July 15, 2013, 16:02
Lorne WasylishenHow to Spend Sunday - Keystone Case Restoration/Detailing
I have become enamoured of these earflap cases. The first one I bought was already shined up, then this one came along and I am working on buying a third one.
The only real issue was that the concave bow receptacles were worn through so I decided to try metal epoxy. I had to provide a dam to keep the epoxy from being pushed into the pendant where it would block the sleeve from going back in.
I just put a dowel in the drill press and sanded it down to a point where I could put some saran wrap around it and stick it in the hole without tearing it. This epoxy sticks to both wood and plastic so I figured after it was set I could just pull out the wood then pick the saran out with tweezers. Turned out the wood and saran came out together slick as I wanted.
July 15, 2013, 16:05
Lorne WasylishenAnd after, original crystal.
July 15, 2013, 16:21
Lorne WasylishenSide view after.
Note the once floppy bow now holds it's position. I don't know if the epoxy will wear down but for now it seems to work fine.
July 15, 2013, 17:33
Lorne WasylishenThanks Jon. There was still some of the "bottom of the bowl" to help support the epoxy so this case seemed a good one to try. I have been wanting to see if this would work for some time now.
I will now try a case with the bow holes completely gone.
By the way, the Waltham hand arrived safe and sound. I expected to have a pic posted by now but the watch itself needed work so I'm just waiting for a call from my watch guy.
July 15, 2013, 18:59
Dave TurnerVery well done. This is a big part of what I like about old watches. Bringing them back to life.
July 17, 2015, 11:12
Kevin HoffmanI like these cases too , very nice job
September 14, 2015, 03:18
David E. Booth, Jr.I just happened to see this thread. Very nice job on that case. And I like the way the epoxy worked out for repairing the bow detents.
A few years ago, my brother asked me to clean an Elgin pocket watch he had acquired in trade for a bicycle. I wish I had taken photos of it. Someone had repaired the detents for the bow by filling them with what appeared to be bushings made from a stainless steel screw. It looked like they had reamed the hole all the way through, then run in a couple of short screws and ground them off flush inside and out, then polished the outside flush with the original case. The inside was left a little rough, but that of course did not show. I was pretty impressed with their skill as a machinist. Fortunately, I didn't have to screw in the sleeve any further than it was. I wouldn't want to have to try to cut new threads through those two bushings. :-)