Caged ball lock and repeated exposure to grit and dirt

[elkins45]

This thread is a spin-off to one I started in General about locks resisting wear from repeatedly getting dirty and muddy. Some of the discussion made me think about how to rehabilitate my Manix 2 when the lock finally gets worn to the point where the ball is at the limit of travel.

I wonder with a caged ball lock like the Manix 2 if it can be rehabbed when excessively worn just by installing a slightly oversized ball to take up the tolerance? Has this been done? Is this the Spyderco factory fix to a sloppy caged ball or ball bearing lock?

 

[pinetreebbs]

Isn't the tapered locking slot designed to allow for any wear?

Seams unlikely one could wear out the lock unless they have a serious case of OCKFD (Obsessive Compulsive Knife Flipping Disorder)

 

[Menace]

I doubt you'll ever see the life cycle of a hardened ball bearing come even remotely close to the end. The beauty of a ball is that it never wears in the exact same spot or exact same path twice, I bet you'll see some other sort of mechanical failure before the ball bearling fails, though in theory I don't see why a slightly bigger bearing couldn't be inserted to take up any slack

 

[JNewell]

I agree with ^^^. Unless you live in an environment dominated by something like aluminum oxide dust, you'll never wear the lock out. And if you do, you'll die before you have enough time to wear it out.

 

[Cynic2701]

I agree with ^^^. Unless you live in an environment dominated by something like aluminum oxide dust, you'll never wear the lock out. And if you do, you'll die before you have enough time to wear it out.

Challenge accepted.

 

[JNewell]

Challenge accepted.

I actually tried to wear one out. It shows no wear, but my thumb did. Come back to us in, say, 25k cycles, and let us know how it's going?

 

[Cynic2701]

Hahaha, I'd have to get one first...

But if my Axis-locks are any indication, even small amounts of "wear in" from habitual flipping can be reversed by rotating the stop pin to a non-flattened portion.

 

[JNewell]

Other than the fact that you won't need to do that on the Manix 2, you couldn't even if you tried.

The M2 has no stop pin; the blade tang stops on the flat mating surface of the backspacer. The lock itself is self-adjusting in a way that's similar to the Axis lockbar - the ball would just engage the blade tang a little more deeply,

You will develop acute arthritis and wear away the skin on your fingers and thumb first, though.

Hahaha, I'd have to get one first...

But if my Axis-locks are any indication, even small amounts of "wear in" from habitual flipping can be reversed by rotating the stop pin to a non-flattened portion.