Attaching Tubes to hands! HELP!!!!

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atkin68
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Re: Attaching Tubes to hands! HELP!!!!

Post by atkin68 »

This has been my nemesis also. I have tried soldering a tube from another handset, broaching, and I have also experimented with buying actual brass tubes of various dimensions (ie - and attempting to essentially broach them to the ID that I need with the drill press and then broaches, and then either solder or super-glue them. I have had many failures but some successes. I think [mention]blueradish[/mention] has given the essential truth of what needs to be done. Unfortunately all of these approaches are tricky and require skills I haven't mastered yet; meanwhile, hands are perhaps the most delicate parts in the watch, easy to destroy, and fu@king expensive for good ones - so trial and error to gain the skills is really painful. If I had a special hand-set like yours and only one chance to get it right, I'd reach out to [mention]Kp0y[/mention] and ask him if he could take on the task.

I have searched high and low for a source for actual tubes - assuming that if I was willing to invest in the right tools (a staking set?), and obtain the tubes, I'd be able to do this myself. But I have never found anything.
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Re: Attaching Tubes to hands! HELP!!!!

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Re: Attaching Tubes to hands! HELP!!!!

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Re: Attaching Tubes to hands! HELP!!!!

Post by wwwEvgeny »

Hi, @Thrasher what is the thickness of the dial? 6497 movement? Is the hands already fitted to 6497? Does your dial have legs? Or thickness might be changed depending on the way you are going to attach it to the movement? Do know the size of the fittings in your hands? Sorry , so many questions. :) May be I have some spare stuff.
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Re: Attaching Tubes to hands! HELP!!!!

Post by sazabi2001 »

You can try low-temperature soldering paste.. A bit messy and not very strong, but 130-150DegC melting point.

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