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Step 3I hope you like sanding
The time consuming part
Now that you have the face off you can see what you are really up against. Since the goal is to replace the stock watch face with a new wooden one, the face you make will have to be as close in spec to the original one as possible. In my case, that meant I had to take my wood stock down to a little under 1mm in thickness.
You can go a little thicker if you want, but make sure you do a good deal of dry fitting along the way to make sure that the hour gear in your movement will extend past the thickness of the wood so you can reattach the hands later (see photo 5 for diagram of the hour gear).
This process will take longer than you think it will, and thats ok. Go slow or you run a real chance of raising the grain on your wood and having to start over. Periodically you can take a look at how the grain of the wood is coming through by wiping the sawdust away with a moist cloth (or a little spit on your thumb), try to avoid getting the wood too wet though as this will also work against you in raising the grain.
Once you get the piece down to size and run through all grits up to 800 (almost all of the sanding lines were gone by the time I moved to 400 grit), its time for a finish. I went with a high gloss lacquer in a rattlecan and made 7 or 8 light passes to build up a nice deep shine (and to glue the fibers back together since the wood itself was getting a little thin for my comfort).
Now that you have the face off you can see what you are really up against. Since the goal is to replace the stock watch face with a new wooden one, the face you make will have to be as close in spec to the original one as possible. In my case, that meant I had to take my wood stock down to a little under 1mm in thickness.
You can go a little thicker if you want, but make sure you do a good deal of dry fitting along the way to make sure that the hour gear in your movement will extend past the thickness of the wood so you can reattach the hands later (see photo 5 for diagram of the hour gear).
This process will take longer than you think it will, and thats ok. Go slow or you run a real chance of raising the grain on your wood and having to start over. Periodically you can take a look at how the grain of the wood is coming through by wiping the sawdust away with a moist cloth (or a little spit on your thumb), try to avoid getting the wood too wet though as this will also work against you in raising the grain.
Once you get the piece down to size and run through all grits up to 800 (almost all of the sanding lines were gone by the time I moved to 400 grit), its time for a finish. I went with a high gloss lacquer in a rattlecan and made 7 or 8 light passes to build up a nice deep shine (and to glue the fibers back together since the wood itself was getting a little thin for my comfort).
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Jun 7, 2011. 2:02 PM
dougturnsy
says:
dougturnsy
says:
veneer = a 1/4 of the time used.
Reply
Jan 16, 2012. 2:13 PMmojo13
says:
First thing the went through my mind!
Reply
12
Dec 31, 2011. 4:53 PMbuilding king
says:
building king
says:
That was what I was thinking!
Reply
2
Nov 10, 2010. 5:03 AMwobbler
says:
wobbler
says:
Maybe you could apply the double sided tape first to the back of the wood to hold it together more as you sanded? The light wood has an interesting grain. Nice job!
Reply
Mar 29, 2010. 9:13 AMtofu4tortoise
says:
instead of sending it down all the way like that, why don't you just buy veneer instead? veneer is cuts of wood 1/64" thick or less, made for this purpose
Reply
Feb 27, 2007. 4:28 PMoniony
says:
Having just sanded all of the skirting, architrave, picture rails and radiators in our house I just could not face this step. So I am now the proud owner of the world's first wristwatch with a 3cm thick wooden watch face.
Reply
Jul 12, 2009. 6:58 AMrayked
says:
show me
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