Citizen Eco Drive Military Chronograph H500 Movement

I picked up this watch a few days ago, its Solar powered, im not entirely sure what type of movement it is (cant tell if its quartz or not) it is electrical though as theres a battery being charged up inside it.

the strap is similar to my traser watch and too short, made of webbing with a leather back. im not sure why they put these watches out there with short straps but its pissing me off a bit, ive ordered a nato strap to replace it so that should be fine, but its dissapointing to buy a watch and not have it fit properly.

for the record my wrist is about 22cm diameter which is about the same size as the watch strap in full (can nearly catch the last hole), all my other watches fit and my seiko (with a metal strap) had to have some of the strap removed to make it shorter...

The hands and number markers are coated with what i belive is lumibrite paint, its terrible though like my seiko, at about 4pm the watch has a very bright green glow to it, by 7pm its worn off and its dark for the rest of the night, i guess if i left it in the sun to charge the paint up it might be better but its just not practical.

heres some pictures >

Full shot with nato strap



Face of the watch



Back of the watch



Citizen and Traser side by side

Seiko 5 Automatic 7S26 - OSP4

found this watch on ebay when i was looking for movements to fix my grandads watch (which will probably never get done), its an automatic with a sweeping second hand, i was drawn to it because it doesnt need a battery and winds itself from the movement of your arm/wrist.

the only flaws in the design is that its not 100% accurate but its good enough for using day to day and it has a "lumi brite" dial and hands which look crap at night, they are basically glow in the dark paint which charges up with sunlight, only problem is it doesnt seem to work very well, im lucky if i can see the glow at all in total darkness.

An auto quartz/kinetic would perhaps be better because thats the best of both worlds, Swatch make some quite nice looking auto quartz watches but they are a bit plasticy which puts me off.

heres some pictures :

Seiko 1982 ~ 7120-7123 Movement

i inherited this watch, it was my grandads and is stamped on the back, i quite like it but its broken (not 100% sure whats up with it, ive been looking for watches with similar movements to cannibalise)

its stamped British Aerospace on the back which is what BAE systems used to be called, my grandad worked for them since English Electric which then became British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and then British Aerospace.

the battery is also vintage as it has "W Germany" on it (from before the berlin wall came down).

heres some pics

Tokai 1983 SilverStar

I Bought this Tokai SilverStar Strat from Japan about a month ago, its in pretty good condition for its age, I believe the serial number is the datecode for 1983, the case its in is a Postal Monkey : Dragon, quite nice and furry inside although the tuner doesnt work properly ( i had to rewire it when i got it, one of the jacks was missing a nut and its slightly out of tune compared to my other tuners ).

heres some pictures :

Fender Stratocaster project (Partscaster)

this is another one of my projects that im transferring to this blog from my old site,
its a stratocaster guitar but made from random parts, some of which ive had for quite a long time.

heres a mockup with a tortoise scratchplate (uncut), the neck is a rosewood one from an old guitar i had lying around.



as you can see the fit wasnt perfect, seems a little high on this body.



a shot of the bridge (2 point floating tremolo), the saddles are missing as they were being cleaned.



the new pickguard, i love the paisley pattern its really nice. (they are available from axesrus.com )



some random bits and bobs,(pots/capacitors/switch/wire/whammybar/screws).



Pickguard fitted with knobs and the switch is fitted, waiting for the pickups to come through the post.



wiring partially done



New neck i bought for it (its a 1984 made in japan fender neck), theres a few dings and scratches but its lovely to play.



also a little bit of fretwear.



the serial



new kluson tuners, the old ones were gotoh (made in japan) copies of the klusons, bit strange as the klusons didnt fit perfectly i had to shave a bit off one of them to get it tight



the troublesome tuner



the old tuners, kept them in a bag incase i ever want to repair them, they are fooked



pickups fitted and wired up, they are fender custom shop 69 ones



shot of the guitar, waiting for strings.



shot of the guitar, strung up in the junkshop.



back of the guitar



i put a fender corona california backplate on it, doesnt match the japanese neck but hey its a partscaster : )



front shot zoomed in slightly



shot from above




Family shot

1983 tokai silver star
Partscaster
Fender classic players 50's RI strat

Traser H3 P5900 Watch

got one of these watches a few weeks ago, its got a tritium (radioactive) light source that makes it glow in the dark, took a few pictures in low light and messed with the ISO on my camera to make it showup better.

its a nice watch only problem ive had with it is that the strap wasnt long enough, i ordered a nato strap which is about 22cm long and fitted it, now its perfect, its a shame as the strap that came with it was suede and very comfy (not to say the nato one isnt) just silly that they dont make it long enough.

to clarify one side was about 2 inches shorter than the other

64 ISO



200 ISO



800 ISO

One Transitor Fm Radio

I started making an fm radio, its based on the "radioshack special" only none of the parts are from radioshack as they dont exist here anymore.

i have got the box created and put the speakers/antenna connector/switch and volume knob in, ive also drilled out the front grill although its not very precise. I havent started on the electronics yet, but i have bought most of them in.

heres some pictures

speaker grill was drilled by hand, bit messy but im not fussy.



this is the volume knob, was hardwork getting it inside, i had to remove the speakers.





Its a very tight fit with the speakers inside.





I used a BNC connector for the aerial so i can buy a Radio Scanner antenna and fit that,

ive fitted a rubber duck antenna to it for now as a mockup, but ive ordered a telescopic one from ebay.







soon il start on the electronics.

Update (06/sept/2009)

i now have the antenna and the tuning capacitor, i have also cut the casing (badly using a dremel) where i think the tuning capacitor will be best placed, i got the tuning cap out of an old radio which is broken, its got FM and AM bands although il only be using the FM side i will have to figure out which is which.

2 pictures of the tuning capacitor







heres a pic of the top of the radio, messy dremeling and the antenna, the antenna is a nagoya 144mhz/430mhz model but im sure it will work at 88-108mhz as the original radio called for a piece of copper wire.




i just need to start the electronics, i was going to use stripboard to create the circuit but im having trouble planning it out, it might be easier to use Matrix (pad per hole) board instead, i really dont wanna get a load of chemicals to etch a circuitboard even though it might make it simpler.