I butchered two perfectly good Leathermans today...

[RimfireNZ]

So I place the blame on this squarely on Breezy12's shoulders I was quite happy with them as separate tools... but then Breezy was showing off his ReCharge and I bought an S30V blade from him... so I figured, since I'm going to upgrade the blade I may as well upgrade the whole thing.

My Rebar was probably my favorite user Leatherman... and my Wave is the one I turn to when I need something just a tad tougher. So I decided to take the AWL and plier head from the Rebar and put it on the Wave.

My girlfriends father was an engineer before he had to take over the farm, so I decided to get his opinion on what to do about the proprietary Leatherman screws. He has some crazy industrial engineering machinery on the farm, and one piece of which is a massive 2-2.5m lathe. He showed me how to set it up and we made some purpose built sockets for the Rebar.

After a blast with the heat gun to heat the loctite, I took the plier head out.





So I learned that the scissors can't stay, which was convenient since I had no intention of keeping them. After swapping out the awl I note the Wavebar? Rewave? I dunno... anyway, I noted the tool won't close properly. I'm going to have to grind the awl down.



But here we go. I have added electrical crimpers, better pliers, better wire cutters and an awl to the Wave!

[RimfireNZ]

I'm having a problem deploying the main blade however. The little pin that sticks up to stop the main blade from opening when the pliers is opening is getting in the way. Serrated blade is fine, but this one isn't. Hmm. I can't see how to fix it...

Has anyone had that issue before?

[Breezy12]

excellent work! and I'm more than happy to take the blame for this one.

did I not mention that the awl needs to be ground down a bit to allow full closure of the tool? if I forgot to tell you that, I apologize. Luckily for you, the awl doesn't require nearly as much grinding as the scissors to allow full closure.

those custom sockets for the knurled screws look awesome.

[Breezy12]

I'm having a problem deploying the main blade however. The little pin that sticks up to stop the main blade from opening when the pliers is opening is getting in the way. Serrated blade is fine, but this one isn't. Hmm. I can't see how to fix it...

Has anyone had that issue before?

actually, I seem to run into this problem on about half of the mods that I do. sometimes it's the serrated blade, sometimes it's the PE blade, but I've never had the problem with both blades at the same time.

anyway, I usually solve the issue by using a Dremel to carefully grind down the locking pin with the blade partially deployed. that way, the locking pin still retains its functionality, but the blade can be deployed normally.

if I were you, I'd wait until the new S30V blade is installed before doing any grinding. it may have a slightly different fit than the current 420HC blade.

[RimfireNZ]

excellent work! and I'm more than happy to take the blame for this one.

did I not mention that the awl needs to be ground down a bit to allow full closure of the tool? if I forgot to tell you that, I apologize. Luckily for you, the awl doesn't require nearly as much grinding as the scissors to allow full closure.

those custom sockets for the knurled screws look awesome.

I'm just eyeballing the awl now trying to figure where I need to grind. Might be a bit of trial and error.

I don't have a dremel but I just got a nice old bench grinder from my old man I'll get a chance to use it doing that.

[zoidberg]

There is something you could do that will fix both issues without the need to grind...

Sent from the land of the long white cloud.

[RimfireNZ]

There is something you could do that will fix both issues without the need to grind...

Sent from the land of the long white cloud.

Do share

[zoidberg]

Of course, just have to sort out the whanau, wont be long.

Sent from the land of the long white cloud.

[zoidberg]

Remove these funny looking things.....



Grab them with pliers and pull like you're skinning a rabbit.
Done right it will pop the rivet in such a way it can be used again to hold the spring needed for the locking tab.
The knife will be free and the awl will sit clear.
Also, if you wanted, you can now ditch the opener and small bit driver for the Rebar Phillips.
The small bit driver bit itself can be used where the removable pocket clip goes, see here thanks to Kampfer.

Those custom sockets are sick as bro.

[RimfireNZ]

Remove these funny looking things.....



Grab them with pliers and pull like you're skinning a rabbit.
Done right it will pop the rivet in such a way it can be used again to hold the spring needed for the locking tab.
The knife will be free and the awl will sit clear.
Also, if you wanted, you can now ditch the opener and small bit driver for the Rebar Phillips.
The small bit driver bit itself can be used where the removable pocket clip goes, see here thanks to Kampfer.

Those custom sockets are sick as bro.

Hmm ok. I'm a bit nervous about pulling those out as they're on the same rivet that is used to hold the springs for the locks right? I definitely don't want to bugger those. It'd be nice to not have to grind anything though.

I'm wondering, if I ditch the can opener, move the flat driver there, put the phillips driver along side the awl and ditch the small driver.

[sawman]

Dayum, you make that look easy. That's just behatching.

Now I want to hear more about those cool custom sockets. 

[RimfireNZ]

Dayum, you make that look easy. That's just behatching.

Now I want to hear more about those cool custom sockets. 

This is another classic case of being able to do awesome things if you have the right tools. Sadly I can't afford an engineering Lathe like this (like $50k nowadays) but I was allowed to have a play on it

Alright well what we did was first measure the screws. The Rebar uses 2 different sizes (7mm and 6.5mm) so we had to make two sets. We grabbed a bit of steel bar and drilled out the right size holes on the lathe (slightly smaller of course so there was something to press out spaces for the knurled bits).

After failing to press them on in the vice we went back and had to shave the walls down to make it easier. Then took a little edge off the inside so it was easy to get them in position.

The vice wasn't doing the trick. It got them on there but wouldn't push them properly, so I gave them a whack with a hammer on the anvil and they popped right on.

The rear ones you'll notice we had to round the edges down a bit more because the Rebar has hard to get to bottom screws.

Then since they obviously don't have like, a quarter inch drive setup, I had to put the rebar back in the vice with the sockets being pushed in, then unscrew the sockets with a set of pliers on each one.



Sorry if that made no sense. I've been into the whiskey... 

[zoidberg]

Hmm ok. I'm a bit nervous about pulling those out as they're on the same rivet that is used to hold the springs for the locks right? I definitely don't want to bugger those. It'd be nice to not have to grind anything though.

I'm wondering, if I ditch the can opener, move the flat driver there, put the phillips driver along side the awl and ditch the small driver.

You'll be right. Pop it up and peen it down. I've done quite a few now without smurfing them.

The rest sounds pretty good to me.

Just found this while looking for something else. Awl grindage pic if needed.

Once you've finished, head over to The Hacked Leatherman Owners Club and show us some more pics.

Looking forward to seeing what you do.

[trouthunter]

Dayum, you make that look easy. That's just behatching.

Now I want to hear more about those cool custom sockets. 

This is another classic case of being able to do awesome things if you have the right tools. Sadly I can't afford an engineering Lathe like this (like $50k nowadays) but I was allowed to have a play on it

Alright well what we did was first measure the screws. The Rebar uses 2 different sizes (7mm and 6.5mm) so we had to make two sets. We grabbed a bit of steel bar and drilled out the right size holes on the lathe (slightly smaller of course so there was something to press out spaces for the knurled bits).

After failing to press them on in the vice we went back and had to shave the walls down to make it easier. Then took a little edge off the inside so it was easy to get them in position.

The vice wasn't doing the trick. It got them on there but wouldn't push them properly, so I gave them a whack with a hammer on the anvil and they popped right on.

The rear ones you'll notice we had to round the edges down a bit more because the Rebar has hard to get to bottom screws.

Then since they obviously don't have like, a quarter inch drive setup, I had to put the rebar back in the vice with the sockets being pushed in, then unscrew the sockets with a set of pliers on each one.

(Image removed from quote.)

Sorry if that made no sense. I've been into the whiskey... 

I do like to people make their own tools or modify one to work for a purpose.    My brother and I have modified a a couple screwdrivers recently to work on the breaks on the minivan.  Made the job so much easier.