Left hand clip change-hows your luck

[spydercojoe]

Hi all. Being left handed and loving Spydies, I have moved many a clip over to the other side. Like my Paramilitary,, going tip up carry is a great improvement and going left handed is not that hard to do with the G-10 handles. Just drill the correct hole size and let the screw self tap along with a touch of epoxy,,, works great.
I just redid a police model with stainless handle. Has anyone had good luck with just drilling a hole ever so slightly smaller then the screw then screwing in the three screws with a little epoxy? It is clamped right now and I feel fairly confident in the strength I will have after waiting a day or so. Is there a correct tap you can buy out there to do an even better job?
Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks, Joe

[Andre V]

Unless you are using a tap, there will always be the chance that the screws will come out. You could probably create your own thread through the G10 using the screw, but there is no way you will be able to get into the steel liners.

I suggest that you pick up a 2-56 tapping bit and a few 2-56 screws, i am not sure on the imperial drill size to use for a 2-56 screw, i use a 1.8mm drill bit. Its really quite easy to do, just remember to go slow when tapping or you will break the tap.

Here are 2 links to some knife supply sites that sell taps and screws.
http://www.texasknife.com
http://www.knifekits.com

[spydercojoe]

Thanks much Andre,, this info is very good. Hope I can improve my skills.
This is how we help each other, thanks again,,, Joe

[Piet.S]

And specialy in SS, do use some tapping fluid.

[STR]

I use a #50 drill bit for 2-56 screw taps. On materials that I am a bit worried about the tap breaking I'll bump that up to a #48 on occasion and have had good luck with that one. Usually I go with the 50 size though.

Threading hardened stainless is always risky. These smaller taps break easy enough without helping them along. I know of some guys with tapmatic attatchments for their drill press that have successfully threaded Spyderco stainless knives but they are braver than I am. Good luck to them is all I can think to say about that. Its too iffy on someone elses property to risk making a mess of their folder. At least with titanium I can soak the scale in swimming pool acid to eat out the tap and not hurt the titanium should a tap break off in the hole. But with stainless that option is not available.

On stainless lined knives with G10 scales over them I would recommend trying to thread the liner after removing the scale and leaving that G10 untouched. If you can successfully thread the liner then you can drill out the matching holes in the G10 but if you break one off, make a mild mess of things on the liners you can just grind down the tap, take off the sharp edges and make it all flush and cover it all up nicely with the G10 scale never leaving any tell tale signs that you were even messing with your folder. Of course if you go to sell it later I would hope anyone doing that would inform the buyer of what surprises lay under the G10 though.

STR

[Andre V]

Threading hardened stainless is always risky. These smaller taps break easy enough without helping them along. I know of some guys with tapmatic attatchments for their drill press that have successfully threaded Spyderco stainless knives but they are braver than I am. Good luck to them is all I can think to say about that. Its too iffy on someone elses property to risk making a mess of their folder. At least with titanium I can soak the scale in swimming pool acid to eat out the tap and not hurt the titanium should a tap break off in the hole. But with stainless that option is not available.


STR

On hardened steel, I found that if a put a drop of FC over the broken tap, let it sit a little while and then give it some firm taps with a punch, the broken tap usually just pops out.