Folder bearing question

G

gudspelr

Joined
Jul 1, 2013
Messages
451
I’m considering using caged bearings on my next liner lock and it’ll be a first for me. I’ve seen where guys will recess both the liners as well as the blade for the bearings. I’m curious for anyone’s opinion on how they do it and why.


Specifically, how big of a gap between the blade and liner do you go for when the blade is installed? I believe the bronze washers I’ve used are .010 thick-do you use the same clearance with bearings and mill the pocket to leave .010 of your bearings proud? I was also thinking of just milling a pocket in the liner material and not in the blade as well. What is the minimum thickness of liner or blade you like to ensure is left? (For the sake of round numbers, say you are using .080 liners and the bearings are .060 thick. You want .010 left for the blade to ride on, milling .050 out of the .080 liner. Is .030 left “enough”? How thin is too thin?)


Thanks for anyone that is willing to share their experience.


Jeremy
 
I use .015 clearance which will become .012 after bearing race is formed. .03 is enough liner after milling pocket. I’ve done it both ways, liners and blade pocket and both work well. I’ve been doing more in blade recently to make hiding hardware easier
 
I make frame lock flippers. One side is of course titanium. The show side can be most anything that catches my eye. I've used stabilized wood, micarta, stag and horn with no liner under them. I do use a liner under the show side if the frame won't be strong enough to stand alone. I put .020 hardened washers on both sides of the bearings. I counter bore .072 in the frames and .010 in the blade for bearings and washers. This leaves me a .010 gap that doesn't change. I routinely leave .040-.050 thickness in the frame after counter boring. If using something like Shockwood, I use a .040 ti liner and counterbore the same. In this photo the Koa has a liner the stag does not. https://imgur.com/4OIXNPx
 
For liners the reason both the blade and liner have pockets milled is a tolerance issue. If you didn't have pockets milled in both your gap between the liner and blade would likely be huge
 
razor-edge-knives said:
For liners the reason both the blade and liner have pockets milled is a tolerance issue. If you didn't have pockets milled in both your gap between the liner and blade would likely be huge
Click to expand...

Yes, this was my concern. I didn’t know if I could get a small enough gap by only counter boring the liner. But-I figured there was a “standard” minimum thickness that needed to be left in the liner to be safe. It sounds like around .030 is a safe minimum.

Jeremy
 
I countersink both the liner and the blade - typically I take about .010 out of each liner and about .040 from each side of the blade. Since the bearings are .062, this leaves about .020 clearance (I know that doesn't add up exactly, hence the "about.")
When I used washers I found .020 washers gave me the best detent and lockup, so I kept the .020 clearance when I switched to bearings.
 
A. Brett Schaller said:
I countersink both the liner and the blade - typically I take about .010 out of each liner and about .040 from each side of the blade. Since the bearings are .062, this leaves about .020 clearance (I know that doesn't add up exactly, hence the "about.")
When I used washers I found .020 washers gave me the best detent and lockup, so I kept the .020 clearance when I switched to bearings.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info-I appreciate it.

Jeremy
 
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