Shopsmith Forums

WWV
Do they still broadcast on the same radio frequency? Haven't heard that in decades. I think I still have my multi-band radio that picked that up.

chapmanruss wrote:WWV
Do they still broadcast on the same radio frequency? Haven't heard that in decades. I think I still have my multi-band radio that picked that up.

Yes it does. My "atomic" clocks still work and they use the WWV signal to keep the time set. There was talk in the last year about shutting the stations down to save money ($6.3 M). That isn't even pocket change give the total budget. There are actually three stations. WWV and WWVB (long range station) in Ft Collins, CO and WWVH (located in Hawaii). The proposal was in the 2019 budget. I guess it didn't make it. There a whole lot of people that depend on those super accurate time signals including HAM radio operators, sailors, all kinds of scientists, the military and not to mention the millions of consumer atomic clock users.

OK, I can be a little OCD

In the past month I got 3 'pawnshop e-tail' Precisionists:
(1.) as shown above with black leather strap, very nice
(2.) a Dud which won't be worth fixing
(3.) another one like (1.), but with a tobacco-infused strap and a very scuffed-up face and body.

I actually got some Diamond-paste to have full possibility of buffing the sapphire crystal; as it turns out the crystal scratches were too deep to get rid of all of them readily. Nonetheless, the metal sections polished up very nice! I used a few slow RPM settings on the Shopsmith. By keeping the (new brown) leather straps on, I was able to nicely tie the watch up to a piece of wood in my chuck:
Not too bad, now!

Chris

Great idea, Chris.

Usually if I do something once... I'll return to the scene of the crime!

My appetite was whetted for the black-hole-like attractions of HAQ (High Accuracy Quartz) watches.

I took a gamble on an older GRAND SEIKO quartz model on the auction-site, a model never sold directly in the USA. These are high-end watches that depreciate faster than the Swiss brands, but they are doggone nice!

This one, I used a tiny patch of 600-grit sandpaper to re-apply some nice concentric brush marks on the round bezel ring (it was a nicked-up piece that was originally brushed rather than bright-polished). Right on the lathe-chuck I could see progress and was encouraged. I decided to stop a tad early, and take the watch off the chuck and put some microcrystalline wax on it. It did turn out pretty good!
Chris