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Smiths diver slaughter


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Eyup peeps, hows everyone doing ? Now i know not everyone likes to admit their mistakes but i embrace mine and find a positive side to everything i do.  I'm the product of a poor upbringing and instead of moaning about a shitty childhood my outlook on life has made me the man i am today. A non negative, pick yourself up off the ground and become a something to be proud of person. So that being said, I'm returning to my second fluffy duck up from the start of my repair journey. Here it is an early 70s Smiths diver, not the quality type watches that the Cheltenham factory turned out that summited Everest but the stuff that came from their joint venture with Ingersoll just after the war made in Wales. Making mostly Smiths Empires in a variety of dial designs and a simple movement used in a few other named watches. But its British and so am I ( and simple 🙃 ) and that will make me proud to wear it regardless of its final condition and performance . So after a service and the  repair of a broken click courtesy of a willing donor, everthing was cool i had another fix under my newbie belt 👍. The case was pretty grubby so a quick bath in the US and I'd be ready to dial up then reinstall the movement. Hmm i thought it looks like some water has got under the bezel insert (  a classic newbie mistake ? might have been wise to remove the bezel and crystal before the case clean ? ). Its a diver it will be fine, not really no. A very old diver and a poor one at that and had probably never seen water in its life. It would need to be dried out quickly and carefully ( notice i use the word carefully ) I was going out that evening and had been messing around repairing most of the day and time was knocking on. So drying  needed to be  speeded  up a bit, a hairdryer, a great choice but not when in a rush. After a minute or so nothing much seemed to be happening, time to get a little closer and crank up the heat. 20 seconds later i noticed a strange smell of burning ? Wtf, a second later came the moment of clarity. Too late the crystal was starting to melt before my eyes, picking up the case and hopping it from one hand to the other while running to the bathroom to run it under the cold water tap was a sight to behold. Jackson POLLOCKS ! A melted crystal, a partially melted bezel and two scolded hands, not my finest hour that week. I was gutted to say the least it wasn't particularly a cheap watch, even the GB Smiths divers can fetch around £200 -£300 in fair condition. But it is what it is, a lesson learned and an English diver ready now to go back into service. The bezel is a bit of an issue as I've tried to source one with no luck but something will rock up eventually. The universe is older than time immemorial and i know it looks after me from time to time thats why I still walk this earth. So before i get too emotional with myself here it is ready to be reassembled, the bottom one is what it will look like but with a black face, much nicer imo.

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Aye Rich, we all do stupid sheet all the time. My Achilles is hairsprings. I get complacent around them then bam, found a new way to mess one up! And I’m still scratching my head on how I ruined the last one but it involved a puffer…

Anyway, it’s all school fees; lucky it’s not learnt on your buddies irreplaceable Rolex or something 

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5 hours ago, HectorLooi said:

I didn't know a hairdryer could get hot enough to that kind of damage. But aren't hairdryers made of plastic nowadays? 

Are you sure you didn't pick up your hot air gun by mistake?

Neither did i with only having hair 1/2" from my head, never need one. Here is the offending item. Its only a travel hairdryer but look at the heating element  rating a standard dryer is double this. My missus burns her's out from time to time, the end has become deformed occasionally, like the smith's bevel insert.🤣

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3 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

Aye Rich, we all do stupid sheet all the time. My Achilles is hairsprings. I get complacent around them then bam, found a new way to mess one up! And I’m still scratching my head on how I ruined the last one but it involved a puffer…

Anyway, it’s all school fees; lucky it’s not learnt on your buddies irreplaceable Rolex or something 

Haha I've nearly done that before as well while drying one after a naptha clean but at least the puffer was a few scales down from the hairdryer. Contemplating now my next scale up from that, cigarette lighter car tyre inflator for quick drying of plates and bridges. A bit overkill so I'm thinking an electric mini airbrush spayer would be a better choice. I should really stick to using electrical appliances for their intended use 🤔. I have another one now in the making a flat sander from an oscillating fan. They're cheap, a run forever and quiet induction motor and most have a variable speed. 

Edited by Neverenoughwatches
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5 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Contemplating now my next scale up from that, cigarette lighter car tyre inflator for quick drying of plates and bridges. A bit overkill so I'm thinking an electric mini airbrush spayer would be a better choice.

Hmmm, does it take that long to get parts dry? I get super nervous with any kinda air pressure - anything more than a puffer - fearing that parts will fly everywhere. After the IPA bath, a few puffs and my parts are dry. I sometimes go over bridges and bigger parts with Rodico to make sure any deposits are removed (like slight hazyness on bright parts)

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5 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I'm thinking an electric mini airbrush spayer would be a better choice.

 

7 minutes ago, gbyleveldt said:

fearing that parts will fly everywhere

Another possible consideration / hazard with using compressed air for drying is that as it expands it also cools. Combined with the cooling effect from the evaporation of whatever solvent you are drying off the part you could find yourself in the situation where you are cooling things sufficiently to get water condensation on the part; the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve.

Far better to use gentle heat in an uncompressed air flow. You could try and cobble together a drying box with a mesh or grill shelf that you can place the parts on, and some ducting to allow you to feed the airflow from you hair dryer in a controlled way.

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Thank Marc, never thought of that. I guess I should stop being lazy and get out the food drier for my last step. Slight heat and slight airflow. While I've not encountered the above, it's best to adopt best practice to avoid issues that might only crop up months later.

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2 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

Hmmm, does it take that long to get parts dry? I get super nervous with any kinda air pressure - anything more than a puffer - fearing that parts will fly everywhere. After the IPA bath, a few puffs and my parts are dry. I sometimes go over bridges and bigger parts with Rodico to make sure any deposits are removed (like slight hazyness on bright parts)

Its more for the larger parts like plates and bigger bridges, cases parts etc and the occasional bezel insert that has some light water ingress 😁

2 hours ago, Marc said:

you are cooling things sufficiently to get water condensation on the part; the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve

Thanks marc I did think about that, but I still wanted to give it a go as i saw a pro using one on youtube. But I've come up with a better and cheaper alternatve. I have a good large pressure regulated pump up garden spayer. I tried it this morning and seems to work really well. No condensation as the air in the container is the same temperature as the ambient air temperature 👍

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Edited by Neverenoughwatches
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1 hour ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

No condensation as the air in the container is the same temperature as the ambient air temperature

Isn't that the problem though? I seem to remember from those (very) far off days of secondary school physics that as the compressed air expands it also cools down. So if it starts off at ambient temperature under compression it will be cooler than ambient as it blows over the part, causing any moisture in the ambient air to condense, on the part....

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2 hours ago, Marc said:

Isn't that the problem though? I seem to remember from those (very) far off days of secondary school physics that as the compressed air expands it also cools down. So if it starts off at ambient temperature under compression it will be cooler than ambient as it blows over the part, causing any moisture in the ambient air to condense, on the part....

Quite right mark. As the air compresses it raises the temperature, a lot ! . As its released its fast expansion rate has the opposite effect so it also cools rapidly. But it doesnt seem to be enough to be causing any condensation. Whether its because I'm releasing it at a slow rate i dont know but it does seem to be working ok. I will be keeping an eye on it though, if it changes i will let you know .Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated marc

28 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Quite right mark. As the air compresses it raises the temperature, a lot ! . As its released its fast expansion rate has the opposite effect so it also cools rapidly. But it doesnt seem to be enough to be causing any condensation. Whether its because I'm releasing it at a slow rate i dont know but it does seem to be working ok. I will be keeping an eye on it though, if it changes i will let you know .Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated marc

Decided its experiment time. 1 stopwatch, 1 one liquid thermometer, 1 air puffer and 5 litres of compressed air. Results in a few mins

16564409351491310226767427228091.jpg

28 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Quite right mark. As the air compresses it raises the temperature, a lot ! . As its released its fast expansion rate has the opposite effect so it also cools rapidly. But it doesnt seem to be enough to be causing any condensation. Whether its because I'm releasing it at a slow rate i dont know but it does seem to be working ok. I will be keeping an eye on it though, if it changes i will let you know .Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated marc

Decided its experiment time. 1 stopwatch, 1 one liquid thermometer, 1 air puffer and 5 litres of compressed air. Results in a few mins

16564409351491310226767427228091.jpg

Experiment over. Initial air temperature of thermometer 24 degrees celcius. 2 mins of fast air puffer puffing had barely any effect ( on the thermometer temperature ) but my right forearm feels like its just gone ten rounds with Arnold Schwarzenegger's  stress ball ( cheers marc 🤣 ). 3 mins of compressed air, from 2 bar to zero had the effect of lowering the temperature by 1 degree to 23 degrees celcius. Summary so yes in theory the compressed air has a reduced temperature on its release but in this case not enough to cause or see any visible condensation. Dont you just love experiments 👍

6 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

Thank Marc, never thought of that. I guess I should stop being lazy and get out the food drier for my last step. Slight heat and slight airflow. While I've not encountered the above, it's best to adopt best practice to avoid issues that might only crop up months later.

Hiya Gert. This is how i used to dry parts.

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6 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

Thank Marc, never thought of that. I guess I should stop being lazy and get out the food drier for my last step. Slight heat and slight airflow. While I've not encountered the above, it's best to adopt best practice to avoid issues that might only crop up months later.

This is how i dry them now. The compressed air was more for the cases and bigger parts and seems to work well.

20220628_202121.jpg

Edited by Neverenoughwatches
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Eyup peeps, hows everyone doing ? Now i know not everyone likes to admit their mistakes but i embrace mine and find a positive side to everything i do.  I'm the product of a poor upbringing and instead of moaning about a shitty childhood my outlook on life has made me the man i am today. A non negative, pick yourself up off the ground and become a something to be proud of person. So that being said, I'm returning to my second fluffy duck up from the start of my repair journey. Here it is an early 70s Smiths diver, not the quality type watches that the Cheltenham factory turned out that summited Everest but the stuff that came from their joint venture with Ingersoll just after the war made in Wales. Making mostly Smiths Empires in a variety of dial designs and a simple movement used in a few other named watches. But its British and so am I ( and simple 🙃 ) and that will make me proud to wear it regardless of its final condition and performance . So after a service and the  repair of a broken click courtesy of a willing donor, everthing was cool i had another fix under my newbie belt 👍. The case was pretty grubby so a quick bath in the US and I'd be ready to dial up then reinstall the movement. Hmm i thought it looks like some water has got under the bezel insert (  a classic newbie mistake ? might have been wise to remove the bezel and crystal before the case clean ? ). Its a diver it will be fine, not really no. A very old diver and a poor one at that and had probably never seen water in its life. It would need to be dried out quickly and carefully ( notice i use the word carefully ) I was going out that evening and had been messing around repairing most of the day and time was knocking on. So drying  needed to be  speeded  up a bit, a hairdryer, a great choice but not when in a rush. After a minute or so nothing much seemed to be happening, time to get a little closer and crank up the heat. 20 seconds later i noticed a strange smell of burning ? Wtf, a second later came the moment of clarity. Too late the crystal was starting to melt before my eyes, picking up the case and hopping it from one hand to the other while running to the bathroom to run it under the cold water tap was a sight to behold. Jackson POLLOCKS ! A melted crystal, a partially melted bezel and two scolded hands, not my finest hour that week. I was gutted to say the least it wasn't particularly a cheap watch, even the GB Smiths divers can fetch around £200 -£300 in fair condition. But it is what it is, a lesson learned and an English diver ready now to go back into service. The bezel is a bit of an issue as I've tried to source one with no luck but something will rock up eventually. The universe is older than time immemorial and i know it looks after me from time to time thats why I still walk this earth. So before i get too emotional with myself here it is ready to be reassembled, the bottom one is what it will look like but with a black face, much nicer imo.

Edited by Neverenoughwatches
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