1st attempt SAK modding, minimal tools

[user24]

Here goes!

The goal is to make a mini farmer in red alox. Tools used so far (for deconstruction). Not shown: a Spartan which I used the small blade of; you could use the farmer instead. And the orange pliers I ended up not using.



The donor was a my first vic plus. First step is getting the scales off which is well-documented elsewhere, but here's some pics:







Then I used the awl on soldier to drill a pilot hole in the rivet. It's quite important to get it as central as possible here. The brass is quite soft so you can do it by hand pretty easily, as we'll see. I used a spare piece of synthetic leather to rest the SAK on, otherwise the rivets on the other side make it wobble. You could use any material with some give.



Then I used a 4mm HSS drill bit. I really need a 2.5 or 3mm I think, but 4mm is all I had.



This kills the bushing:



Use a big file to get rid of the center pin:



Hmm, my big pliers are too big, what can I use?



Point of no return. Also it's a good idea to do it properly and record where each bit goes. Ah well, next time! Note that you have to work pretty hard to get the pins out once you've drilled them, they don't want to go.



Now the real work begins. Going very carefully on the red alox cadet:



I don't have a hand-drill, so I used my hands:





Making progress:



A while later:



But I think I need to buy those smaller bits before I continue. Amazon order in progress, will update you on the next step

A hundred thousand thankyous to MTO for containing so much brilliant info on modding, and to Neil for sending me lots of bits to practice on 

In the future, I could probably do with a punch, wrenching the pins out with pliers isn't much fun.

I have no idea how I'm going to peen the pins either. I'll practice before introducing the cadet to the hammer. Need to buy a peen hammer too.

Does anyone have a spare 84mm alox liner? Just noticed the alox ones are thinner and as I'll need two for the mini farmer I'd like them to match.

[crackout]

I'm not sure if drilling the pins out like this is a good idea. Once you're off center, it's really hard to remove the head of the pin because you always tend to slide back in the decentered hole and therefore damaging the scale at some point.

I found the plier-pull-method to be ineffective. I punched them out all the way. Works like a charm if your tool is thin enough to go through the liner holes.

[user24]

Once you're off center, it's really hard to remove the head of the pin because you always tend to slide back in the decentered hole and therefore damaging the scale at some point.

Yeah it's very tough to get centered. How would you do it instead? And yep, I'd use a punch if I had one

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Looks damn good to me so far mate

[Syph007]

Hey, congrats on diving in!  Once you get a custom built the way you like it and you did it yourself its incredibly satisfying! 

I'll confess I ruined about 5 alox saks when I was first learning to remove the pins.  My biggest mistake was uing a drill bit the same size as the pins, so I ended up making the scale hole too big afterwards.  A 2.5 mm bit on those 3mm end pins is about the best way to go.  Your manual method of slow and easy though is better than damaging them like I first did.   A drill press with center drills is what I use now and I can get those pins out in about a minute each, but a hand drill and caution should let you get the same result.

Cheers and keep up the modding!

[crackout]

I use a punch to center the drill bits. On cellidor models, I use 3 drills: 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5.
I haven't put hand on an Alox yet, but I'm getting ready for my first mod.
For removing the pins I bought this baby today:




However, I have no idea how to drill out the pivot holes of the springs and tools. These non helical spade drill bits aren't available here in Germany somehow. No idea why.
I got a Cobalt coated drill bit for stainless steel now, we'll see how this one does.

[user24]

And he's back in business!

I decided to put the modding on hiatus until I found a hand drill, and thanks to a recent car boot sale I'm now £1 poorer and a whole lot better equipped for SAK modding:

The red alox cadet yields -with an absolutely minimal tool set too!



I always thought that modding SAKs would require all kinds of tools, but the only tools I've actually needed so far are:

• Hand drill
• 2.5mm HSS drill bit (a bit too big for 84mms actually but I don't have a 2mm one yet)
• 1.5mm HSS bit
• 1/32" punch
• small pliers to pull the pins out, though you could get away without these.
• spare piece of material to avoid scratching the scales too much

I drilled from the back so that if I mucked up the scales it wouldn't be too much of an issue.

Here is the back scale with the pins reinserted. I thought it was going to be much worse than it is actually. That first hole I really went off-target with the powerdrill.



But I think this is acceptable. The holes are a little larger than they should be, but I'm hoping I can fix that when I peen the new pins (?).

I didn't record where all the bits went so expect a lot of "Um, where does this bit go?" posts in the future

[user24]

  yeah I think I've overdone the holes on the rear scale. Should have waited for a 2mm drill bit

[Syph007]

Hey its all a learning experience. I wont tell you how many colored alox scales I messed up learning... silver is more forgiving as you cant see the oops marks as easy. 

[Sparky415]

Nice work so far and very brave 

I have been known to make punches by cutting/ filing/ grinding the point off a small nail (hardened cable clip nails work    )

 

[user24]

Oh, I'd go with foolhardy and impatient over brave 

Should have started on the silver cadet or bantam I have... didn't realise the red cadets were getting harder to get hold of now!

Still, there's still a green one and a black/red one to play with yet