centering blades in folders..............

S

SIFU1A

Joined
May 12, 2001
Messages
11,707
hi i got a EKI CQC8 this week, and the blade is just BARELY kicked over to one side, off center. its not rubbing but if ya put your finger on the disc to open it and pushed more sideways w/your thumb, if ya were in a hurry to open it, it could rub, i think. have tried loosening/tightening pivot w/no success.

anyway, would like to straighten it w/out sending into EKI, have been waiting for a while for the thing, and hate to just send it right off.

someone posted a way to center folder blades a while back, and i couldnt find on search, any ideas would be appreciated...........


thanks

greg
 
This is what I do and have been doing for the last 10 years. With the blade open put your hand against the flat of the blade. Push the blade towards the liner it is coming close to. You may have to exert some pressure. Check and see results and repeat if needed. Sometimes the blade tang does not fully seat and this helps it to seat thus centering the blade. Let me know how it works.

It might help to slightly loosen the pivot bolt, then retighten it after centering the blade.
 
Don't underestimate the importance of the the spacer screw tightness. My mental picture is that the blade centredness is determined by alignment of the whole system of spacer and pivot screws. So if you can get everything parallel and somewhat tight, you should be fine.

An example: over-tightening a spacer screw near the pivot. This would lead to the pivot screw being under-tightened with respect to having a set of parallel screws. So there would be some blade play. You'd either have to tighten the pivot screw or loosen up the spacer screw a bit.
 
My process is a little different but I've straighted out some pretty screwed up knives over the years ;)

First, loosen the pivot and back spacer screws slightly. Next tighten the pivot so that the blade will move but not easily. Move it back and fourth so that it sort of seats itself in position with the backspacers loose. Then tighten one backspacer screw and check alignment. Sometimes just doing this will cure the problem. If it's still off center. Place two thick books on a table so that the point of the knife can be placed on one and the BUTT on the other. Use this setup to press the knife in the direction in needs to "bend" If possible, tighten one of the backspacers under pressure. BE CAREFULL, you need to apply enough pressure to almost bend the frame while working around a sharp blade!! Check the alignment again. Hopefully at this point you went too far and can now bring it back the other way!!

If the above doesn't work it's time to take the knife apart. Flatness of the frame must be checked, hole locations must match, etc. SOMETIMES the back spacer holes in the frame must be enlarged to allow the frame to be tightened in the correct relation to the blade/pivot pin. Lastly, the backspacer thickness MUST be very close to the thickness of the blade and bushings. If any of these specs are off, it might be impossible to KEEP the blade centered after any successful adjustment is made.

Part of the challenge in making a custom folder is keeping all these controling dimensions and tolerances correct prior to assembly. If they are, the blade will end up centered and opperate smoothly from the start.......AND the knife will spring back to center after any hard use.

I hope this is of some help?? Let me know!!


Neil
 
yes,yes, exactly what i was looking for, will try later and post how/which one /etc, i just cant send this right back in, and its off so very very little , hopefully i can fix it!!

thanks a million,

greg
 
All I can say is wow. Quite a while back I bought a BM 800M2HS as I am a huge fan of AFCKs. Right out of the box the thing had the worst case of rub I had ever seen. I emailed the dealer and after a few days of silence from him, I sent it back to BM.
When I got it back the rub was gone, but returned after only a few openings.
I tried to sell it at a loss a few times and then just put it away.

Art,my friend, I feel like you have given me a brand new knife. I took your advice and this thing is SWEET.

I've also printed the rest of this thread for future reference. I love this place!

Thanks, Jeff.
 
Glad to see that it helped Jeff. Yep this place is chock full of useful information!
 
Are the central parts of Neil's and artsig's advice contrasting? artsig says to open the blade, then push it towards the side it's rubbing against. I think Neil is saying to push in the opposite direction. Am I reading both correctly?

Joe
 
Joe it do appear that way. After going back and reading Neil's post a second time he says to push the blade the way it needs to be bent. I assume this means away from the liner it is coming closer to. When I push away from the liner the blade always ends up closer to that liner:eek: :confused: I don't think it works both ways.

Neil...................????
 
I have followed Artsig's advice on my CQC-7 and it works great. If the blade turns towards the right when closed, I put pressure toward the right when it is opened.
Matt
 
I've read a host of reports that follow artsig's advice, and which resulted in getting rid of the liner rub and a more-centered blade. That's why I'm curious if I'm mis-reading Neil's method.

Joe
 
I said to push it in the direction that it needs to bend...... That means the direction that puts the blade back to center!! :confused: LOL!!!!!

Please remember, I'm making the adjustment with the pivot tight and the backspacer loose and tightening the backspacer under pressure. What is happening here is the frame is being slightly warped so that it ends up centered AROUND the blade. Normally with the blade open you would want to push the blade tip in the direction of the liner rub. I think the easiest way to explain it would be to pretend the frame is made of lead. You are BENDING the frame so that the blade false in the center when closed.

Let me know of this makes sense ??

Neil
 
As stated before, there are many things that contribute to this problem. If you look at the way a EKI knife and BM are made, the contruction is very similar. They both use the spacer screws to secure the scale and hold the liners together. The placement of the screws for this makes for a handle that isn't as rigid as it could be. I have started adding a couple a screws to the handle's of my AFCK's. The sole purpose is to tighten the scale to the liner. This makes the knife much more rigid, it greatly improves the action and the blade stays centered! Some people don't like the idea of adding screws because, it can alter the appearance a bit. When it comes to a production knife, I am more worried about good function, than about looks.

By the way, I also got a prodcution 8 and fortunately I have no problems what so ever with mine. :)
 
well i got my "8" centered, loosened up the grip screws and the pivot, then tightened the pivot and worked it back and forth back and forth - never had to bend anything - and after jakkin w/it a while, it seemed to all fit into place, the liner was kinda hard to dis- engage before, like it was kikkin too far over, and this went away also.........is perfect now, all is well!!!!!

thanks again guys!!!

greg
 
My 2002 EKI Commander did the same thing, A quick disassembly and pushing the second detent in a little did wonders.
 
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