. Has anyone made a mandrel or mandrels to be able to tuck the ends into a “B” shape? Or if anyone has some pointers, I'd definitely be an avid listener! Cheers!

[Neverenoughwatches]

5 hours ago, Stevo2022 said:

This is an awesome post! And it's very interesting to see what other people have done with it. Has anyone made a mandrel or mandrels to be able to tuck the ends into a “B” shape? Or if anyone has some pointers, I'd definitely be an avid listener! Cheers!

Thanks for reviving this thread Steve, an interesting subject and as WW says there are a lot of beat up bracelets out there.  And mate i have to say thats one smoking beard and mustache you have there .

[Stevo2022]

19 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Thanks for reviving this thread Steve, an interesting subject and as WW says there are a lot of beat up bracelets out there.  And mate i have to say thats one smoking beard and mustache you have there .

Hi Neverenoughwatches,

Yes, it's a really interesting thread that opens up a lot of possibilities. And the best part is that it can be done with simple tools. I have some holidays coming up soon and I'll be following this technique to link an oyster bracelet to some flat end pieces. I'll definitely post some pics once I'm done to show my thanks for the sharing of this knowledge! And thanks for the compliment Mate! Throw your razors away, is my advice to every man. Save your money from expensive shaving products to buy watches!

Cheers,

Steve

[Neverenoughwatches]

3 hours ago, Stevo2022 said:

Hi Neverenoughwatches,

Yes, it's a really interesting thread that opens up a lot of possibilities. And the best part is that it can be done with simple tools. I have some holidays coming up soon and I'll be following this technique to link an oyster bracelet to some flat end pieces. I'll definitely post some pics once I'm done to show my thanks for the sharing of this knowledge! And thanks for the compliment Mate! Throw your razors away, is my advice to every man. Save your money from expensive shaving products to buy watches!

Cheers,

Steve

We all would like to see how this is done. If like me i like to consider every aspect of watch repair. I'm also interested to try leather strap making. Haha and yes the beard mate, I've tried  and couldnt get on with it, as soon as it reaches half an inch its  itching, getting caught and tugged in my clothes fibres and my missus wont let me anywhere near her .   Affraid its not for me. I can still appreciate someone else's effort though, my lad has one

[gbyleveldt]

Lately I’m enjoying the metal work part of watchmaking a bit more than working on movements. Seeing the OP’s results using basic tools is an inspiration!

@Neverenoughwatches, growing a beard is like getting a tattoo - only uncomfortable for the first week. After that you’re off to the races. All I’m hearing from you is excuses - and excuses are for quitters. Don’t be a quitter! 

[Neverenoughwatches]

47 minutes ago, gbyleveldt said:

All I’m hearing from you is excuses - and excuses are for quitters. Don’t be a quitter! 

the bit of discomfort for a ahort while i can cope with, but the lack of attention from the missus, thats a big nooooooo.

[Stevo2022]

On 10/23/2022 at 11:09 PM, Neverenoughwatches said:

the bit of discomfort for a ahort while i can cope with, but the lack of attention from the missus, thats a big nooooooo.

She'll get used to it!  

[Neverenoughwatches]

28 minutes ago, Stevo2022 said:

She'll get used to it!  

Haha. I wouldn't put her through it mate she seems quite averse. She puts up with plenty from me, i think i will let her have her way with this one. Plus its something up my sleeve for future use .  ( only kidding sweetheart )

Edited October 25, 2022 by Neverenoughwatches
I really must remember she visits here sometimes 🤫

[Stevo2022]

A very belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! I finally got around to following this tutorial. And I have to say that it was a thoroughly enjoyable tinkering session that involved the simple tools that I had on hand.

My reason for doing this was to fit a bracelet with female end links to an aftermarket 62mas style watch case. No bracelets with female end links exist for this particular watch case. The case is a scaled up 62mas style case that has nothing dimensionally in common with any of the Seiko 62mas, SLA, or SPB1xx watches. It does however share some commonality with SKX parts. It has a long lug to lug distance of 49.5mm and with solid male end links fitted looked rather long on my 7 ½” diameter wrist. The end link I ultimately used is hollow and from a cheap bracelet that I bought on ebay. The link I made using this tutorial is circled in red below. This connects the case and end link to an aftermarket bracelet for a Seiko SPB1xx series watch.

A 62mas homage case that does not fit to any existing Seiko bracelets.

I followed every step previously mentioned on how to do this, so I will hopefully not repeat what has already been said by others here. I will however mention the things that I did that were different and other things that occurred to me along the way.

Below are all the tools and materials that I used. Nothing too exotic at all.

I only had to buy some cheap steel flat bar in 5x5, 5x3, 5x2, 3x3, and 2x2 mm sizes and some stainless steel sheet in 0.6mm to use as mandrels/ forms.

I purchased all of these materials on ebay. I did not use all these pieces in directly forming my link parts, but they did come in very handy for picking up and holding the small pieces of metal that I was cutting.

I cut the stainless-steel sheet to 20x12mm with my Dremel with a 420-cut-off wheel attached. I scribed a perpendicular line around the 5x5mm steel bar and cello taped a cut piece of the stainless-steel sheet perpendicular to the edge of the 5x5mm steel bar. The 20x12mm pieces are small and the cello tape allowed me to hold and align them against the steel bar. It also made it easier to place them both into my vice. I also made some soft jaws out of aluminium to avoid marking the stainless steel sheet.

For sharp bends, a flat blade screw driver worked well to fold the stainless steel over. I also found it easy to use a piece of an old plastic cutting board for doing this and bending radii as well.

In this image I have a piece of stainless steel clamped between a piece of 5x5mm and 5x2mm steel bar which is held by my vice. I have cut and folded one edge and am getting ready to cut and fold the other.

I was able to make a very square tube by clamping this in my vice again with a piece of flat bar inside and giving it a squeeze and a gentle tap with a hammer and a piece of an old plastic cutting board. I was quite excited by the result here. But I needed my links to not be so square in profile.

I placed my metal links join side up on my work bench and bent one flap down with a hammer and a flat blade screw driver. I neglected to take a photo of this but the resulting shape of the stainless steel is like the diagram below.

It is mentioned in the original tutorial that you can gently squeeze the shape you have made with pliers to give a curved/ rounded profile to your links. I did this slowly with my vice. I stopped the piece I was bending from jumping free from my vice by holding a piece of 2x2mm steel bar inside it. You can see this in the picture below.

With some trial and error, I was able to fashion some end links that while not quite identical would serve the purpose.

There was an unforeseen problem however…

The thickness of the stainless steel sheet that I used left an unsightly gap between my newly made link and the existing bracelet. The steel I used was too thin.

Luckily, I had an old steel bracelet handy, from a watch I bought in a dimly lit Tokyo back street long ago. I could cut and use the ends of its links as an insert in some new folded links. The reason I could not just those old links is that the watch case in my project only accepts fat spring bars- 2.5mm in diameter.

Donor link from Tokyo watch bracelet about to be cut and filed to shape. Prior to remembering I had the old bracelet; I was considering purchasing some 2.5mm diameter stainless steel capillary tube from ebay which would serve the purpose of reducing the inner diameter and increasing the wall thickness of the link at one end to avoid an unsightly gap in the bracelet links.

So, I decided to make some more links but with radii and no square corners. Forming a radius was surprisingly easy. It rolled over with a little bit of force. 

A piece of an old plastic cutting board makes a great tool for forming stainless steel as it is quite solid but will not scratch the surface. I also used a hammer with it to persuade the stainless steel a little. Just a gentle tap worked nicely. I formed one half of each radius and then flipped the stainless steel over to do the other side. I later realised I probably could have filed some radii on my steel flat bar, but I achieved a reasonable result without doing this.

Three pieces of steel flat bar allowed me to hold my links so I could cut them to length without crushing them or them taking off into orbit. Below is an end view of the previous photo showing the link being held between three pieces of flat bar securely without crushing it.

So, a little more trial and error followed. I massaged the links with a hammer and the plastic cutting board off cut to create my two links with inserts. These have the correct thickness at one end to fit the pins in the bracelet and the fat spring bars at the other.

A little bit more tweaking followed by giving the links another squeeze in my vice to achieve a more curved profile.

I spent a bit of time filing and test fitting the new links to the bracelet. Diamond files are a definite must, as are small Eze-Lap diamond sharpening plates. Eze-Lap plates have a large surface area for their size compared to diamond files. I then rubbed these evenly with green, and then blue Scotch-Brite pads to achieve a nice brushed surface.

Not exactly a pigeon pair, but they fit and work quite well. I am still wondering if I should silver solder the inserts in place and silver solder the join on the back…?

Getting ready to fit the bracelet to the end links and case.

And here they are fitted to my home made 62mas homage. It is an assembly of some genuine Seiko and aftermarket mod parts.

Finally, I just want to say thank you to the author of the original tutorial that allowed me to make these links. It was a pleasure to show how easy and fun this is to do. If anyone has a question, I'm more than happy to help if I can. And any suggestions will be greatly appreciated too!

Cheers,

Stevo

[Stevo2022]

On 10/23/2022 at 6:33 PM, Neverenoughwatches said:

We all would like to see how this is done. If like me i like to consider every aspect of watch repair. I'm also interested to try leather strap making. Haha and yes the beard mate, I've tried  and couldnt get on with it, as soon as it reaches half an inch its  itching, getting caught and tugged in my clothes fibres and my missus wont let me anywhere near her .   Affraid its not for me. I can still appreciate someone else's effort though, my lad has one

I've been busy making a few two stitch leather straps. Would you like to see a tutorial on those?

[Neverenoughwatches]

5 hours ago, Stevo2022 said:

I've been busy making a few two stitch leather straps. Would you like to see a tutorial on those?

Absolutely Stevo. I was looking at some leather working tools a few months ago and wondering where to start.

[Stevo2022]

Hey Mate,

I've bought a few tools from Oka factory Japan. They have nice beginner sets of tools. I have the 3mm set, that's the stitch length. https://www.oka-craft-tools.co.jp/en/itemlist/item/?no=24502

As well as these, you will need a skivng knife. I have their 36mm knife.

https://www.oka-craft-tools.co.jp/en/itemlist/item/?no=22841

They're reasonably priced and very good quality. Ordering from them is a little antiquated, but kinda charming.

1.5mm thick veg tan leather from Ebay is a good choice for straps.

I have thrown away all of the tools that I purchased cheaply from Ebay. They were absolute garbage.

I hope this helps you!?