What's the best way to set the detent ball?

[BARRY JONES]

Let me know how you go about setting the detent ball into the liner of a linerlock.
I have tried a couple of different ways and am very frustrated.

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Barry
Jones Knives
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[Jim Smyth]

I now do this step after the knife is totally completed and opened and locked dozens of times. This gets the correct position when it wears in a little. I then put the liner lock side together with the blade , pivot pin and back spacer in place. I fold the blade into the handle as viewed from the side. I clamp the two pieces together with the blade hitting the backstop pin in the closed position. I use a spring center punch to mark where I will drill the hole on the liner split. Caution is urged so where you drill that hole, you have to think where that hole will end up when the blade is in the open position. I learned that one the hard way early on. I guess theres worse things than an exposed hole in the blade!

I then drill a #60 drill hole thru my liner at the punch mark into the blade. You could go all the way through the blade but it isn't necessary. I then remove the clamps and use a #53 drill to drill thru the liner. I clean the burrs off the holes on both sides of the liner and the ridge on the hole in the blade. You are now ready to set in your ball detent. I use 1/16th 440C balls bought thru MSC.I use teflon washers in the .020 thickness usually. I leave about .002 for compression of each washer. So if you liner is .060 and you have a .020 washer, you pound the detent ball into the liner till it mic's out at .078. Kit's son made me a depth gauge to do this out of a hardened dowl pin to do the setting of the ball automatically. Just pound it till the dowl pin hits the liner and it's set to the correct depth every time! Hope this helps.

 

[tom mayo]

that sounds like a winner......one thing he forgot to mention is that you have to use a carbide drill to make a hole in the hardened blade material...and yes...be very careful where you put the ball.....too low on the lock and it will drop off the blade at midswing, too high and it wont contact very quickly and the ti will rub a spot on the back of the blade.....where you put your stop bar is critical to this whole setup, and how long the back tang of the blade is behind the hole.....best thing to do is to take apart a good liner lock and look at the way all the geometry is interrelated....you want the ball to ride up onto the blade as quickly as possible, which means putting the detent in about the middle of the lock..close to the edge, and you want the hole to be behind the front of the knife handles.....and dont make the lock angle distance so short your washers hang over the edge or the liner will hit them and not work. basically, its like everything else in life....you learn by doing it wrong a hundred times first....at least thats my experience.....

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