chrisbuxton17
Plastic
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2019
Hi everyone.
I'm a vintage watch restorer and wish to start refinishing or replacing the bezel inlay ring on some dive watches that are badly scratched.
All I know is they are made from aluminium and anodized. The finish is a satin black with silver markers and numbers. It looks like the silver markers are just the aluminium showing through the black but is fairly scratch resistant as is the black surround. There seems to be no step between the 2 colours.
As the bezel insert is a little conical with around a 25 degree pitch, I think screen printing is out of the question also water transfer is not accurate and sublimation cannot heat press.
So I'm left with pad printing, laser etching or inkjet printing.
Options with pad printing:
Anodize Aluminium but not seal then pad print the black and seal. Hope the silver that will be showing through stays silver in colour through the anodizing process.
Or anodize and seal, then pad print the black with a 2 pack ink.
For laser etching:
Anodise and seal. Powder coat in black then laser etch the markers and numbers by removing just enough of the black to reveal the anodized metal below.
Injet printing:
Anodize but not seal. Use an injet printer that has a cd tray which I can adapt. That also allows dye inks. Print and seal.
Problem there might be that there's a 1.5mm difference in height between od and id so I might not get a sharp image all through as the print head will be spraying on different depths of surface.
Any thoughts or experiences I would be extremely grateful as I don't want to invent in equipment that's not up to the job.
I'm a vintage watch restorer and wish to start refinishing or replacing the bezel inlay ring on some dive watches that are badly scratched.
All I know is they are made from aluminium and anodized. The finish is a satin black with silver markers and numbers. It looks like the silver markers are just the aluminium showing through the black but is fairly scratch resistant as is the black surround. There seems to be no step between the 2 colours.
As the bezel insert is a little conical with around a 25 degree pitch, I think screen printing is out of the question also water transfer is not accurate and sublimation cannot heat press.
So I'm left with pad printing, laser etching or inkjet printing.
Options with pad printing:
Anodize Aluminium but not seal then pad print the black and seal. Hope the silver that will be showing through stays silver in colour through the anodizing process.
Or anodize and seal, then pad print the black with a 2 pack ink.
For laser etching:
Anodise and seal. Powder coat in black then laser etch the markers and numbers by removing just enough of the black to reveal the anodized metal below.
Injet printing:
Anodize but not seal. Use an injet printer that has a cd tray which I can adapt. That also allows dye inks. Print and seal.
Problem there might be that there's a 1.5mm difference in height between od and id so I might not get a sharp image all through as the print head will be spraying on different depths of surface.
Any thoughts or experiences I would be extremely grateful as I don't want to invent in equipment that's not up to the job.
