How to increase lockbar tension

fishface5 said:
I don't know if you want to risk this before trying the bead-blast method but from what I have read, titanium can be bent by heating to dull (not full) red with a torch
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See this is what my original thought was and if that's the case then I might actually try that because I have a torch and hand tools here and can do that now, but bead blasting is much more of a hassle. Ok so dull red, so you're talking heat it up until it just barely turns red? Before making this thread I was thinking about heating up just the lockbar relief, clamping the lockbar to the opposing side with some vice grips (jaws covered in something soft), and then letting it cool for a few hours before unclamping it. Glad to hear that this may actually work, thank you for that! I wonder if I can find some more information on this, i'll do a little digging.
 
fishface5 said:
I don't know if you want to risk this before trying the bead-blast method but from what I have read, titanium can be bent by heating to dull (not full) red with a torch
Click to expand...
I've done a little looking at materials forming and industrial sites and forums and yea it looks like heat definitely will allow it to bend and reduce it's "spring back" or memory. This is good news! I don't have an oxy/acetylene torch but I do have a propane torch. I'm thinking about going to home depot in a bit today and give it a try! Why not right?
 
LimpCroissant said:
I've done a little looking at materials forming and industrial sites and forums and yea it looks like heat definitely will allow it to bend and reduce it's "spring back" or memory. This is good news! I don't have an oxy/acetylene torch but I do have a propane torch. I'm thinking about going to home depot in a bit today and give it a try! Why not right?
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Worth a shot, might give you enough bend👍
 
I would just wedge it to the opposite side with some foil, then heat the lockbar relief and let cool
 
WValtakis said:
I would just wedge it to the opposite side with some foil, then heat the lockbar relief and let cool
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Oo I like that idea. That's nice and easy and I wont mar the ti with plier jaws at all that way. That's exactly how I'll do it, thank you sir!
 
Alright fellas, Operation Integral Lockbar Tension has been completed and... It was a success! I simply made a nice little foil wedge to wedge the lockbar to make contact with the opposing side. I cleaned it all up real good with Isopropyal alcohol, and held it with vise grips with a few layers of electrical tape covering the teeth so as not to scratch and mar the titanium. Then I simply put the flame to it until I could just start seeing the metal glow red. Right when I saw it start, I stopped. I let it cool for about 10 minutes, took out the wedge, and the memory that the titanium lockbar had was completely erased and is now set right against the other scale with a lot of tension. I put it all back together and, boom, it is now a perfectly functional knife! Pretty cool. I took some pics for ya guys.

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As you can see here it BARELY had any tension causing lock rock and vertical play
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Gave it the ol' wedgie
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The lockup is now VERY secure. No vertical play at all. Worked pretty awesome 👌
 
Awesome! Now beat it like a rented mule and test out some stuff😎👍

Same thing happened to me if I'm honest, a friend gave me an SMF clone because he knew I was looking for some Ti slabs to practice engraving on...I thanked him profusely and went to town on it.

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WValtakis said:
Awesome! Now beat it like a rented mule and test out some stuff😎👍

Same thing happened to me if I'm honest, a friend gave me an SMF clone because he knew I was looking for some Ti slabs to practice engraving on...I thanked him profusely and went to town on it.

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Hell yea brother!👍 Honestly I remembered you talking about that and remember how awesome it was. I just didn't want to bring it up because for a second it looked like the thread might turn bad. But you did a PHENOMENAL job on that thing man! That thing is stunning.
 
One little update here guys. So it turned out that it worked a little too good. The lockbar tension was very strong, too strong in fact. I did it again but this time stuck a foil wedge between the lockbar (by the detent ball) and the opposing scale so that it covered about 60% of the gap and then flamed it again. I let it cool and this time gave it the full treatment by polishing the washers on demin with Mother's polish and now she's just about perfect! She now has a very strong, solid lockup, a little more tension than most framelocks from the factory. It's nice to know that I (and whoever else) can use this to tune framelocks however I need if I run into another problem. Next I think I'm going to give the integral ti spine a nice mirror(ish) finish and heat anodize the rest of the knife. That should give it a dull flamed finish on all flats except for the spine which should have that nice shiny flamed finish. Should be a cool little contrast. Thanks for everyone's help!
 
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