[TESTED] VTA Blue SEALS - Pressure Test on 6138-8020 "PANDA"

[@tods.9947]

Cool Adrian, thanks!

[@joshbostic4917]

Nice to see you're making custom seals! Any plans to make the L-shaped crystal gaskets used on some of the old KS and GS models? I believe the OEM part # for these gaskets is FH3020B. Sources for these are drying up, so would be nice to have an aftermarket option available.

[@Inkreptile]

Is that a QT99 under the pressure tester 😁

[@hal0eight]

QT-77. Still works but was last calibrated in 1989 I think. So who knows how much drift it has now. It's still useful. I trim the quartz movements to gain 0.3s/day and nobody complains.

[@Supercruze]

Adrian - Can you explain why the blue seals are better than standard seals? Are they made of viton rubber?

[@hal0eight]

They're EPDM. I did test viton for years but decided against it as it can have a nasty tendency to starve out the mechanical joint between the seal and tube of silicone grease and also it better at keeping shape, which I initially thought was good, but in testing, discovered it was bad. Mainly because it doesn't take the shape of the channel. I found EPDM behaved more like nitrile with less of the drawbacks. The big problem with the nitrile seals is they have a lifespan of about 5 years, sometimes less depending what they are exposed to. You just never know when they will fail. You're probably good for 1-2 years but after that it's anyone's guess.