MoT's Watch Deal Forum Watches

[watchpalooza]

Wow, I did not expect that. Sorry...should have checked these before sending.

You know how vintage dials often used radium in the lume? I now have some 40 dials with radium.

Just to be safe, I took a few of the dials to the radiation safety officer I happen to know and I now have a Geiger counter, instructions and a special container with absorbent material for the disposal of the radium. Oh the things I do for you guys.

On the plus side, how many people have a Geiger counter as part of their watch repair kit?



My desk needs a tidy up, but I thought you guys would appreciate it. How many fun things can you spot?

[Dub Rubb]

That's crazy! How old are These dials?!? I thought radium was phased out in the 60's. If these are that old, they are in great condition! Be safe first bud, and we all appreciate the efforts. Just don't take any chances, we need our OG MoT dial maker around for a long time!

Sent from my LG-M322 using Tapatalk

[Sporkboy]

That's crazy! How old are These dials?!? I thought radium was phased out in the 60's. If these are that old, they are in great condition! Be safe first bud, and we all appreciate the efforts. Just don't take any chances, we need our OG MoT dial maker around for a long time!

Sent from my LG-M322 using Tapatalk

Don’t worry, I will be safe. I had the good sense to check and the good fortune to actually get a Geiger counter on short notice. It pays to have random contacts in your organization/community because you never know what might pop up. Be nice to people and pitch in when you can and you will have the help you need when you need it.

I would have guessed these to be from the 70’s, but now I don’t know. They were NOS dials with some of them being in the original wrapping so they were all very well preserved.

I can’t find much on this brand, just some desk clocks and pocket watches. Nothing as to when it went out of business. That information would be telling. Anyway, my Google-fu fails me this morning.

[Sporkboy]

Wow, I did not expect that. Sorry...should have checked these before sending.

You know how vintage dials often used radium in the lume? I now have some 40 dials with radium.

Just to be safe, I took a few of the dials to the radiation safety officer I happen to know and I now have a Geiger counter, instructions and a special container with absorbent material for the disposal of the radium. Oh the things I do for you guys.

On the plus side, how many people have a Geiger counter as part of their watch repair kit?



My desk needs a tidy up, but I thought you guys would appreciate it. How many fun things can you spot?

No worries. I am lucky that I caught it. I do worry if you have a lot of this kind of thing in your parts collection though. Apparently decaying radium emits radon, which isn’t good for you if it collects indoors. Supposedly if you store it in a sealed container and only open it outside then you are OK.

I will seal these up until I am ready to deal with them. You might want to check what you have just to be on the safe side.

On the lighter side, it is pretty cool to be working with this material even if it is just to dispose of it safely. There is something exotic about it.

[Sporkboy]

You know how vintage dials often used radium in the lume? I now have some 40 dials with radium.

Just to be safe, I took a few of the dials to the radiation safety officer I happen to know and I now have a Geiger counter, instructions and a special container with absorbent material for the disposal of the radium. Oh the things I do for you guys.

On the plus side, how many people have a Geiger counter as part of their watch repair kit?

The brief history of radium in watchmaking is a very interesting one. It was actually used for many other applications, such as airplane instrument dials, and was only discarded after the grisly fate of the so called "Radium Girls" became apparent. At the time it was considered harmless at the very least, and many declared it a kind of wonder drug. It wasn't uncommon to treat such complaints as gout, arthritis, and rheumatism with a radium-infused beverage (all complete quackery, of course). If you want to learn more, check out this lecture by Kathleen McGivney.

The radium girls are a sad, but interesting part of horological. One of the more disturbing bits about them that I have read comes from their Wikipedia entry( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium ... n_exposure):
“Because the true nature of the radium had been kept from them, the Radium Girls painted their nails, teeth, and faces for fun with the deadly paint produced at the factory.”

Knowing what we know now, this is just crazy. That is the power of hindsight I suppose.

[watchpalooza]

These were a lot I purchased and guessed incorrectly at the age due to the excellent condition. I did not unwrap them and judged only by the few that came without packaging. Should have paid more attention. I will have to have the rest checked. I do own a few radium watches, but try not to lick them or inhale dust from the dials.

Wow, I did not expect that. Sorry...should have checked these before sending.

You know how vintage dials often used radium in the lume? I now have some 40 dials with radium.

Just to be safe, I took a few of the dials to the radiation safety officer I happen to know and I now have a Geiger counter, instructions and a special container with absorbent material for the disposal of the radium. Oh the things I do for you guys.

On the plus side, how many people have a Geiger counter as part of their watch repair kit?



My desk needs a tidy up, but I thought you guys would appreciate it. How many fun things can you spot?

No worries. I am lucky that I caught it. I do worry if you have a lot of this kind of thing in your parts collection though. Apparently decaying radium emits radon, which isn’t good for you if it collects indoors. Supposedly if you store it in a sealed container and only open it outside then you are OK.

I will seal these up until I am ready to deal with them. You might want to check what you have just to be on the safe side.

On the lighter side, it is pretty cool to be working with this material even if it is just to dispose of it safely. There is something exotic about it.

[Sporkboy]

MoT’s Deep Blue with the full lume colored dial was eating away at my soul. Here is one way to do it.

https://youtu.be/pSI2R6pkifg

[Sporkboy]

The orange above the was just a test, but I am getting serious now. I will use that, now blank, dial and attempt a .est dial. I have the decals ready to go.

[Sporkboy]

Sanding down the dial and going from 400 to 2000 grit seemed to work as that is what this dial is. I went a little overboard sanding the other 2 dials, so this is the current production run.

I will make another jig so that I can evenly apply extra lume and then another jig to help sand it down evenly.

Here is a picture with just one decal. Another is needed to get ‘black’. it looks like the thinner lume application is resulting in a less green text color. The bold lines also help a bit there.



I know you want to see side by side lume.


The extra decal really makes this work, and I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

[MoT]

Sanding down the dial and going from 400 to 2000 grit seemed to work as that is what this dial is. I went a little overboard sanding the other 2 dials, so this is the current production run.

I will make another jig so that I can evenly apply extra lume and then another jig to help sand it down evenly.

Here is a picture with just one decal. Another is needed to get ‘black’. it looks like the thinner lume application is resulting in a less green text color. The bold lines also help a bit there.



I know you want to see side by side lume.


The extra decal really makes this work, and I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Me too!

[Sporkboy]

It has been a long time developing this, but I am very close now.the final alignment is a pain due to the sporkboy credit. Making it slightly larger could help, but I don’t want to be a jerk.

Note the area around the 3 is slightly out of alignment. Nobody would ever know though.

This dial was dried overnight, a clear coat added, 2 hours to dry (no heat as these aren’t bake on decals), excess decal trimmed, 2nd decal applied. I will let this dry, clear coat, trim and clear the pinion hole, and a last coat of clear coat. That looks like my process for now, and so far it looks pretty good.

Note that this first image somehow went through a filter and is whiter than it appears in real life.


I am looking forward to hearing comments. To me, the design is there and I just need to sort the production techniques and flow. If the design needs tweaking, please speak up now. Once I start making these to send out, that will be the design for the MoT Watch Deal Forum Full Lumed Black Dial Edition 1.


The thing left to do is to finalize the process of adding the lume base to dials. I think I have that one cornered, but we shall see. The goal is a 2mm coating that is flat and even.

Past that, I am tinkering with the idea of just casting dials that are pure lume/resin and then painting the backs white. That would open the possibility of doing this in quartz watches as well. One thing at a time.

[Sporkboy]

This is the only usable handset that I had, so it was hastily re-lumed.

Should the indices all come out into the center more? Because of the MoT text, doing that might not work out, but I almost feel the dial is ‘empty’. Maybe the minute markers need to come out a bit???

[yinzburgher]

Should the indices all come out into the center more? Because of the MoT text, doing that might not work out, but I almost feel the dial is ‘empty’. Maybe the minute markers need to come out a bit???

I like the indices how they are. I would not elongate them if it were up to me. Bringing the Est. line up to the midpoint between the handset and the top of the 6 may balance the dial a bit more. If the dial still looks bare/sparse, you might try the full word Established in a line of text above 12/18/2018 but then you risk having too much text on the dial for some tastes. A "crosshair" dial design may fix the empty space as well. But I also want to stress that while I can see what you're saying about space on the dial, it doesn't look bad to me now at all. Also, I have ZERO design experience. Looking at dials on Google images may give you a better idea of what layout is most common or looks best.

[watchpalooza]

Should the indices all come out into the center more? Because of the MoT text, doing that might not work out, but I almost feel the dial is ‘empty’. Maybe the minute markers need to come out a bit???

I like the indices how they are. I would not elongate them if it were up to me. Bringing the Est. line up to the midpoint between the handset and the top of the 6 may balance the dial a bit more. If the dial still looks bare/sparse, you might try the full word Established in a line of text above 12/18/2018 but then you risk having too much text on the dial for some tastes. A "crosshair" dial design may fix the empty space as well. But I also want to stress that while I can see what you're saying about space on the dial, it doesn't look bad to me now at all. Also, I have ZERO design experience. Looking at dials on Google images may give you a better idea of what layout is most common or looks best.

^ What he said. This is my favorite design so far.

[Sporkboy]

Thanks guys. I needed the reassurance here. It is hard to look at the same design for months on end and not start to second guess previous choices. I will keep things the same aside from the est. alignment issue. It is aligned with something, but the test at 12 was too large to do that so it looks off.

Looking forward to getting this design in the hands of others and start working on other watch projects.