Polishing a case

[anilv]

Something different today, instead of showing the servicing of the movement, I figured I'd share how I cleaned up a watch case.

The subject today is aSeiko 7005-7052 from 'thewatchcollector'.  This was one of a lot of 4 watches and as you can see its pretty beat up.

Its currently not running but that's not what we're dealing with at this stage.

Apart from the crystal, the case has a lot if weaof wear and tear and there are a good few 'divots' which I hope can be reduced.

There's a pretty obvious one around the one o'clock position.

A ding on the edge around the nine o'cloco'clock position 

The right edge is worse than the left, this is usually the case.

And the case back has a few scratches. Not bad really but since I'm doing the case might as wellwell sort this out as well. I have already started on the area outside the 'water-resistant' script in the pic below.

 

To be continued ....

[anilv]

I'm not usually a fan of polished cases as I find that polishing removes the sharp edges and a lot of the details are lost. In this case, however, I can't believe it matters as the case is really rough.

Since a lot of the gouged are pretty deep, I start with the roughest grade of sandpaper.

I'm not joking, using sandpaper will take ages so I'm using a metal file.

The file was followed by sand paper so that instead of big gouges you have smaller voices.

The crystal got a good going over with the sandpaper.

Here you can see where the area surrounding the gouge has been ground off. It is important that you handle the file in such a way that the area is rounded off. You want to avoid flat-spots as this will be visible when polished in the form of irregular reflections. 

The left side was massaged to remove the nick at the nine o'clock position.

The file was wielded on the case back as well..

To be continued....

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2017 by anilv

[anilv]

Final stage should have been with progressively finer sandpaper but I skipped that and went to the final stage..polishing with Autosol metal polish.

And this is the result.

The gouge at the one o'clock area is no longer visible (in this pic you can see the badly worn case lug caused by the metal band).

The holes on the right side of the case have been reduced to the extent that they're not visible to the naked eye.

And the nick at nine o'clock is gone

...a few more pics of the case.

Crystal has been polished with autosol as well.

The case back cleaned up.

Well that's the end if this polishing tale. No power tools were used, if you wish to use them be warned that its all too easy to remove too much material. In this case, by hand-polishing I managed to minimise the damage to the case lines.. not perfect but it could be a lot worse!

As a bonus, the watch decided to start working again ! I like to think that this was the watch's way to show that it was happy to be all cleaned up but in reality it was probably just the old oils getting warm and allowing the movement to tick.

Hope you enjoyed this write-up.

Anilv

 

[anilv]

Jdm...

Overpolished does exist. There are a lot of examples where overpolishing has ruined a watch. I was working on a Seiko pogue chronograph where the case edges were rounded off badly. Totally ruined it for me and the owner agreed when I pointed it out and compared it to another unpolished case.

Buffing does remove metal .. metal is what makes buffing wheels turn black.

Burnishing, on the other hand, does not remove metal ...theoretically.

Anilv.

 

[jdm]

Well, any repair work can ruin the object, if not done properly.

I never wrote that buffing does not remove metal, the idea is to remove less, and to move back some in place.

Good video with demonstration

 

Edited April 30, 2017 by jdm

[Watchtime]

I understood that buffing is a different technique compared to polishing. If I am correct, buffing "moves" the metal while polishing removes it

 

[RCDesign]

On 2017-04-30 at 3:48 PM, jdm said:

Well, any repair work can ruin the object, if not done properly.

I never wrote that buffing does not remove metal, the idea is to remove less, and to move back some in place.

Good video with demonstration

 

In my opinion a superb example of overpolishing and ruining the edges of a case !

[clockboy]

Polish & buffing do different things.  Buffing actually moves the metal around and this can remove dings and marks. However you need plenty of room for a decent size " Bench polishing/buffing/machine" Unfortunately I do not have this so I only polish a case with a Proxon tool. 

[WileyDave]

Had to chime in on subject of a recent buy and yup it's a Seiko DX, case was unique, (I posted how to remove on repair section), and I'm of the thought that whatever floats your boat. One can usually tell if a case has been polished/ buffed poorly by amateur, (i.e. non factory finish). and there are risks, I will keep this one because of the style and dial, but I could not live with case being as purchased. I could not remove all the nicks, some where too deep.  If you are not compromising integrity of case, why not try to make it look new(er)? Buffing or polishing by hand is a chore and time consuming, so efforts should be commended. JMHO

[Johnnie]

If a watch isn't very valuable and the case and chystal look awful I think it's a good idea to give it a facelift, it then becomes wearable and of practical use. Also there is a certain pleasure and satisfaction in the "doing" of the facelift. 

[jdm]

2 hours ago, clockboy said:

Polish & buffing do different things.  Buffing actually moves the metal around and this can remove dings and marks. However you need plenty of room for a decent size " Bench polishing/buffing/machine" Unfortunately I do not have this so I only polish a case with a Proxon tool. 

For heavy work use a drill on stand, works very good. That's what I use. And the handheld (although my Proxon has a vice clamp) for detailing. 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Universal-Clamp-on-holder-hanger-stand-Electric-Drill-Stand-Dremel-Rack-Multifunctional-bracket-stand-clamp/32683793943.html

When done properly It does not ruin edges or anything. I think that the fixation with "overpolishing" is  a cliche' perpetuated by purists with little knowledge and common sense.

Edited May 3, 2017 by jdm

[jdm]

On 5/2/2017 at 0:01 PM, Watchtime said:

I understood that buffing is a different technique compared to polishing. If I am correct, buffing "moves" the metal while polishing removes it

That is correct, as the master watchmaker in the video explains and shows. Polishing also can be of different grades and aggressiveness.  

[anilv]

Hi WileyDave,

Thats a nice Seiko DX, crystals for these do turn up on the 'bay and it looks like it has the original bracelet as well? Well the end-pieces at least!

Anilv

[jdm]

5 minutes ago, anilv said:

Thats a nice Seiko DX, crystals for these do turn up on the 'bay.

As most ppl. here know already, crystals can also be polished to perfection in 15 mins max.

[WileyDave]

12 hours ago, anilv said:

Hi WileyDave,

Thats a nice Seiko DX, crystals for these do turn up on the 'bay and it looks like it has the original bracelet as well? Well the end-pieces at least!

Anilv

I ordered NOS one for $12, this one has gasket sort of imbedded in crystal, totally different than I'm used to seeing and it'll be a while to refinish bracelet, ton's of scratches.

 

12 hours ago, jdm said:

As most ppl. here know already, crystals can also be polished to perfection in 15 mins max.

This one was 'polished' out, meaning to me it had little left (thickness) under 20x magnification, probably had been done a few times before I got it, now I'm pretty frugal or cheap AND LAZY, but I would rather spend the $12 on new.

[RCDesign]

Personally I like to lapp all surfaces that are flat and keep the polishing and/or buffing part to a minimum.

On some watch cases this is not possible of course, but the square Seiko that WileyDave shows is a nightmare to get in shape using a mop - but quite easy using a lapping rig.

Example of a beat up Seiko that I user as a guinea pig on an early lapping setup.

Lapped 

Far from perfect and with some material missing on some of the edges - this case would need a bit of welding to get back to "as good as new"-state. But surfaces are resonably flat and the edges are there.

[WileyDave]

If you have the time, skill and tools, anything is possible, but we're floating away from buffing vs polishing original question(s), let's agree that is personal preference and restoration of cases can take different processes, based on user experience. Whatever works to achieve desired results.

I agree with RCDesign, lapping is the way to go on a square case, I don't have the setup to accomplish this, so by hand with Foredom and different buffs/rouge, I try to accomplish a presentable finish, like you said, not perfect, but close enough.