Many of my Spyderco's, the Ti frame locks, in particular, are off-center when I slightly loosen either pivot screw to free up the action. Sometimes I find the sweet spot where the action is just right and one of the screws is ever so slightly backed off from fully tightened, but after a few days that screw becomes more loosened and I'm forced to re-tighten it. I've tried loctiting everything, but the problem still persists.
What are some tips and tricks you use for knife reassembly to achieve a light action, centered blade, and no blade play?
Tighten scale screws first or last? Any particular order? Which way do I hold my tongue and what leg do I stand on? Do I face east? West? Close my eyes?
Help!
Please school me on adjusting blade centering/action.
Re: Please school me on adjusting blade centering/action.
Which Ti frame-locks ? (I've only done Military and K2 and can help there).
Re: Please school me on adjusting blade centering/action.
Don't have any of these. So for what it's worth from my working on full and half Titanium Militaries (5 total), and 3 K2 (and on other non-Spyderco frame-locks):
Centering problems on frame-locks usually show up as the lock pushes the blade to the other side. What I do:
1) assemble the knife lock up. Meaning put the non-lock side on the table, assemble and tighten the scale screws, tigthen the Pivot screw. Then put the blade and top washer on, then the lock side on with an open blade, screw in pivot first, and then scale screws away from the Pivot, meaning the one closest to the Pivot first. When I say tighten a screw, I mean "finger-tighten", don't go crazy (important for step 4). If you are lucky, in most cases, you are done. If not:
2) check the lanyard tube. Important that the lanyard tube is totally perpendicular to the scales, and not damaged. You can push and rotate the scales against each other to make sure.
3) Sometimes you have to adjust the Pivot from both sides. Tighten one side, and loosen the other and vice versa. When you are close to the right adjustment, you can see the blade move, depending on which Pivot screw you use.
4) Finally, if you don't add a backspacer (most after-market backspacers cause issues with Titanium scales), for the long blades, you can move them a bit by pressuring the knife in the middle in either direction. This is not bending the Ti scales, but moving the screws a little (that were only finger-tight in the first place).
5) I only tighten my Pivot screws until blade play disappears (tested on open knife with no lock pressure on the blade), no further.
Finally, when you are done, unscrew / loktite / screw each screw in the same sequence as you assembled the knife above. Loktite stops working when there is grease on the screws. Sometimes I put all the screws, Pivot, etc., in a glass of Alcohol for 10 minutes and assemble only after they are clean and have dried. Use tweezers for the screws, not your fingers if possible. You really only have 10min or so for the Loktite to settle, don't manipulate afterwards and let cure for 24 hours.
Now, generally this will work on 9 out of 10 knives for me. Sometimes it doesn't, because lanyard tube or something else is out of spec.
Also, realize that there is a risk: frame-locks should have been carefully adjusted in the factory (hopefully - not always apparent in new knives), to optimize the lock/tang seating. One of the knivemakers on BF (RJ Martin, https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/how ... st-9163968) describes how this is done. After DIY frame-lock re-assembly this fine-adjustment might be gone, you could introduce lock stick, etc.
Hope this helps,
Roland.
Centering problems on frame-locks usually show up as the lock pushes the blade to the other side. What I do:
1) assemble the knife lock up. Meaning put the non-lock side on the table, assemble and tighten the scale screws, tigthen the Pivot screw. Then put the blade and top washer on, then the lock side on with an open blade, screw in pivot first, and then scale screws away from the Pivot, meaning the one closest to the Pivot first. When I say tighten a screw, I mean "finger-tighten", don't go crazy (important for step 4). If you are lucky, in most cases, you are done. If not:
2) check the lanyard tube. Important that the lanyard tube is totally perpendicular to the scales, and not damaged. You can push and rotate the scales against each other to make sure.
3) Sometimes you have to adjust the Pivot from both sides. Tighten one side, and loosen the other and vice versa. When you are close to the right adjustment, you can see the blade move, depending on which Pivot screw you use.
4) Finally, if you don't add a backspacer (most after-market backspacers cause issues with Titanium scales), for the long blades, you can move them a bit by pressuring the knife in the middle in either direction. This is not bending the Ti scales, but moving the screws a little (that were only finger-tight in the first place).
5) I only tighten my Pivot screws until blade play disappears (tested on open knife with no lock pressure on the blade), no further.
Finally, when you are done, unscrew / loktite / screw each screw in the same sequence as you assembled the knife above. Loktite stops working when there is grease on the screws. Sometimes I put all the screws, Pivot, etc., in a glass of Alcohol for 10 minutes and assemble only after they are clean and have dried. Use tweezers for the screws, not your fingers if possible. You really only have 10min or so for the Loktite to settle, don't manipulate afterwards and let cure for 24 hours.
Now, generally this will work on 9 out of 10 knives for me. Sometimes it doesn't, because lanyard tube or something else is out of spec.
Also, realize that there is a risk: frame-locks should have been carefully adjusted in the factory (hopefully - not always apparent in new knives), to optimize the lock/tang seating. One of the knivemakers on BF (RJ Martin, https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/how ... st-9163968) describes how this is done. After DIY frame-lock re-assembly this fine-adjustment might be gone, you could introduce lock stick, etc.
Hope this helps,
Roland.
Re: Please school me on adjusting blade centering/action.
Loosen all the screws but don't take them out, then take the knife in both hands and try to bend it sideways like you're breaking a stick in half. You'll see that this moves the blade to one side or the other depending on which direction you bend it. Try to get it moved towards the side you need it to, then adjust the pivot as best as you can without throwing it off center again (if you do keep bending as you snug the pivot down). Do so in SMALL increments on the screws. Once the pivot is good, start working your way down the scale screws moving side to side working in small increments until they're snug, bending as needed until they're all tight.
All SE all the time since 2017
~David
~David
Re: Please school me on adjusting blade centering/action.
If you use a q-tip dipped in alcohol to swab out the pivot barrel real good, this will help with the loctite adhering much better in the threads. A lot of times, there is oil on the screws or in the pivot barrel and loctite doesn't adhere to these surfaces as well. I can usually center 90% of my blades successfully, but every once in a while, you'll get a knife that won't center up, no matter what you do. This is frustrating! Sometimes, it's not so much the centering of the blade. Sometimes, the blade grinds of the knife can be off, which gives it the appearance of being off center.