Making a Yeoman - questions

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I'm planning on making a Yeoman out of an Explorer and a Compact, but I'm not sure I'm loving the combo-tool. After looking at how thin it is, I'm not sure it would fit my needs since I use the cap lifter as a prybar often. I was wondering if you could put the cap lifter on the blade layer instead of the combo tool, looks like you can just remove the spacer.

[Syph007]

Ive been thinking about this myself, I haven't tried to fit one yet though.  I think thinning down the spacer or the tool itself by a tiny amount should work. The only problem is the nail nick will be on the wrong side and be buried behind the big blade when closed so you'd have to open the big blade to get to it.  Its a much better prying tool than the combo tool though so the tradeoff might be worth it.

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Ive been thinking about this myself, I haven't tried to fit one yet though.  I think thinning down the spacer or the tool itself by a tiny amount should work. The only problem is the nail nick will be on the wrong side and be buried behind the big blade when closed so you'd have to open the big blade to get to it.  Its a much better prying tool than the combo tool though so the tradeoff might be worth it.

That's what I was thinking, although the thickness between the opener and blade layer don't seem to be too significant. I tried to see if you could switch the positions of the blade and the opener for easy access, but that would mean bending the blade the other way -- I don't think I wanna do that 

[Syph007]

Ive been thinking about this myself, I haven't tried to fit one yet though.  I think thinning down the spacer or the tool itself by a tiny amount should work. The only problem is the nail nick will be on the wrong side and be buried behind the big blade when closed so you'd have to open the big blade to get to it.  Its a much better prying tool than the combo tool though so the tradeoff might be worth it.

That's what I was thinking, although the thickness between the opener and blade layer don't seem to be too significant. I tried to see if you could switch the positions of the blade and the opener for easy access, but that would mean bending the blade the other way -- I don't think I wanna do that 

Oh right, that would actually make sense to do though.  The nail nick would be on the right side and the blade would be straight.  Well shoot now you got me really liking that idea... hmmm I really like the idea.  The cap lifter beats the pants off the combo tool too.

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Wow I just realized that the blade would be straight if you did that... Now I can't to get my parts!! How would you do that though? I've read your alox thread on bending the small blade, would that transfer over?

[tattoosteve99]

Just a thought here. If you had a flat grinder, or something like that. You could use 2 back springs and make a spacer for each side. Then there would be no bending required. A lot of work but it may work.

[clickstop]

Just a thought here. If you had a flat grinder, or something like that. You could use 2 back springs and make a spacer for each side. Then there would be no bending required. A lot of work but it may work.

I'm afraid you lost me at two backsprings  Sorry, never done 91mm mods before. Did you mean adding an extra liner to make the backspring thicker?

[tattoosteve99]

No use 2 backsprings of the same type. Then measure the tool clearance needed to work. Then you sand down both springs equally until you have the right thickness. Add spacers on each tool to push them in right direction. This takes more time but should be a lot easier IMO than trying to bend a hardened piece of steel.

[Syph007]

The SAK blades bend way easier than I first thought.  I havent unbent a big one, but I think it should work... watch me break one now...     Ive bent all the small blades and a combo tool so far. 

[crackout]

Nice idea.
However, if you put the large blade on the other side, you make accessing the siccors more difficult.

[Syph007]

No I meant the blade says where it is, but get straightened and the caplifter will be on the other side of the blade than normal.  Scissors in the same position. That should let it all be accessible. 

[crackout]

Ah okay. The caplifter won't covet the blade's nick then?

[Syph007]

Ah okay. The caplifter won't covet the blade's nick then?

I dont think so, but this is just a mental excercise at the moment.  I'll give it a try tonight and see if it actually works.  I have a pile of caplifters so making them into combo type tools would be a great use for them.

[Syph007]

I had a few minutes before work to test.  It does indeed work just fine.  The standard spacer wont fit of course, so it would need to be thinned to fit, and I think I would nip a tiny bit off the shoulder of the cap lifter as it just touches the blade. 

I had no issue unbending the blade, two mallot blows and it fit perfect against the scale.

Both nail nicks are perfectly accessible, which of course makes sense now that I think about it, thats how those tools are oriented in the default layout, just not in the same layer.

[crackout]

Nice job!
Got me thinking, if I should try that with my Pioneer.

What spacer did you use?

[Syph007]

Nice job!
Got me thinking, if I should try that with my Pioneer.

What spacer did you use?

There's no spacer in there right now, it was just a test fit up so the opener is loose. 

[crackout]

I see. But there should be one right?
The blade is thicker than the caplifter I think.

Anyways, I can't wait for an assembled shot.

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Wow that looks exactly like what I was thinking! How easy was it to do? I want to try bending the blade I have right now, but I really don't want to risk breaking it. Any tutorials on this?

[Syph007]

Wow that looks exactly like what I was thinking! How easy was it to do? I want to try bending the blade I have right now, but I really don't want to risk breaking it. Any tutorials on this?

I molded kydex over the jaws of my bench vice so it doesn't damage blades, but you can use wood or anything really, just clamp it good and solid in the vice. 

Clamp the pivot end so the blade will be pointing up.  The top of the vice jaws should be at the point where you want the blade to bend.  Examine the blade and hold it flush against the scale you want it to mate up with and you will see where it should bend. 

Once you have it clamped, deliver a light to medium sharp blow with something that wont damage the blade.  I use a heavy rubber mallet but you can likely do the same with a regular hammer, just hold a scrap of wood on the blade and hit the wood.   

I just keep repeating that process of bending, checking against the scale for flatness, and adjusting where i want the bend to be.  It's worked for all the types of blades and tools Ive needed to tweak so far.  As long as you aren't bending it back and forth a bunch its not going to negatively effect the blades integrity.

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Thanks! Luckily I have most of those materials so I'll give it a shot tonight. I'll try to post pics afterwards.

[crackout]

This way one could create a sturdy Alox Compact. Yummy!

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Ran into my first problem. For the 91mm SAKs, there's a bit of material that needs to be removed from the spring. If you compare the two, the opener layer has some material removed to make room for the "hook" (for lack of a better term) on the cap lifter. Nothing some grinding and filing can't fix, but this'll take more time than I thought.

[Syph007]

Ran into my first problem. For the 91mm SAKs, there's a bit of material that needs to be removed from the spring. If you compare the two, the opener layer has some material removed to make room for the "hook" (for lack of a better term) on the cap lifter. Nothing some grinding and filing can't fix, but this'll take more time than I thought.

Oops you are right I forgot all about that.  I had the same issue on the 93.  I just put the springs together and marked them and took it to the sander to remove the extra metal.

[clickstop]

Ran into my first problem. For the 91mm SAKs, there's a bit of material that needs to be removed from the spring. If you compare the two, the opener layer has some material removed to make room for the "hook" (for lack of a better term) on the cap lifter. Nothing some grinding and filing can't fix, but this'll take more time than I thought.

Oops you are right I forgot all about that.  I had the same issue on the 93.  I just put the springs together and marked them and took it to the sander to remove the extra metal.

Alright. I'll try to get access to a belt sander, it would take forever with a dremel. I'm trying to make a list of things for this mod so far:

Straighten the blade
Make the washer thinner
Sand the spring

This should be all the steps right? I don't want to bite off more than I can chew and end up with a bunch of unused parts   

[Syph007]

Yep that should be it.  You can use whatever method you want to remove metal.  Sand, grind, file... 

[Syph007]

Oh, one other tip for a good way to thin a small part like those spacers.  Find a smooth piece of ceramic tile, so you have a waterproof super perfectly flat surface.  Wet it, and wet some sandpaper and just lay it on the tile.  The water will kind of adhere it there. 

Then put the small part on and just put a finger (rubber glove helps for grip) and rub it back and forth.  Kind of a simple small scale manual surface grinder.  It's slow but Ive used this method to take a few thousands of an inch off parts before to get the fit up perfect.  I sand washers I make this way too to make the surface perfectly smooth.

[clickstop]

Thanks for the advice on the spacer, I'll try to work on that soon. More problems have come up with the blade, though.

It turns out that the blade on the 91mm SAKs are different from the 93mm blades. If you have one on hand you'll see that it's really hard to bend because of this:



Sorry I don't have pics at hand, but I hope you get my point. I gave it a few hits with my mallet, but it doesnt seem to have any effect so far. I'll try again today, so we'll see.

[nj2656]

You know you guys make it very hard for someone to pick the "perfect EDC" when you keep changing the "rules".

[Syph007]

Thanks for the advice on the spacer, I'll try to work on that soon. More problems have come up with the blade, though.

It turns out that the blade on the 91mm SAKs are different from the 93mm blades. If you have one on hand you'll see that it's really hard to bend because of this:

(Image removed from quote.)

Sorry I don't have pics at hand, but I hope you get my point. I gave it a few hits with my mallet, but it doesnt seem to have any effect so far. I'll try again today, so we'll see.

I do have some 91s, but to me they looked the same.  I'll have to have a closer inspection and report back.

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Success! I've managed to get the blade to the point where it doesn't rub against the combo tool. It's not exactly straight, but I won't push my luck (just getting to this point took some very hard mallet blows) I'm going to have pause right now though, waiting for some pinstock to come in.