LLC pivot fit????

[Larry S.]

Shouldn't I be able to eliminate noticeable sideplay or shake from my Microtech LLC by adjustment of the pivot screw??? I'm almost at my wits end; I bought a #10 torx screwdriver at Sears yesterday and put a mean looking spiral in it's configuration without being able to significantly reduce what, to me at least, seems to be excessive play in the LLC's pivot. This, after already going through the #10 bit in my $12.00 Benchmade pocket toolkit.
What gives???
Larry

 

[ErikD]

First of all exactly how much side to side play are you talkling about? If it is just noticable when you use a lot of force at the tip of the blade, it may not be fixable by tightening the pivot screw.

Also the pivot pin is probably lock tighted, so it would be hard to break the seal using a torx driver alone. I believe that I read heating the screw with a soldering iron would help.

Erik

 

[SIFU1A]

yeah, they are loc tited was playing w/my LCC was gonna loosen a little, and i couldnt get the srew to budge, but didnt try heat etc didnt wanna do it that bad

if it has a lot of play, i might would think about sending it to MT

sifu

 

[Wirebender]

IIRC, The LCC has a wave washer on one side of the pivot. So when the pivot is tight you will still have a little play. It's not much though, couple of thousandths or so.

 

[Nightwind]

The problem is the complicated pivot design of the LCC. Mine had quite some blade play as well, and fastening the pivot screw didn't help at all (is is secured with loctite, by the way).
Set into the blade is a bushing of hardened steel that is just a tad wider than the blade, so you cannot tighten the pivot too much (or enough, in some cases).
The bushing of my LCC was clearly too wide, the washers didn't fully touch the blade, and the bushing stopped me from tightening the pivot. So i diassembled the knife, took the bushing out and gave it a few strokes on my sharpening stone. This is a somewhat delicate operation, you have to remove VERY FEW metal only.
After that i reassembled the LCC, and lo and behold: The blade play had disappeared. The action was a bit stiff at first, but after some time it became perfectly smooth again, still with no blade play.
It's not something for the faint of heart, and you may want to check other options first (i heard sometimes shortening the pivot screw with a few file strokes does the trick), but the only other option is sending it back to microtech.