Kampfer's Mini Surge (By Breezy12)

[zoidberg]

Of course, but seen like such a weaste to use a nice knife for such task.
So if the can opener can cut boxes, that is win for me.

Wingmans box opener can not open cans...

I see it as a tool getting a job done, not a waste of a nice blade.
The opener works for you and thats great. I can see the reasoning.
Out of curiosity, when did you last need to open a can with your multitool?

[Kampfer]

Often actually , summer time we eat those Asian grass jelly in cans often, but of course I could use the opener in kitchen for that. It is more fun to use a MT.

[Kampfer]

When I go out for battle reenactment, I could really use a MT to open cans, but I can not use such device because that is farb.

[zoidberg]

So never then?   

[Kampfer]

 

[Kampfer]

Everything your combo opener does I can do with a knife so I don't mind removing it.

I am considering what you suggest, what should I replace it with?

[babola]

Everything your combo opener does I can do with a knife so I don't mind removing it.

I am considering what you suggest, what should I replace it with?

Dude - you don't touch and fiddle with that Mini-Surge of yours - OK?!

LOL! 

No really, leave it alone, it's great as is. 

[zoidberg]

Don't take advice from me. 

[Breezy12]

Don't take advice from me. 

this is good advice.

oh wait...

[Kampfer]

LOL

[Kampfer]

Earlier today I was in Yahoo HQ in Sunnyvale for a sales/engineering meeting with the fire chief and a bunch yahoo big shots in suits.
At the end of the meeting we have to split a big set of engineering drawings into two smaller sets, but it was binded together by heavy duty staples.
The secretary had a hard time pulling it apart because the standard office staple remover failed miserably...

Then there was a flash, a shiny thing flew out under my suit, its powerful jaws chew up and pull out all the nasty little metal worms within a few seconds...
That is a wow factor right there! 

Walked away from the meeting with a signed contract in my hand, big smile on my face and Mini-Surge in my pocket. 

[mrmustard]

Mini Surge the hero with his sidekick Kampfer . Good going buddy!! I think most of us wish for more of those moments when our MT's get that shining moment or when we pull a MacGyver!! 

[Kampfer]

I think most of us wish for more of those moments when our MT's get that shining moment or when we pull a MacGyver!! 

Truly.

[zoidberg]

How very cool!     

[sawman]

You sly dog you! I need a proper sheath for my Wave so I can carry it again.

[masterjuggler]

I love your mini-surge. I've been making my own, and have basically been doing the same things you're doing. I have a few questions though. It's only been a little over a month since the last post, so I think I should be fine in terms of necro.

1) How did you make all the tools open smoothly? I tightened the screws just enough to keep the outside-opening tools centered in their slots, so they don't scrape the sides. This makes it really tight though, like getting out the blade out with my thumb is actually painful. Any looser and it will scrape the side. I'm keeping the screws together with purple loctite, so I can make adjustments easily. I'm also using tri-flow in everything because that stuff is fantastic.

2) Some modifications I had to do to get the rebar pliers to work in the wave body properly were to grind down the blade lock that engages when the pliers are open so the blade doesn't scrape it when opening, and I had to sand the faces of the pliers a little to get them to close without grinding on the inside surface of the handles. Did you also have to do these things? I don't think you mentioned anything about this, so I'm making sure it's not just me.

3) Did you only have to grind the pivot hole for the back piece of the wingman scissors, or also for the spring piece? The reason I ask is after taking it apart, I noticed the spring hole is actually larger than the wingman pivot, so it has some play to lock into place. I haven't put the scissors in my wave yet.

Also a suggestion, if you grind a little ramp on the edge of all the outside opening tools for the nubs on the tool locks (the nubs that keep the tools in place when in the closed position), they will open and close a lot smoother. I've been doing this on every knife I've had with this kind of lock. I can take a picture later if you don't get what I mean.

[Breezy12]

first of all, welcome to the forum! and don't worry about the necro... a month is nothing.

I did the original mod work for Kampfer's Mini Surge, so let me see if I can answer your questions...

1) this is interesting... how much are you adjusting the screws? I have found that even very small adjustments (i.e., less than 1/4 turn) can have a big impact on the tool. I just checked a few of mine, and while I wouldn't say the blades are perfectly centered, they're definitely not scraping the sides either. (I checked both modded and stock tools.) Are all the brass washers in the correct places? You made a good move by using loctite, too. I use the blue loctite, but to each their own.

2) the overextended pin on the blade safety lock is a common problem. I've run into it many times on different mods, and I know others around here have as well. Grinding the pin down is the quickest/easiest solution I've found. (Although I can't remember for sure if I had to grind the pins on this particular mod.) I've never had to mess with the pliers though... are they scraping on the inside of the handle, or on the internal tools? I recently did a variation of the Mini Surge and ran into a problem with the pliers scraping against the can opener.

3) I only enlarged the pivot hole on the main piece of the Wingman scissors. The spring piece already has a big enough pivot hole, so I didn't see a point in messing with it. I've put Wingman scissors into a few different Wave/Charge mods now, and haven't had any problems with the functionality of the spring.

I know what you're talking about with the nubs on the tool locks... but I actually like to have a little bit of resistance when opening the blades on my MTs. on the other hand, I like my folders to open quickly and smoothly, so maybe I'm just a bit odd in that regard.

Hope this helps... if you have any other questions, by all means, feel free to post here, or poke around in the Mod Squad forum, or start a new thread... we've got plenty of talented modders around here who are more than willing to help!

[Kampfer]

Halloween night I have to use scissors to touch up my boys costume the last minute, (Mini-Surge) wingman's scissors left so much to be desire, at the end I have go out to the car get a Victorinox Craftsman to finish what Mini-Surge started.

[Breezy12]

Halloween night I have to use scissors to touch up my boys costume the last minute, (Mini-Surge) wingman's scissors left so much to be desire, at the end I have go out to the car get a Victorinox Craftsman to finish what Mini-Surge started.

sorry to hear that, Kampfer. I have to agree that they're not the best general-purpose scissors.

[masterjuggler]

Thanks for the welcome!

I somehow managed to fix the issue of the tools being too tight, but the way I fixed it s going to sound pretty strange. All I did was I backed out the screw almost all the way and re-tightened it until the tools were no longer tight. I started to experiment with this and found that sometimes tightening it made the tools tight, sometimes it did not. Well, whatever.

After getting it so the tools weren't tight, I used a small c-clamp to hold the tools to the wave handle so I could back out the screw to loctite it without them getting all tight again. Blue loctite is actually the one I don't have; I have the red and purple.

The plier faces were scraping against the inside sides of the handle, not on the tools (well, on the tools too, but that's supposed to happen). All I did was I took the pliers to my belt sander to thin it by a few thou. I left a little bit of friction between the pliers and the handle sides in order to keep the handles closed.

I didn't have to grind the can opener at all. The pliers don't touch it whether the bit driver is deployed or not. In fact, it doesn't matter which inside tools I have deployed, the pliers don't get caught up on anything. Not sure what happened with yours, that is strange.

I quickly enlarged the pivot hole on the scissors and it works just fine without modifying the spring, thanks. That was a lot easier than I thought. Took a whole 10min to move the saw to the file spot, grind the scissors, and put it back together.

I do have one more question though. When putting the wave scissors in the rebar, exactly what order did the tools end up in? Right now I have it as knife>both washers>small flathead>lanyard ring>large flathead>scissors>file. The problem with this is it is very hard to catch the thin nail nick on the scissors with the file right next to it.

Anyway, yeah, these scissors aren't the greatest, but they're still loads better than those stupid wave scissors where you need to press your thumb on the blade just to open them. I plan on making a new knife and scissors for my wave out of 1084 eventually. The stock 420hc knife just isn't doing it for me. Also, Evil510's scissors look fantastic, I think I'll make something similar to those. If I ever get around to doing this, I'll start a new thread.

[Breezy12]

glad I could help!

that's really interesting with the screws. oh well, at least you got it fixed.

I'm sure there's some slight variation in the thickness of the plier heads... sounds like you got a thicker one. I seem to encounter slightly different issues anytime I do one of these mods.

glad you got the scissors sorted out. I honestly don't remember what order I put the tools back in the Rebar handle; Kampfer might be able to tell you. Next to the file sounds right though.

if you want to put an S30V blade in your Wave, Texas Tool Crafters has some for sale on ebay right now for $24 each -- not too shabby. And definitely keep us posted if you decide to create some custom scissors!

[masterjuggler]

if you want to put an S30V blade in your Wave, Texas Tool Crafters has some for sale on ebay right now for $24 each -- not too shabby. And definitely keep us posted if you decide to create some custom scissors!

Well, crap. I guess there goes some more of my money, haha. I'll have to decide between the S30V, 154CM, or making my own 1084 blade. I really want to make it myself, heat treat and all, but those blades are just THERE on ebay. How did I not know about these replacement blades?

Kampfer, if you could check on the order of the tools in your rebar, I'd really appreciate it.

And thanks for the help, Breezy.

[babola]

MJ, this order worked well for many:


As for the other notes, I definitely share some of your thoughts, observations and issues you encountered along the way.

For the pivot screws being too tight - I have come across the same, and funnily enough just like you I ended up removing the pivot screws and studs and re tighten them, slowly and carefully, observing very carefully along the way. What I found was that sometimes both OHO blades get "stuck" on the pivot stud (nut shaft part) and they get over tightened even by a smallest force applied. After adding some 3-in-one along the shaft it all worked well, the OHO blades are smooth and soft on opening/closing yet they don't catch on the inside of the scales.

The Wingman scissors are while not the greatest, very nice and will do the job well. You can also add your own touch to them like polishing or adding brushed finish. The default tumbled finish they come out from the factory cheapens the whole look and feel, to me anyway. I like tumbled/stonewashed look but not on everything.

As for the insides of the handles catching and rubbing against pliers on closing, yeah...that has been a pet peeve of mine for some time now. I try to steer away from re-brushing or grinding the pliers head surface to make it that much 'thinner' to fit without rubbing, though. I focus on the insides of the handles instead. If you look closely, the reason the pliers head catches on some Waves and Charges is that the OHO blade stop/retainer piece isn't always cut and bent perfectly flat. You need to sand off and polish sometimes internal part to make it 'thinner' and more flat to it doesn't stick out on the inside of the handles. Hope this makes sense and helps.

Also I found modding a Charge a doddle, it is I believe much easier as the Ti scales are perfectly flat with tighter tolerances and there's less chance your blades would grind against them or hit them on closing. I am about to do my first super-Wave mod but that will have to take a back seat for now.


   

[babola]

if you want to put an S30V blade in your Wave, Texas Tool Crafters has some for sale on ebay right now for $24 each -- not too shabby. And definitely keep us posted if you decide to create some custom scissors!

Thanks for the heads-up brother, I am not going to miss out on that one again.

Ordered! 

[Breezy12]

if you want to put an S30V blade in your Wave, Texas Tool Crafters has some for sale on ebay right now for $24 each -- not too shabby. And definitely keep us posted if you decide to create some custom scissors!

Well, crap. I guess there goes some more of my money, haha. I'll have to decide between the S30V, 154CM, or making my own 1084 blade. I really want to make it myself, heat treat and all, but those blades are just THERE on ebay. How did I not know about these replacement blades?

Kampfer, if you could check on the order of the tools in your rebar, I'd really appreciate it.

And thanks for the help, Breezy.

you're very welcome! glad I could help.

the S30V has great edge retention, but I'm actually thinking of grabbing a couple of the 154CM blades... 154CM is a joy to sharpen.

Thanks for the heads-up brother, I am not going to miss out on that one again.

Ordered! 

no problem!

[masterjuggler]

I just wish I knew how leatherman heat treats their blades. I've heard of problems with their blades chipping/snapping. God himself can hand you the perfect piece of steel, but if it's poorly heat treated, it will perform like a sharpened piece of poo. This is the deciding factor in whether I make my own blade or buy theirs. I am leaning more toward making it out of 1084 right now. If I decide to make it I'll make a thread showing my process. I first need to put handle scales on a full tang knife I'm almost done with though.

Have you had any other S30V blades to compare it to? I'm totally not trying to sound like a know-it-all or anything, I just know from experience not to trust a knife based solely on what kind of steel it is.

[dan.mandiel]

wow, one of the best mods in a while, i want to do the plier mod to my charge tti, i didnt quite understand what happens with the lock grinding and these things, could you please explain to me what happens there and what can i do to prevent it?

[Kampfer]

On one hand I like to keep a;; parts in Mini-Surge Leatherman, but the performance of Vix scissors are superior.

[masterjuggler]

Could the vic scissors go into the mini surge?

[Kampfer]

Could the vic scissors go into the mini surge?

Others here done something similar
, I am looking into it