Jump to content

Epilame / Fixodrop

clockboy
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 284
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

Kalanag
Kalanag

I just tested „Dr.Tillwich Antispread“ by partially treating a hand mirror with it. The picture of two oil drops shows impressively where the Antispread has been applied.   

nickelsilver
nickelsilver

I don't know how you could be sure if the epilame has been removed. In the past when I've gotten it on a pivot by accident* I take a piece of pegwood, flat end, and press it down on the pivot while tu

Marc
Marc

According to these guys "Coating watch parts with a thin, even monolayer of epilame provides an effective oleophobic barrier that halts oil spread in its tracks." Which is exactly the same process tha

Posted Images

VWatchie Distinguished Member

VWatchie

Posted
Posted
20 hours ago, nickelsilver said:
 
 
 
20 hours ago, VWatchie said:

 

That's right- except for Rolex where it's mandatory (they won't work right without it).

Found an interesting and rather extensive article about it here.

jaycey WRT Addict

jaycey

Posted
Posted

I've just bought a small amount of the Horotec Episurf-Neo, which is advertised as a 'next gen' epilame treatment.

Directions for use say 30 second dip, 60 second dry at air temperature. So no heat required.

I too am looking for a cheap DIY alternative to the special dip bottle. I've been experimenting with the little filter baskets from the water inlets on washing machines! Haven't found the perfect solution yet, but I'm working on it!

 

 

IMG_1764.jpg

  • Like 1
  • 1 year later...
Flubber Watch Enthusiast

Flubber

Posted
Posted

I was thinking about using Fixodrop but  have a hard time figuring out what parts to use it on. The fewer the better considering the abhorrent price for it. What I got so far.

* Pallet jewels

* Escape wheel

* Reversing wheel on automatic

* Balance End stones

 

What is your opinion on this ? Should the end stones be treated, and if so, does that include the chaton ? 

oldhippy Distinguished Member

oldhippy

Posted
Posted

It is used to stop spreading of a lubricant all over the surface. Where ever you oil pivots that is the time to use it. I myself never used such stuff, not sure if it was around in my days, besides I had a very steady hand.  

jdm Distinguished Member

jdm

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

I myself never used such stuff, not sure if it was around in my days, besides I had a very steady hand.  

Yes it was, 1957 Omega literature explains it, in the 60s Greiner made a machine to apply it from bags of stearic acide, after ultrasonic cleaning.

I've neither used it so far, I think that today's quality of lubricatints helps doing without it, at the same time I don't have enough experience to recommend one way or the other.

  • 3 weeks later...
Flubber Watch Enthusiast

Flubber

Posted
Posted

I've now experimented some with this and it seems to work pretty well. So well, in fact, that it seems that end stones treated with it doesn't take all oil offered to it. It seems to be enough though.

oldhippy Distinguished Member

oldhippy

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, praezis said:

Don't forget to run the movement dry for some minutes, before oiling.

Frank 

You should never run a movement dry. It needs lube no matter for how long. More then likely you will need to add oil as you re assemble the movement as the more you add parts the more difficult to oil certain parts become. 

Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

Posted
Posted

In csse of runing movements, I take dial and disk plates off, wind full and drop the whole movement in avgas( absolutely friendly to shelac) , if it ran whilst submerged, I lets it run overnight to clean itself, then disassemble it for clean& service. 

 My late repairman frowned on this practice of mine but never explained the reason. 

This is a chance to put my question to vote, your thoughts please.

nickelsilver Distinguished Member

nickelsilver

Posted
Posted
In csse of runing movements, I take dial and disk plates off, wind full and drop the whole movement in avgas( absolutely friendly to shelac) , if it ran whilst submerged, I lets it run overnight to clean itself, then disassemble it for clean& service. 
 My late repairman frowned on this practice of mine but never explained the reason. 
This is a chance to put my question to vote, your thoughts please.
By avgas you mean kerosene I guess? Why not, I don't think it will hurt anything, but getting all of that cleaned off would eat a lot of solvent or cleaning solution.
  • Thanks 1
oldhippy Distinguished Member

oldhippy

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Nucejoe said:

In csse of runing movements, I take dial and disk plates off, wind full and drop the whole movement in avgas( absolutely friendly to shelac) , if it ran whilst submerged, I lets it run overnight to clean itself, then disassemble it for clean& service. 

 My late repairman frowned on this practice of mine but never explained the reason. 

This is a chance to put my question to vote, your thoughts please.

 

giphy.gif

  • Thanks 1
  • Haha 2
Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

Posted
Posted
33 minutes ago, nickelsilver said:

By avgas you mean kerosene I guess? Why not, I don't think it will hurt anything, but getting all of that cleaned off would eat a lot of solvent or cleaning solution.

Aviation gas = avgas ,  I am not sure if this grade of avgas runs piston airplane or turbine engines( diferent I hear), but has no effect on shelac and no visible effect on base metals either. 

Some calibers wont run while submerged. 

Thanks for your response.

Nucejoe Distinguished Member

Nucejoe

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

It’s one way of causing extra wear on a movement, pivots could shear off, all sorts of damage could happen. 

Oh I mean submerged and running with oscilator, so runs at low speed, if thats your concern, amplitude also drops.

 

rodabod Distinguished Member

rodabod

Posted
Posted

I’ve done something similar to what Nucejoe describes when doing a “pre clean” on an utterly filthy movement with L&R cleaning solution. Personally, I don’t see any great risk of harm. The aviation fuel probably provides a reasonable amount of lubrication for the short amount of time that it is running. 

Tudor Distinguished Member

Tudor

Posted
Posted (edited)

Avgas has lead in it. Is it enough? No idea. It’s 100 (min) octane gasoline.  Turbines (jets) run on Jet-A which is essentially kerosene. 
 

I had also considered such action at times (with Ronsinol) but never did. Cleaning is always better when you have access to both sides of plates. 

Edited by Tudor
praezis Distinguished Member

praezis

Posted
Posted
On 8/29/2020 at 3:44 PM, nickelsilver said:

Run the movement with the pallet jewels dry for some minutes, this allows the escape teeth to scrape off the epilame from them and that non-epilamed "track" holds the oil.

Thanks, nickelsilver!

I was referring to the epilame treated parts only, acording the topic.

Frank

JohnR725 Distinguished Member

JohnR725

Posted
Posted

One of the problems with watch repair is the age of the technical information. A problem with the age of the material is it's possible that things have changed like even fixodrop? Like for instance at the link below there is variations lots of them? Plus they've changed the solvent to something more environmentally supposedly friendly. Changing the solvent has had other interesting changes.

For instance 7061 This one's interesting wash resistant if you download the technical sheet it tells how to apply it. Then since I really enjoyed the answer "NO" up above I'm going to quote something "Fixodrop-treated anchor pallets should be lubricated only after running dry for 1 to 2 minutes" Unlike the answer "NO" up above it's okay because it's only the pallet stones. You need to remove the surface treatment so the oil will stick otherwise you're going to have issues.

Then they explain the drying procedure. This is interesting because the previous solvent they were using would evaporate so fast that if you weren't very very careful the cooling effect would cause moisture to condense out of the air eaving a microscopic coloring of moisture on your nice clean steel parts which leads to rust. This is why shops using this a lot of times I have a hot hairdryer radius and is a part came out that immediately put hot air on to hopefully avoid this. Now it's supposed to be better and not have that happen.

On 8/9/2020 at 10:12 AM, Flubber said:

Should the end stones be treated, and if so, does that include the chaton

 

Only the end stone should be treated not the setting.

 

 

 

http://www.moebius-lubricants.ch/en/products/epilames

  • Thanks 1

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Similar Content

  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • JohnR725
      Greetings from Whidbey Island.

      By JohnR725 · Posted

      Islands are interesting places to live depending upon their size and other factors. This is a bigger island and it has a bridge to get there at least on one end. It's also big enough that you don't have to go someplace else to get things typically. It can be a problem if you get a job in Seattle though. Yes I've known of people who commuted from the island to Seattle for a job and I don't quite remember how many hours it took but it took a long time. So basically islands are nice if you don't have to leave very often.
    • VWatchie
      What's your thoughts on this Rolex Sea-Dweller, ref. 16600, calibre 3135 project?

      By VWatchie · Posted

      Thanks @JohnR725! Everything you say makes a lot of sense and is encouraging to read.
    • JohnR725
      What's your thoughts on this Rolex Sea-Dweller, ref. 16600, calibre 3135 project?

      By JohnR725 · Posted

      isn't it nice to have a decent case open or when the case doesn't want to be opened? In the case of a Rolex watch that supposed to pass specific water resistant testing you probably do need to tighten the back down. But they shouldn't be tightened so much that they risk stripping the threads out. Then the other problem that comes up is the gaskets can start to disintegrate and then getting the back off can be quite a challenge unless you have a really good tool and perhaps some penetrating oil to loosen things up. Yes really nice case marking. When I was in school we were taught to mark the cases and  the American watch and clockmakers Institute even had a? So if you joined at one time they would give you an identification number. They were explaining or giving an example of if the watches ever found in you have a unique number they can perhaps figure out the history of the watch or identify the body it's attached to for instance not that that probably comes up that often. So you got a unique number and even made a special metal stamp that you can purchase. It wasn't a super big aggressive stamp but still it left a mark in the back of the case. Then I heard from people at work on Rolex watches they were using a felt pen indelible but later on they decided that was bad because apparently the ink could release  chemicals although it seems like once it's dry that shouldn't be an issue. Then of course today was nice is you can keep computer records sealed have to mark anything at all I personally find it's best to leave no reference behind that you were even there. Especially when you have a beautiful watch that has no markings at all and now it has your scribbling all over it not good typically if there is a typical and watch repair?  a lot of minor repairs you don't need to do a complete servicing. But beyond a certain point you're going to have to take apart a lot of stuff you're going to disrupt the lubrication even if it looks perfect right now and yes you might as well just go ahead the service the whole thing. also in a watch like this where a lot of things seem to be going on the complete service would be better then you'll know exactly where you stand versus dealing with unknown mysteries for prior repair.
    • luiazazrambo
      Greetings from Whidbey Island.

      By luiazazrambo · Posted

      That Island looks pretty good on the pics I found. Must be nice to live there. Welcome! Are there many watchmakers over there?
    • LittleWatchShop
      I need a lifetime supply

      By LittleWatchShop · Posted

      I believe so. I thought about it the last time.
×
×
  • Create New...