How to make your own Thick Lug Bars for $10.50

Heres a really simple tutorial, all you need is a decent soldering iron and a few minutes time...

First of all purchase a set of thick 316 grade stainless steel bars from www.ewatchparts.com this is the direct link they will cost you $10.50 a set including shipping worldwide.

Heres what they look like. Note the screw top on one of the ends (not sure whether the screw top is on the authentic ones, its not clear on page 194 of Volkers book maybe someone can enlighten me)...anyway if it isn’t supposed to be there then I’ll show you how to hide this...
http://www.vintagewatchparts.co.uk/g...pringbar-1.jpg


The lug bars above are excellent but a little bit short (but this is an easy fix). The bars should sit inside your watch lugs and not be at the outer edge or protruding... Heres how we rectify this...

Pop the bars into a vice and add a blob of solder, it very fast, very easy and strong as it needs to be. The solder is to give a little extra length to the bars. However the solder is purely cosmetic.

Here I am using bright silver solder, but standard solder would do as its not really seen too well.

http://www.vintagewatchparts.co.uk/g...pringbar-2.jpg

Worried how strong the solder will be?.... then don’t I have grinded away the excess with a dremel, if the solder was weak then the blob would have popped off... as you can see it didn’t.....theres hardly a sign of a join along the bar (which doesnt matter as this part is hidden).

Almost completed already...now we have longer lug bars, lets get them fitted...
http://www.vintagewatchparts.co.uk/g...pringbar-3.jpg

Authentic watches below
http://www.vintagewatchparts.co.uk/g...ringbar-3a.jpg

http://www.vintagewatchparts.co.uk/g...ringbar-3b.jpg

Here the bar is too long see authentic image above, this is how the bars should look
http://www.vintagewatchparts.co.uk/g...pringbar-4.jpg

Now the bar has been shortened by removing a little of the solder with a file (takes less than 1 min)...
http://www.vintagewatchparts.co.uk/g...pringbar-5.jpg

Next run a drill through the lug screw hole and fit
http://www.vintagewatchparts.co.uk/g...pringbar-6.jpg

Its easy to do and fairly quick to convert....anyone with a soldering iron should be able to do this....and your bars will be fitted in around 30 mins....
http://www.vintagewatchparts.co.uk/g...pringbar-7.jpg

Not thick enough? Heres another tip ... get a thick stainless steel tube and slide over the top of the bar, no need to solder simply use 2 part epoxy, once glued it will not come off (get it right as it really hard to remove)

http://www.vintagewatchparts.co.uk/g...pringbar-8.jpg

Thick enough now?
http://www.vintagewatchparts.co.uk/g...pringbar-9.jpg