Spydercos self-loosening pivots

[vivi]

That's light shining through between the blade and liners on my new Police lightweight.

Seems every Spyderco knife I purchase will loosen itself at the pivot simply by manually opening them with my thumb.

It's an easy fix with a dab of loc-tite, but I don't understand why this happens? I had it happen with every Police I've owned, my Manix XL, every Paramilitary 1 or 2, 90% of the various Military folders I've owned over the years, etc.

One time at work I even had the pivot pin on my Military simply fall out for this reason. The pivot was fine at the beginning of the day, and through using the knife a lot it loosened up to the point it fell apart.

As I mentioned, the Police is brand new, so it isn't from wear or abuse.

In the end it isn't a big deal, but it genuinely baffles me as to why Spyderco knives are the only ones that seem to do this for me.

[Sharp Guy]

Over a hundred Spyderco knives and I've only experienced this with one...my Sage 1. A little dot of blue loctite and no more problem. Actually forgot it ever had the issue until I read your post.

[Cambertree]

Yeah, I had some slight loosening over time on my P4 as well. I put it down to the extra weight and force of the big blade swinging open.

As Sharp Guy said, a dab of Loctite and I forgot about it.

The knives with shorter, lighter blades don't seem to have it happen as much.

[aaronkb]

I think it’s probably an issue of not being able to please us all - since they reduced their loctite from what they used to do, this’ll probably happen on very rare occasion.

[knivesandbooks]

I've had it happen with just about every knife minus my Sebenza.
My PM2's and Natives seems to be most susceptible. Outside of Spyderco, Triad Lock folders and framelock flippers seem pretty susceptible.
I've never had it happen to the extent the pin fell out though. Just a little loosening, maybe some side-to-side.
I really think it haooens with knives you use harder/more frequently and knives that fire hard.

[Tims]

I blue loctite all my pivots and never have a problem after that. I guess its just the rotational nature of a pivot.

Ps, Dear Sal,

We don’t want pinned pivots :D

[curlyhairedboy]

Loctite fixes it, and it's much better than not having screw construction...

[Evil D]

The whole loctite subject is a downward spiral. This sort of thing wouldn't happen if they loctite the pivot as much as they did my Caribbean, but then when you go to take it apart it's a nightmare. It seems that finding that happy middle ground between too much and not enough is hard to find. I think part of the problem is the relatively small screws we're dealing with. I stay on top of this sort of thing so I would rather they come without any loctite at all and I'll just apply what I feel is enough and that way if I use too much it's on me.

[Redman5006]

I’ve had pivot screws do this on a few, some Seki models in particular. Enduras seem to come to mind. The larger blades seem to produce more vibration during lock up and shutting against the stop. Blue loctite it and forget it. BTW, the loctite stick really has made things so much easier if you haven’t tried it.

[VashHash]

I use Teflon tape. No need to wait for it to cure and a roll last forever.
Most of my spydercos don't walk out the pivot screws. My Chinook 2 and original para 1 satin would do it so I either put thread locker or Teflon tape. A lot of times when I buy a knife new I'll just put Teflon tape on the pivot screw and tune it to my liking.
My police 4 G10 came with all the screws loose except for the pocket clip. I was surprised that I had to tighten all of them. I just checked and they're all still tight.

[Ez556]

I have a knife from a different manufacturer that goes from perfectly centered to scraping against the liner (it’s a liner lock, so the bar pushes it over) after opening and closing it throughout one day. It’s otherwise a very nice knife. I haven’t had any of my Spyderco’s do it, but it is definitely annoying. I never could figure out how the blade can interact with the screw to do that, except maybe in a free-rotating pivot. Either way, loc-tite is a fast enough fix.

[RazorSharp86]

Yup. Every Spyderco backlock knife I ever had (North of 100) had this issue. Blue Loctite didn’t help, neither.
I always assumed that this is why the company uses red Loctite - to thread those pivots shut.

[PStone]

This has happened to me before as well on the military. Lost the screw. Charlyn from warranty had me send some photos (angles she specified) of the knife to her, and she mailed me two replacements(one backup if needed in the future) and suggested blue loctite be applied to prevent it happening again. I did apply the blue, and haven’t had an issue since.

[DOUBLE D]

Personally, I'd much rather have it like that from the factory and be able to disassemble the knife and control the amount of screw retention myself with my desired loctite. Nothing frustrates me quite like a screw I can't get out because of the factory red or white loctite.

[toxophilus]

Only noticed this on my M390 Military; as others have stated it's no biggie, I either tighten it or a dab of loctite. The pivot screw isn't going anywhere as I'm using an MXGear aftermarket DCPC on this one (similar to the one on my Cruwear Military) :spyder:

[spoonrobot]

I've only had it happen on my well-worn military with eccentric stop pin and dragonfly salt, bizarrely. But I do see it quite a bit with other manufacturers. Every Cold Steel Voyager I've had has had the issue and CRKTs used to be notorious for this back when they were made in Taiwan.

[James Y]

This is very interesting. I’ve never had a pivot screw back out.

I thought that at least the Golden-made Spydercos used red loctite? I’ve thought about making sure the pivot screws in my PM2 were loctited, but am concerned about stripping them if they’re held in with red loctite.

Jim

[MichaelScott]

Nope. Never.

[jpm2]

Yup. Every Spyderco backlock knife I ever had (North of 100) had this issue. Blue Loctite didn’t help, neither.
I always assumed that this is why the company uses red Loctite - to thread those pivots shut.

Pretty bizarre, even purple Loctite (weaker than blue) will keep pivot size screws in place.

[Albatross]

I've had a few loosen, but loctite takes care of it. To me, this is a non-issue, since I always adjust the pivots and loctite new knives, eliminating the potential issue before it presents itself. Most new knives seem to have pivots that are too tight or too loose anyway.

I'm also picky, so I know I'm finding issues where others might not.