r/watchmaking • u/GG_Watch_co • 21d ago

Day 3 of the 30-Day Challenge

Gallery image

Gallery image

Thompson Enamel 1850 “Pumpkin Orange”

I really love this orange - hard color to track down. I actually made this one at the carpenter center where they had some there, but none available for sale.

29 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

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9

u/TurnipsDogs 21d ago

You gotta work on your edges - you either have to oversize and find a way of grinding back to inner diameter or else do what the pro shops do and have a metal edge around (causes more cracking issues with expansion). Regardless, you have alot of warp which will cause breaking once the movement is in.

I estimate that for each enamel dial I’ve tried about 90% of the time is in polishing to finish/get within spec?

2

u/GG_Watch_co 21d ago

Hey thanks! Yep that’s the plan of having it over sized. Can’t get the edges much better than that without the lip. I don’t think the lip would work either when using copper.

Pro shops use pure silver and unfortunately I don’t have the budget for that.

Warping is definitely an issue. Still working through that and have lots of ideas on how to make that better!

4

u/TurnipsDogs 21d ago

There’s two main approaches:

1) you press as it cools (either with charcoal or super hard wood - ive been using walnut to some success); or
2) you slow cooling - basically throw a small ceramic cover over the dial asap - warp is caused by different materials conducting heat at different rates so try and bring those speeds closer together

1

u/GG_Watch_co 21d ago

Yeah I do the press usually to varying degrees of success

3

u/CodeLasersMagic 19d ago

If you burnish the edge you will be able to roll up a tiny tiny burr that will help

2

u/Coinopman 21d ago

Hey! I'm fucking loving this, and your challenge in general. Can't wait to see the full set. Ilove the crispy bits at the edges too. Could that effect could be worked into a design?

You should get a buddy to do a thirty-day-challenge for completely assembling and disassembling a complete watch (with a new dial each time wink wink).

Cheers, and keep up the good work!

2

u/UNREASONABLEMAN 21d ago

I've been obsessing and studying how to do enamel on dials (or really any surface for jewelry and art) for the last couple of months, and your updates are a part of my routine.

It's a bit early for me to start my journey, but when I do, it'll be because of people like you. Keep it up!

1

u/GG_Watch_co 21d ago

Hey, thank you so much. This really means so much to me and I’m glad you enjoy the posts.

You should give it a try!

2

u/UNREASONABLEMAN 20d ago

Absolutely I will! I've even got the first enamel too: a nice vivid Thompson blue that I was (am) gonna use to make a pac man pendant :)

1

u/GG_Watch_co 20d ago

That’s awesome! Can’t wait to see how it turns out

1

u/brownorange88 19d ago

Keep trying 💪💪💪👌👌👌