No problem. Normally what happens when it has some play in it can be two fold.
On some you get them just right but they hold so tight it actually is difficult or even painful to make the blade lift up to release it from the ball when the blade is in the closed position. So normally the cure for this is to tap the ball down a bit further. It does a sweet job allowing the thumb to start the blade to the open position but it places the ball so far in the hole that it now doesn't fit the hole in the blade quite as good and you have a bigger hole than is needed for the amount of ball going into it. It allows that little bit of play.
You could fix that by tapping the ball back out a bit using a number 53 drill and putting it in upside down in your drill press and simply sinking it in so deep that only a small bit of the bottom of the bit sticks out of the chuck. Then tap it into the hole and push using the press. It will move the ball a bit or push it completely out for you to reseat it.
If that just makes it grab all that much more then you can try to increase the diameter of the hole in the blade by no more than a hairs width at a time until you see which you like best.
Now you know why most makers keep a small amount of 2mm balls or 3/32 diameter balls in conjunction with the 1/16" balls they normally use. For just such an occasion when they mess up the small one.
I started keeping the bigger ones for when you get a bad drill bit which can happen when you buy in bulk. I've had #53 drills sent to me for the 1/16" balls 10 to 15 at a time. These last for years but when you pull one out one day and suddenly find that one out of that batch was a 1/16" and not a #53 you end up with a ball that drops in and won't stick since your hole is too big. Now you have to either peen the hole north south east and west like a jeweler would to hold a diamond making a mount if you can follow that.
And you can make that work or for many its just easier to pull out the bigger balls and use that unless you drilled your hole so close to the edge of the contact cut that this is not possible.
STR
