Eternal Sadness - Broken Manix 2 (waved modded manix 2)

[J E M]

So I have been lurking around this board for years... And it took a broken knife to get me to post. So I have read several post about the caged ball lock from spyderco and thought it was pretty cool, so I picked up this knife. Several of the posters haven't heard or seen any problems with the caged ball lock polymer. Well I am posting here just to share my experience and to add the general knowledge of these . Let me start by saying I modded this knife with a wave feature. I don't believe that this modded would have any impact on this failure. From my understanding this is a hard use rated knife, now this knife is no safe queen I use it for edc but it has never seen hard use, unless you count food prep and random cutting tasks around the house then your hard use greatly differs from mine.

The failure happen when I was opening the knife with the thumb hole. I do occasionally flick it open and close from fun. I notice that after about three open and closes the knife cage ball lock polymer developed ever so slight "play" that it didn't have before. At first I thought maybe the pivot screws came loose but after further inspection I found no "play" in the blade. After close inspection I found that the play was indeed the polymer. So I opened the knife up to find the polymer "guide rod" for the spring was broken at the hilt of the main body of the cage. Very disappointing for a hard use rated knife. The knife still locks up but I have lost confidence and wonder for how long..? I am emailing spyderco so see their response. Unfortunately since it is a waved manixs 2 I fear that they will not warrant the cage ball lock part. I will be requesting a replacement part in hopes that I dont have to sent my knife in since I can easily make the repair my self and if not, can I buy just the cage ball lock...?

 

[crom]

Wow, good job on the mod, too bad on the broken rod. Still think parts such as these ought to be made of steel.

 

[dericdesmond]

SI am emailing spyderco so see their response. Unfortunately since it is a waved manixs 2 I fear that they will not warrant the cage ball lock part.

You fear right, you tossed the warranty out the window when you added the mod, pretty sure disassembly alone voids the warranty but could be wrong.

 

[jossta]

Yeah disassembly voids the warranty. Also pretty sure they don't send out parts other than clips and clip screws.

That sucks though...

 

[crom]

Another reason I will not buy this model. I'd still see if they'd give you a new cage, what could it hurt to ask?

 

[jbdarkblue]

My manix 2 broke the same way. Contact them and they may send you a new lock. They did for me.

 

[RevDevil]

My manix 2 broke the same way. Contact them and they may send you a new lock. They did for me.

I am surprised that they did this for you. They have a pretty strict policy against that, but if one lives overseas it might be different.

 

[Dr Heelhook]

Question: Was the knife taken apart at any occasion before you started experiencing problems (for cleaning or while making the mod or for any other reason)?

 

[hoxhunbe]

From what I understand of Spyderco's written warranty (the language posted on their website), disassembly only voids the warranty if it is the CAUSE of the damage in question. However, modding the knife voids the whole shebang, so you're going to have to get lucky or just pony up the price of a new cage. Hopefully you can find the part you need at a reasonable price.

FWIW, I think the mod you did is pretty cool. Poor spider, though -- You chopped off his forelegs

 

[pwet]

if i were you i'd try to find an abused or even broken one for sale. get a gold membership and post a WTB offer in the exchange, maybe someone has a M2 with broken blade to sell for cheap. then you'll have a new, working cage for your modded manix.

 

[dcycleman]

Wow, good job on the mod, too bad on the broken rod. Still think parts such as these ought to be made of steel.

I think so too

 

[J E M]

My manix 2 broke the same way. Contact them and they may send you a new lock. They did for me.

Your right! I sent an email out yesterday and got one back from spyderco hours later. I was rather please even though I just checked my email today. I will post it here for all of you.

"Ball cages are not a part that we sell or generally send out as damage from disassembling the knife voids the warranty so we do not encourage that a knife is disassembled rather send it for warranty evaluation if you are having a problem. If you feel you can repair the knife I can send you the part if you reply with an address but please note that it’s not something we normally do and if it breaks again please send it in for warranty evaluation.

Thank you and have a great day,

Charlynn

Spyderco Customer Service/Warranty/Repair"

Question: Was the knife taken apart at any occasion before you started experiencing problems (for cleaning or while making the mod or for any other reason)?

huh no... I took it apart after the cage ball broke to see what the problem was and reassembled it after lubing it up and "loc titing" it. I then took it apart to shoot the photos you see here. I find it a little humorous that spyderco doesnt want you to take the knife apart and that it risks voiding you warranty when on their site it is a selling feature. "They are an evolutionary work in progress and the next level is here with the new Endura4 and Delica4. Both models now have screw construction making cleaning and adjusting easier." (I plan to get one soon) Now I know this is from their endura line but I imagine this would apply to all their screw construction knives. But I see what you are getting at the ball cage was not place upside down, or anything of that nature upon reassembly. The mod was down with the knife assembled. I went very slow, as with any knife not to destroy the heat tempering.

Wow, good job on the mod, too bad on the broken rod. Still think parts such as these ought to be made of steel.

Thank you, I couldnt agree more. Instead of polymer maybe MIM? Since I dont manufacture these I dont know if it would be cost effective. But it seems to me that the ball cage is the weak point on the lock. When I bought the knife and hours of read post later I could find nothing negative on the web apart from ankerson's infamous hard use video. (For the record I like his video as well as noss's) But it seems several have popped up in the last month with broken ball cages. So I might tend to believe that this is a bad batch of polymer cages.

After further inspection of the polymer cage I am beginning to develop a theory on why it failed. With further inspection I notice that there is slight play in the ball cage from side to side, which is need for clearance to engage and disengage the lock. The only thing stopping the play side to side is a 90 degree angle of thin round polymer extending from the back end of the cage. Hence the "no play" in the lock when it is not broken and "play" in the cage lock when it is broken. If you were to put lateral pressure in the side for the cage (which protrudes out the side of the knife) I believe this greatly stresses the 90 degree section of the polymer, possibly causing this type of failure. Now I am not a big guy. I weight about 170 pounds and since this is a "pocket" knife it would stand to reason while in the pocket, sitting on this knife could cause this failure. This is my theory take it for what it is worth.

FWIW, I think the mod you did is pretty cool. Poor spider, though -- You chopped off his forelegs

lol you notice that... I felt the same way. At first I tried the getto zip tie method and found it interfered with slicing food, mainly apples. I decided to try the wave method and saw several mods that cut into the hole (for God knows what reason.) this type of mod to me seems to greatly weaken the knife especially as you use the knife through sharping it.

At first I tried to save the spyder by not grinding into it. Because of the angle of the manix spine this didnt give much in the way of "bite" in the "wave," causing the wave to not preform as well as I would have like. I found that it was ripping up pants because the angle was too steep and shallow. Since I am a "function over style" kind of person I pulled out the dremel, swallowed the lump in my throat, forced myself to keep one eye open and went to town. I am very pleased with the results and it (so as I imagine with all wave knives) preforms much better then the zip tie method. Chalk it up as beginners luck but I will be looking to do this to all my future edc knives.

 

[Heiheit]

Charlynn really does take care of people. Glad you're getting your parts man.

 

[Baine]

The mod looks awesome man.

 

[Dorito Monk]

It sucks that it broke, but it's good to hear that you're getting the parts you need to fix 'er. :thumbup:

 

[marthinus]

Kudos to Spyderco!

 

[Yo Mama]

Another reason I will not buy this model. I'd still see if they'd give you a new cage, what could it hurt to ask?

You won't get it because someone abused the hell out of the knife and broke it? Sorry, but without taking the knife apart which OP states they did not prior to the broken pin, the handle would take an extreme amount of pressure when making the wave modification.

In addition, putting pics on the net of the disassembled knife would definately allow Spyderco to void the warranty, but what a stand up company for helping fix it.

 

[kreole]

From what I understand of Spyderco's written warranty (the language posted on their website), disassembly only voids the warranty if it is the CAUSE of the damage in question.

That is indeed how the warranty is written, but I was told straight from their CS, and TazKristi has also posted the same thing on Spyderco's own forum, that simple disassembly, even not relating to the problem, voids the warranty. Just taking the blade out voids the warranty. Michael Janich posted in TazKristi's thread to trust them to do what is right, but trust is a two-way street, and they don't trust you. That is why I buy Spyderco knives under the assumption they have no warranty.

 

[yobohadi]

Woops! Next time I will read the entire thread before posting... Glad they are throwing you a bone.

 

[Dr Heelhook]

That is indeed how the warranty is written, but I was told straight from their CS, and TazKristi has also posted the same thing on Spyderco's own forum, that simple disassembly, even not relating to the problem, voids the warranty. Just taking the blade out voids the warranty. Michael Janich posted in TazKristi's thread to trust them to do what is right, but trust is a two-way street, and they don't trust you. That is why I buy Spyderco knives under the assumption they have no warranty.

I don't really consider it a problem. The knife is supposed to work fine without disassembly and if it for some reason doesn't, just send it in and let the company do the disassembling for you. I've never really seen the point in this need to take the knife apart the first thing you do when you get the knife.