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[dpn]

Really nice work.  I'm glad all that effort paid off.  Have you found a source for your logo on the dial face?

Nope, and I’m unlikely to. Each of these dials takes me around 8 hours (including my failures), and I don’t want to add another variable yet. I will say that I’d love hour markers, if only to make aligning the hands easier.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dpn]

I spent some time with my camera and lights this weekend, and took better shots of my first four fordite-dialed Seikos. The really wild dial here is from Mustang fordite, while the more subdued dials are from the Jeep assembly line.


Zzyzx-Atelier-1 (Large).jpg (213.7 kB . 864x1080 - viewed 206 times)


Zzyzx-Atelier-2 (Large).jpg (471.19 kB . 1920x1080 - viewed 235 times)


Zzyzx-Atelier-3 (Large).jpg (241.21 kB . 864x1080 - viewed 211 times)


Zzyzx-Atelier-4 (Large).jpg (190.09 kB . 864x1080 - viewed 213 times)


Zzyzx-Atelier-5 (Large).jpg (273.05 kB . 864x1080 - viewed 213 times)

[R.U. Sirius]

Those turned out quite nice, bravo!  It's great that those dial rings (excuse my English) come with markings, so watch is legible without any markings on the fordite dial.

I may have missed it in this big thread - now that you've gone through the initial pains, are you planning on trying other materials? Jade or some agates may be tough enough to be thinned down to necessary thickness, especially once they've been mounted onto the support metal.

[dpn]

Apologies for the delay in my reply. My regular job and family life take up almost all of my time, and I'm still working to get my first production run of 10-15 fordite dials up for sale.

In terms of future materials, I'm currently experimenting with "surfite" (layers of resin from surf board manufacturing) and "bowlerite" (pieces of chopped up bowling ball).

I'm absolutely still interested in experimenting with natural stones, but I've got to focus on recouping my (significant) costs before I can invest in any of the additional necessary equipment I'll need.

Specifically, I'll need some sort of lapidary saw to cut rough slabs, some means of grinding the rough slabs into regular, flat cylinders of a specific diameter, and then some means of polishing the final cut disks of material. (Oh, and I absolutely need to get one of those vacuum chambers to impregnate materials with resin so that they're durable enough to work.) I'm good with what I believe is the trickiest part, cutting very thin disks out of a cylindrical core, but the rest of the stuff I'll need to work with more than paints and plastics is going to cost a pretty penny.

Maybe later in 2021, or 2022 ...

Thanks again to everyone who helped me out here!

Oh, and here's some new eye candy I haven't shared here before.

[irockhound]

Your production pieces look amazing, congrats! It has been a long road you have maneuvered. I find it hilarious the naming of materials like paint, surfboard resin and more resin from bowling balls "ites" like that makes them stone and selling sites calling it agate now.  Probably has even started a garage industry of making the material in batches and saying it is from Ford or others.  I think there should be truth when you alter stones and also calling something what it is.  Heck I just looked to see if the insanity has gone as far as the metaphysical and yep there are websites telling of all the healing properties of Fordite.  Wonder if they quote the healing properties of 409 or comet cleanser yet ROFL.