Finished this one yesterday

[Archer]

I had a 5513 Sub come in a while back for a full service. The Cal. 1520 was in decent shape, but one issue was the oscillating weight was cracked - have seen this on a couple of occasions in the same place:



As you can see, someone has tried repairing it with soft solder, and that didn't hold:



Disassembled:



Working on the base movement, wearing my Tudor Sub:



Since there wasn't any significant distortion, I sent it to a buddy of mine to have the soft solder cleaned off, and then they laser welded it - looked quite good after the repair, and hopefully this will hold:



The crystal was not bad, but could use some work:



In progress:



Close to being done - just a few minor scratches left (actually something on the cloth I used to wipe it off, so these were easily cleaned up):



All done and looking quite good:



Cheers,

[Baco Noir]

Nicely done Al. I recall correctly, the laser welding is fairly affordable too.  

[carbon6]

Incredible work, Al.    What would cause the oscillating weight to crack?

[iceman]

Great work Al

[rxpete]

Great work! What would cause the rotor to crack?

[GLADIATOR]

agreed
Glad to see you here
Regards

[aerome]

Contrary to what Roger said, I just heard from a watchmaker that laser welding was very expensive. He had the shaft of a third wheel welded that came off of an expensive old pocket watch. Unable to source a new Rolex part?

[Archer]

The weight has a weak spot in the design - the sharp corner in the slot (stress riser). This part is made of brass so over time it has likely work hardened with being stressed by impacts, and eventually the break happens with a big shock.

Had the same on a 1680 Red Sub a couple of years ago, and for that one I did replace the weight since I didn't have a source for laser welding at that time.



Regarding the cost, well not sure what others charge for laser welding but this cost me $40 plus shipping the weight back and forth. I could have sourced a new weight but you would be looking a much more than that (likely $300 or more). Certainly buying a laser welding machine is expensive, but getting someone to do the work isn't, at least for me.

My client agreed he would like to try this first before changing the weight.

Cheers, Al

[Pete]

Nice work Al and a good result for the customer.

Cheers

Sent from my Milestone using proboards

[GLADIATOR]

That crystal 'clean' is AMAZING?
How you do that?

[Archer]

Mar 19, 2013 15:01:54 GMT -6 GLADIATOR said:

That crystal 'clean' is AMAZING?
How you do that?

Time and effort - it's all done by hand.  I inspect the crystal to see how deep the marks are, then decide how fine the sandpaper is that I start with.  This is the wet/dry style sandpaper used for auto body work.  I remove the major scratches using the coarsest grit, then move to a finer grit - don't move on until you have removed all the scratches from the previous grade of abrasive.  Once I'm at the finest abrasive sheet I have, I move on to use Polywatch, and the end result is what you see.

Cheers, Al

[Jamie]

It was kind if a relief to see that original rotor repaired instead of being replaced, there is something comforting about that . Great job Al!

[GLADIATOR]

Mar 20, 2013 6:37:55 GMT -6 Archer said:

Mar 19, 2013 15:01:54 GMT -6 GLADIATOR said:

That crystal 'clean' is AMAZING?
How you do that?

Time and effort - it's all done by hand.  I inspect the crystal to see how deep the marks are, then decide how fine the sandpaper is that I start with.  This is the wet/dry style sandpaper used for auto body work.  I remove the major scratches using the coarsest grit, then move to a finer grit - don't move on until you have removed all the scratches from the previous grade of abrasive.  Once I'm at the finest abrasive sheet I have, I move on to use Polywatch, and the end result is what you see.

Cheers, Al

"Time and effort" I can appreciate BUT I NEVER thought "wet and dry"
Thanks for sharing'
I used wet and dry on cars - It IS anmazing!!
BUT
It is amazing, I would be tooooo scared to attempt that.

[king780]

Excellent work