Victorinox 111mm Slide Lock mechanism

[stressmaster5000]

Does anyone have some good photos of this mechanism? The Slide lock that has the "pin" that locks? I was trying to help an Australian SAK person with a part here >>http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,47818.msg787612.html#msg787612

This is the best photo I could find online.

[enki_ck]

Give me a minute.

[stressmaster5000]

If you find something here on the forum I want to know your secret. I looked and searched several times to no avail here on MT.o 

[enki_ck]

Nope, I took one apart and snapped some pics.


Here you go.

[enki_ck]

If you find something here on the forum I want to know your secret. I looked and searched several times to no avail here on MT.o 

Usually when I search for pictures here i go to google, type my search string followed by site:.multitool.org so it searches only for images on MTO. I get better results that way.

[Syph007]

Great pics enki! 

I have been looking at the 111mm SAKs lately and wondering myself about the slide locks.

[stressmaster5000]

Great! Thanks for the photos. Now if there was only some Aussie member to help this poor fellow. 

[Syph007]

I bet you can just modify a regular scissors spring to work in place of that little button return spring.   

[enki_ck]

Without it the knife will function OK, it will just turn into a slipjoint and won't be locking anymore as the spring and the plastic thingy engage the lock.

[ColoSwiss]

If you find something here on the forum I want to know your secret. I looked and searched several times to no avail here on MT.o 

Usually when I search for pictures here i go to google, type my search string followed by site:.multitool.org so it searches only for images on MTO. I get better results that way.

Good info! Thanks. 

[Jothra]

I bet you can just modify a regular scissors spring to work in place of that little button return spring.   

You absolutely can. I've done this on two different knives.

[CanadianLMfan]

I really hate the slide lock. The slipjoint is fine as it is.

[Jothra]

In a hard-use setting, the slide lock is just a little extra piece of mind. Mind you, if they made an OH Outrider...

[hiljentaa]

I dig the slide lock.

Locks up securely. It's simple and unobtrusive.

Only thing I don't like is that the factory clipped scales are not compatible.

[Syph007]

In a hard-use setting, the slide lock is just a little extra piece of mind. Mind you, if they made an OH Outrider...

A OH outrider is xactly what I've been thinking of making but the costs foe donors to make one is why I haven't yet.

[J Mackrel Jones]

Is it that slim piece of metal, mounted in the plastic slider, that locks the blade against closing?
If so, I can see why "Victorinox’s own tests show the liner-lock to be stronger than their locking bolt, which is why they went to the liner-lock on the Rescue Tool."  (SAKOM)

[RoboYeti]

SAKWiki has this info on the strength of the slide lock:

During testing of an material sample the stress strain curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between stress,derived from measuring the load applied on the sample and strain derived from measuring the deformation of the sample i.e. elongation, compression, or distortion. Steel generally exhibits a very linear stress-strain relationship up to a well defined yield point. The linear portion of the curve is in the elastic region and the slope is the modulus of elasticity or Young`s modulus. A torque in physics, also called moment, is a vector that measures the tendency of a force to rotate an object about some axis(center). The magnitude of a torque is defined as the product of a force and the length of the lever arm(radius) M=FxI. To stay in the elastic region a torque of maximum 10,8Nm should not be exceeded.

However we found them to be insufficiently robust and sturdy for the fire brigades, the rescue services the police and army forces. For this reason we developed a knife (0,83-0,84) of the same shape and size but much stronger, with thicker rivets and blades, Liner-lock for the blade and powerful screwdriver. In this range you will find the Victorinox lock blade for one hand opening.

So, the question is, is 10,8Nm a lot of force? I have no idea how to interpret this number. Sure sounds like Vic put a lot of thought into the design though.

[Jothra]

I tend to treat it as a slipjoint, but every once in awhile I notice that the lock probably just saved me about $18 in Band-Aids.

[Cupboard]

on Earth, 1 Newton is about 100g, so 10Nm is approximately the torque that would result from a 1kg weight at the end of a 1m wrench, or 2kg at 50cm, 10kg at 10cm etc.

If the blade is 10cm long that means you can put a steady weight of 10kg on the end.

You'd torque your car's wheel nuts up to somewhere around 100Nm, tractor wheel nuts up to 4-500Nm, a decent 1/2" impact wrench will (pulsed) do 650Nm, electrical connections are often specified in the range 0.5-5Nm...

[Jothra]

on Earth, 1 Newton is about 100g, so 10Nm is approximately the torque that would result from a 1kg weight at the end of a 1m wrench, or 2kg at 50cm, 10kg at 10cm etc.

If the blade is 10cm long that means you can put a steady weight of 10kg on the end.

You'd torque your car's wheel nuts up to somewhere around 100Nm, tractor wheel nuts up to 4-500Nm, a decent 1/2" impact wrench will (pulsed) do 650Nm, electrical connections are often specified in the range 0.5-5Nm...

Further to this, it may be worth noting that even I would be hard-pressed to put that much force on the back of the blade, and I do phenomenally stupid things to my pocket tools.

[enki_ck]

Is it that slim piece of metal, mounted in the plastic slider, that locks the blade against closing?
If so, I can see why "Victorinox’s own tests show the liner-lock to be stronger than their locking bolt, which is why they went to the liner-lock on the Rescue Tool."  (SAKOM)

The liner lock, if done properly is one of the safest locking systems. I wouldn't dismiss the slim piece of metal in the slide lock though. It's about 0,9mm thin but wedges itself inside the strong thick backspring and thick liner keeps it in place.

[Huntsman]

Was wondering about the insides of this mechanism - So had a dig around and found this
..... Of course MT.o always has the information you are looking for.

It's a lot simpler than I thought - And for some reason I thought the mechanism and spring was more 'inside' the liners

Great pics enki - Although I think there is one missing: .....
Showing the blade in the open position, and the slot that the wee nub slides into - although you can just see the top of the slot in the first two piccies ........ So I took this one! 

As enki points out above - The slot is in the spring
- So when the blade is opened, the nub slides forward, under pressure from the tiny spring, into the slot in the blade spring - locking it in the fully open position - So the blade cannot move
And again I mistakenly thought that the locking nub slid under the blade itself

[Huntsman]

One other interesting observation

The blade spring was redesigned at sometime between about 2006 and 2016
I have an old Rucksack that I bought round about 2006 (in Switzerland - yay!)
In this model, with the blade open, if you look inside the knife and move the button, you can see the wee nub sliding back and forward - Well you can see it when it is back ! When it is forward it is hidden in the spring slot

However nothing is visible in a later Skipper that I have from about 2016
- They have extended the spring slot backwards - So that the nub is completely enclosed and not visible !
I guess that helps stop gunk etc getting in there and interfering with the mechanism.

I find all these 'invisible' improvements that Victorinox make absolutely fascinating - True Kaizen !!!   
Not that this feature matters any more, as we are now fully liner-locking on all 111mm models   

[Huntsman]

BUMP - Coz it's interesting - Well at least I think so

[Simon_Templar]

It is! Thanks for the bump, Huntsman, looks as if I had missed this post the first time around.

Interesting information on the max torque the slide lock can take before breaking. I was often wondering about that. I prefer the slide lock myself, it's easier to handle and slide lock models are slimmer/lighter than their liner lock counterparts. Not worth to trade that for some additional robustness and a locking can opener imho.

Cheers,

Simon

[Huntsman]

Yeah - Thanks Simon - Great info from Enki - Like I said MT.o always has the answer!!   

The info and pics made it into the updated Wiki page on locking mechanisms
https://sakwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Locking+Systems

And I think most of the pics are in the associated image gallery