sandblasting in singapore

"stratix"

i remember some of you guys wanted to sandblast stuff, and some said JWWatch does. went down one day and nope, they dont do seikos.



and so, i went around some industrial estates asking for advice. someone told me amk has it, so i went today.



blasted my tuna shroud. asked for the smallest grit size finish. and i must say, it's pretty amazingly done:







after blasted, you can see the texture. i dont really know how to describe; it's similar to how those mil models of seikos finishes, maybe slightly more coarser.



and on my tuna:







best part, they charged me 10 bucks for this.



address:

Kong Heng metal polishing

5 Ang Mo Kio Street 64



(opposite the SBS transit deport. i think roo7 should know the place well.. LOL)

"sellwatch"

[quote="stratix"]i remember some of you guys wanted to sandblast stuff, and some said JWWatch does. went down one day and nope, they dont do seikos.



and so, i went around some industrial estates asking for advice. someone told me amk has it, so i went today.



blasted my tuna shroud. asked for the smallest grit size finish. and i must say, it's pretty amazingly done:







after blasted, you can see the texture. i dont really know how to describe; it's similar to how those mil models of seikos finishes, maybe slightly more coarser.



and on my tuna:







best part, they charged me 10 bucks for this.



address:

Kong Heng metal polishing

5 Ang Mo Kio Street 64



(opposite the SBS transit deport. i think roo7 should know the place well.. LOL)

"oOsiMm"

looks good and best thing it is cheap!



but is it a standard price for an easy job? or random fees?

"stratix"

[quote="sellwatch"]


Kong heng! Blardy hell. They no tell me abt it. Tmr I call to kan my ex supplier.



Btw wat size grit is that?

"stratix"

address:

Kong Heng metal polishing

5 Ang Mo Kio Street 64



(opposite the SBS transit deport. i think roo7 should know the place well.. LOL)

"Vinc04"

Grit blasting shoul be the correct term as sand blasting is no longer allowed in Singapore due to the fact that it produces silica and causes silicosis if inhaled into the lungs. Grits are basically inert synthetic materials.



Back to the blasting.. You are removing the coating that is protecting the bar metal... Now Bare metal is exposed, did you all coat it with any paint work or undercoat to prevent rusting?

"Quasimodo"

Am not claiming to be any kind of expert... but I do have a feeling that the ss of most of our watches doesn't have any special coating, unless otherwise specified.



Coatings normally do not wear as well as the base material and will be the first to wear out at high contact zones like the tips of lugs. Looking at old ss watches, I've seen a lot of nicks and scratches but no indication of dicolouration from a peeling or worn coating. My pair of titanium-framed Oakley glasses for instance has many places where the coating had flaked/peeled/worn off over the years; it's very apparent. Even if the coating is clear, with age and oxidation there should be some discoloration. This prompted me to research and this may be the answer: PASSIVATION.



"Stainless steels are corrosion-resistant by nature, which might suggest that passivating them would be unnecessary. However, stainless steels are not completely impervious to rusting. One common mode of corrosion in corrosion-resistant steels is when small spots on the surface begin to rust because grain boundaries or embedded bits of foreign matter (such as grinding swarf) allow water molecules to oxidize some of the iron in those spots despite the alloying chromium. This is called rouging..."



Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passivation_(chemistry" false;)#Stainless_steel



Another site noted that non-oxidative/ferrous swarf may be considered as it may render passivation unnecessary. So we may not need to apply a coating to the blasted watch case after all.



On a wholly separate note... would anyone know any company that WILL coat ss? I'm looking ion coatings, ceramic coatings, etc. A lot of them industrial applications but hey, the technology has to trickle down! :) Can any bros help? Will take this to a separate thread once we get some traction. Thanks, mods!

"stratix"

not too sure about car paint thou.



anyway, i brought one of my casios there for a bast today. though it might just be a casio, this particular piece has sentimental value la. worn over a couple of years sometime ago, so it was full of scratches.



brought it to the same place to blast. and this is how it looks like:







and some closer ups on how the texture looks like:







:D

"Ed.YEO"

Whoa!!!! Swee ley... I thought you previously mentioned that you don't know whether they will accept watch casings or not?

So... how much had they charged you?

"Ed.YEO"

Now you poisoned me liao lah... as well as other brudders here. Surprisingly an unknown workshop produce such impressive job!



Found their website by google, http://www.kongheng.com.sg/kh_capabilites.htm" false;



So... before you bring it to there, you had to take off the movement huh? Or do they have watch tech over there to do the removal on spot? So far... the coating stays well?

"stratix"

...my tuna's shroud is about a week old already. brought it to swim and washed hands with it. so far so good.

"roo7"

...Damn nice man...