Questions about drilling/machining g10 handle scales

[applehusky]

Hey all!
I was wondering if any of you fine people could help me out a bit, or direct me to someone/someplace who can.

I have a little experience with machining, specifically one class at community college to sort of dip my toes in the water but not nearly enough to be useful.

My goal is go modify a Benchmade 531 by lining the back of the knife's handle with tritium vials. I want to do this in such a way that the vials line up perpendicular to the handle scales like the standoffs that hold it together. I'm thinking I can do this by drilling/milling out small holes along the inside of the handle scales just big enough to fit the vials snugly, then position and adhere the vials to one side and put the knife back together so that they line up and fit in the holes on the other side.

I'm thinking of either doing that or drilling thru-holes so the vials can be seen on the side of the knife. Either way though, I'm going to have to work with the g10 scails.

Are there any tips that you guys can give me or proven methods for doing what I described? I'd rather not screw up this knife too much.

 

[C_Claycomb]

I think you are going to have problems carrying out that plan. I have played about making a few sets of replacement grips for Griptilians, and drilling both handles, in multiple places, so snug pins all line up and don't end up pulling the assembly out of true, is a pain for me. Drilling scales which are already machined is awkward because with the flat side down, the bit is going to be contacting a sloped surface, which will tend to make it wander unless you are using a mill and have everything clamped down hard. Or, if you are drilling with the flat side up, the contoured surface may not be sitting level, so the drill bit won't be square to the surface. To get your vials to fit and everything to assemble, the holes in both scales need to be concentric with each other, and all holes must be parallel and square to the inside faces.. A way around this is to drill sloppy holes so that the vials find their own position, and are held with glue, preferably something soft and clear.

The more pins (or vials) you try to align, the more critical tolerances become. Remember that a 3mm vial will not happily fit in a 3mm hole (that was the diameter of the vial I used last). Carbide drills on 1/8th shanks, used by the circuit board industry are great for this sort of work (except for when you need to plunge cut on a slope). They come in a wide range of sizes, are stiff, sharp, and don't dull fast on the glass.

I am not sure whether the idea of having a line of glass vials in a position where they could be knocked by keys, coins and other pocket debris, is the best recipe for their longevity either.


However...

For levelling up your scales, it is possible to set them flat side up in some sort of clay or stiff putty which gives support and allows you to finely adjust them. If you had both scales clamped together, used a slot drill (something that can plunge cut), and had everything clamped down hard, you could drill through completely and could get the holes parallel and square. you could then back fill the outer portion of the holes, visible on the scales, with epoxy, either clear to let light out, or dyed with the powder from the drilling.

If you don't want to screw up, get some scrap and practice. Doing a practice run or two can't be beat!


Or...

Not as aesthetically pleasing perhaps, but you could change your plan and see if you could fit a G10 back spacer into which the vials are set. it would probably still require some drilling of your scales, but probably only one hole and counter bore per side, and if you then had problems with the spacer, it wouldn't have messed up the scales. I did this on a Griptilian with a single large vial running lengthways in a channel below the surface of the back spacer. I pierced two slots through to let the light out and back filled with clear epoxy. The vial is held in with Zap Goo




Best of luck!!

Chris

 

[applehusky]

Hey thanks for the reply!

I ended up doing something different, kinda like what you did. I don't have a drill press or mill or... really anything except for a dremel and a few bits. So as a first mod, I decided to do something a little more simple where it was harder to screw up. I cut little slots in the inner part of the handle pieces to fit a larger tritium vial running down the back of the knife sort of like a partial back spacer. Though I got a little carried away and made the slots too big. No matter though, because I was able to fit some heatshrink tubing on the ends of the vial to give it a little bit of cushion and also separation between it and the handle.

This is the finished product.

Imo, it looks pretty wicked. Though I'm gonna have to do a few more. and that first idea isn't out of the question. Luckily I think I might be able to find a few places that will let me use their tools. I know my work has a drill press. But we'll see what happens.