An  and a big  to Wen! Ricky Lee December 25, 2008 12:34AM

Registered: April 2005 Posts: 1,026 (2008-12)

And just not any ol' box, but a nice sturdy aluminum box with fitted compartments. This will come in handy!

And "parts" doesn't quite do the contents justice. The Alpha Sub on the bottom right, while missing the bezel, proved to be fully functional (it was running when I opened the box!). The only real problem seemed to be a stripped screwdown crown. But there are two other Subs in the box, in various stages of disassembly. Hmmmmm.. I feel a sudden urge for some Caveman Watchmaking.

After verifying that the threads on the bare case and crown (top row RH in Wen's photo) were OK, I uncased the movement and swapped it in. So far so good. Now the part that really gave me pause - would the spare crown and stem engage the other movement properly? I threw salt over me shoulder, said 3 Hail Marys and... it worked! Yippee!

Now for the bezel. Alas, it was apparent that there was a missing part. Bear in mind that I've never before taken an external rotating bezel apart - I ain't a fan, remember, and have only 2 watches with this feature. But there is obviously supposed to be some sort of spring-loaded gizmo that drops into the hole at 7 o'clock, to provide the 'click'. When I test fit the bezel on the case, there was zero rotational resistance - no way was it gonna stay put. Time to put on the thinking cap..

I hesitate to describe my solution. But this is Caveman Watchmaking, so I'll 'fess up. What I did was disassemble a springbar, extract the spring, cut it to an appropriate length, and plop it in the hole. It all went together but the action was.. weird. Drat!

Assuming this was because the spring was ~ 1mm smaller in diameter than the hole, and was 'flopping' back and forth, I took it all back apart, applied release compound to the hole in the old case, then dropped in a smidgin of 5-minute epoxy and potted the spring in place. After it cured it came apart OK (whew!) and fit the good case precisely (double whew!). The bezel and bezel insert again went together easily (triple whew!) and...

Voilà! A brand-new (to me) Sub;

The bezel action is.. well, it ain't the smoothest in the world, OK? There's no 'click to speak of, rather more like a syncopated 'scrape'. Almost exactly halfway between the Alpha Sea-Master's precise clicking and the Vostok Paratrooper's smooth but tight action. It does stay where you put, it though...

..pretty much. Kinda sorta. Honest! Yeah, I obviously managed to move it a few degrees while setting up the photo shoot. But I've been wearing it for several hours since, and it's still precisely centered on the 12. Close Enough For Rock N Roll!

And what would be complete without a ...

And the story's not yet over. The 3rd Sub (top row middle in Wen's photo) is chugging merrily along - albeit with no dial or crystal, and after I straightened the bent hands to stop their fouling each other. And, after a couple of false starts, the Komanderskie (top row LH in Wen's photo) is still running strong after ~6 hours, albeit with no hands installed. In any case, I fancy that I'll be able to mash up at least one more functional watch out of this pile - and hopefully two!

Thanks again, Wen! You Rock, !

    

An  and a big  to Wen!

Sub looks great in photo!  (views: 3)
thebarak -- December 25, 2008 09:21PM
Nice bezel and no cyclops. Excellent.

I love your phrase "Caveman watchmaking". That's a classic!

 I view the lack of a cyclops as a big plus, too.  (views: 1)
Ricky Lee -- December 27, 2008 06:24AM
And am also really smitten with the silver bezel insert. The watch is in astonishingly great cosmetic condition for something that was billed as "parts"! Heck, it's in great functional condition, too, if you discount the.. ah, special rotating action of the bezel. Accuracy is +18 seconds/day. Not too shabby!

Quote
thebarak
I love your phrase "Caveman watchmaking". That's a classic! 

Heh. Thanks again, but I really can't take too much credit. 'tis just an accurate description of what I do.

Cheers!

-Ricky

Congrats Ricky, nice lookin' Alpha. (n/t)  (views: 3)
Mark C. -- December 25, 2008 04:23AM
Nice haul, Ricky and I like that Alpha!  (n/t)  (views: 3)
MCV -- December 25, 2008 02:30AM
You & Wen are da Man! Great work!  (n/t)  (views: 4)
Sfnewguy -- December 25, 2008 01:17AM

A lume shot of my latest. Ricky Lee December 28, 2008 05:28PM

Registered: April 2005 Posts: 1,124 (2008-12)

You'll be relieved to know, ChisL, that your title of Lume Shot King is safe.

Honestly, while the lume is a bit better than I was able to capture there, it's mediocre at best. IOW on a par with other Alphas of the ca. 2005-2006 period. Mind you, Alpha's latest offerings are quite impressive, by my humble standards.

-Ricky

I did take a photo with a longer exposure, but it seemed too bright to me.

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Chris L
I can see by the motion blurs of the second hand in each photo that you are doing about a 2 second or so exposure.

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Chris L
I'm typically doing a 20-25 second exposure on my lume shots, with the movement stopped of course.

TWENTY seconds? Yikes!

I considered hacking the movement, but I kinda like the blurred "marching" effect of the seconds hand.

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Chris L
Even in my pre-DSLR days, I used the maximum exposure time my Nikon 995 would allow, 8 seconds.

I didn't try going longer than 4 seconds 'cause, again, even at that it looked too bright. Then, too, anything beyond 4 seconds I get quite a bit of "noise".

Jeez, I dunno. I've got both up on my screen side-by-side, and now I think I do like the 4-second shot better. Arrrrrrgh!

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Chris L
You have a nice amount of accent lighting in the photos. I do it by quickly turning a lamp reflecting off the ceiling on/off in the middle of the long exposure.

Dumb luck on my part, I assure you.

Thanks for the tips mate! {sigh} Maybe one day I'll get there...

Not bad for the price point! That 9-eater is still a funky watch!  (n/t) (views: 3)
MCV -- December 28, 2008 08:28PM
Not too shabby WOTM. My secret is extremely long exposure times.  (views: 3)
Chris L -- December 28, 2008 08:21PM
I can see by the motion blurs of the second hand in each photo that you are doing about a 2 second or so exposure. I'm typically doing a 20-25 second exposure on my lume shots, with the movement stopped of course.

Even in my pre-DSLR days, I used the maximum exposure time my Nikon 995 would allow, 8 seconds.

You have a nice amount of accent lighting in the photos. I do it by quickly turning a lamp reflecting off the ceiling on/off in the middle of the long exposure.

Funny you should say that... (views: 4)
Ricky Lee -- December 28, 2008 10:31PM

My cameras have noise reduction features, and I do use them...  (views: 4)
Chris L -- December 28, 2008 11:00PM
It is usually somewhere in the setup menu, but the noise reduction feature built in with cameras really does work with this type of photography.

I also shoot with ISO 100 or 200 with those long exposures and a fairly small aperture (f-16 typical). No auto exposure.

Here's an old lume shot, taken with my old Nikon 995. This one was likely an 8-second exposure with about an f-10 to f-13, and I always charge the crap out of the lume with a UV flashlight just prior to shutter release.



I can make an old Vostok look like it was freshly relumed with tritium paint with these photo methods.

nice watches (n/t) (views: 0)
sittinduk -- December 28, 2008 08:00PM
Nice! I'm a "lume freak" - I get all my old watches relumed! Cheers!  (n/t) (views: 2)
Kai41 -- December 28, 2008 07:37PM
looks super RLB (n/t) (views: 0)
anjizkit -- December 28, 2008 06:13PM