Four-way Victorinox mod swap

[Little Tinker]

Many thanks to all those who have explained their mod techniques and experiences.  Thanks largely to those I'm embarking on a set of my own mods to get a set of tools into one knife that I think I want to carry.  This has meant starting with a selection that each has a part of the end-goal.

• First pic shows CyberTool Lite, Mountaineer Lite, Compact and Hiker - with scale tools removed and catalogued.  Minorly interesting point is that recently purchased Moutaineer Lite has a round, unlabelled mini-screwdriver in its corkscrew.
• Second shows Compact, Hiker and CyberTool with scales removed, plus the large knife that I found handy for flicking thme off due to its robustness and the small screwdriver that worked well in the tweezer / toothpick slot to start lifting the scale from the body. The water droplets are from soaking the knives in 50-Celcius water for ten minutes to try and soften the scales.  The little round of Cellidor near left-hand set makes me wonder if this worked 

[Little Tinker]

First strip down on Compact was quite difficult due to not really knowing how deep to drill.  I was using a 2.5mm HSS bit in my usual household drill, but mounted in a simple drill press converter that suits it's 43mm neck.  To help keep the knife sitting flat I took a flat piece of wood and drilled four holes for the lower face bushes to sit in.  That made the whole thing much more stable.

I thought I'd centre punched the pins quite deep, but the drill bit kept skating around.  After a frustrating effort to drill them cleanly I just made do with what I had .  I was able to get the bushes (which were slightly damaged by wandering drill) off. Main subsequent problem was that the rough finish of the pin was difficult to drag through the scales.  I should probably have stopped and filed it back within the nominal diameter.  All quite dispiriting and I did wonder if I has embarked on a task that was going to be rather harder than anticipated  .

Second attempt with Hiker went rather better.  Largely I think because I switched to using a different bit of 2.2mm diameter.  This seemed to centre a lot more easily, presumably the flutes come to a better point (haven't looked closely).  I then drilled the outer pins with 2.5mm follow up.  Taps with punch then got things moving.

Emboldened by progress I tackled the CyberTool, which I would have left intact (and abandoned project) if Hiker went badly.  It was even easier.  I just used the 2.3mm, then a healthy whack with punch popped off a little circle of brass that was the remainder of the "flare" on the peining.  Bushes then simply lifted off.

I found driving the pins through the layers quite difficult.  Technique that seemed to work in the end was to drive as far as possible with punch, then pull through with pincers.  Even this failed for one pin, so I took things off one layer at a time.  Maybe that is the best way to do them all...

[Little Tinker]

Stripped down Compact

[Little Tinker]

Stripped down Hiker

[Little Tinker]

Stripped down CyberTool Lite.

While doing this I found a pin that hadn't been peined down at manufacture.  So it slid out rather easily  .

[T14]

Thank you for the detailed descriptions. I shall be following your progress with unsuppressed glee 
-Tom

[Sparky415]

Thank you for the detailed descriptions. I shall be following your progress with unsuppressed glee 
-Tom

+1 

[sLaughterMed]

Just a tip for the next time;

i've found that the best way to remove the pins after you pull off the first set of bushings is to file them down, use a punch to drive the pins as far as you can, and then use needle nose pliers to get underneath the bushings on the other side and pry them off that way.

[Little Tinker]

Just a tip for the next time;

i've found that the best way to remove the pins after you pull off the first set of bushings is to file them down, use a punch to drive the pins as far as you can, and then use needle nose pliers to get underneath the bushings on the other side and pry them off that way.

Thanks  .  I think that filing on the initially drilled side is the key tip there.  That wasn't a good fit for my initial technique of punching the pin down to free the bushing, which put the worked / mangled end of the pin into the layers  .

I'll try and be more controlled next time.

[Little Tinker]

The observant will have noticed that there were 4 knives at the top, but only three teardowns  .  That's because the Mountaineer Lite is subject to a different approach  .  I wanted a metal saw / file for adding in to the melee above, and my son is after a Huntsman Lite.  So swapping the wood saw from the Hiker for the metal saw on the Mountaineer Lite should work for both of us.  It has the added benefit (IMHO) that the creation that emerges has a chisel on the back, which seems far more in keeping with the timber related capability of the wood saw  .

To try and simplify this I thought I'd try to work on just the pivot / pin for that tool by driving a replacement pin through the layers, pushing the existing one out while keeping all of the tools aligned and in place.  At the right point, ease them apart, remove wood saw, insert metal saw, and continue.  In short, it pretty much worked although I think the pin I was hammering in bent a little due to the overall force needed to make it pass through.  Hopefully the layers will steer it back towards straight if needed.  And my delight when it first went through was a bit tarnished when I realised I hadn't put the bushing for the scale on - so had to put old pin in and try again  .  As suggested by sLaughterMed, filing both pins to make sure there were no burrs past the nominal diameter was probably important here, and putting a bit of a taper on the new pin.

On the whole the outcome is good.  However, the saw and file do have slightly different liners.  The wood saw is mostly missing the extra protrusion on the metal saw liner when it closes. If it becomes more of a problem or the metal file doesn't sit well in the wood saw liners from the above teardowns then I may have to revisit this and do a full teardown / rebuild.

Some pics:

• Knife sitting on 4"x2" block with through drilled holes for tapping pins out, and 10mm slip next to it for use when drilling.
• Parts for this mod: Mountaineer Lite, saw blade and pin from CyberTool Lite teardown
• Knife after pin is through and with tool that I found cuts pins neatly in the 3mm hole.  But a bit too long...
• Nearly completed knife with scales

And the final outcome: http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,68607.msg1358734.html#msg1358734

[T14]

Good stuff 
-Tom

[sLaughterMed]

Looks great man

[Poncho65]

Looks great man

+1 and the detailed pics of them apart is also a great resource

[shibafu]

Nice job and good reference photos 

[Little Tinker]

Well after an extended break due to lack of light and warmth in the garden workshop over winter I finally came back to finish this little project  .

My main goal was to make the knife I wanted in the first place for fixing the odd thing around the house more easily, and a scan of the SAK Wiki showed me that Victorinox had already had the same core tools in mind when they created the now defunct Troubleshooter.  Using the Cybertool Lite as a base to provide pliers and scissors, I added the metal saw / file (Mountaineer) and Phillips screwdriver (Hiker). I kept the light as I do find the odd thing that needs attention is in a dark corner, but removed the bit-tool layer (see below...).  To keep it slimmer I switched the small blade for a combo tool (from Compact), and hence removed the openers layer.  I've called this the Troubleshooter Compact Lite Plus (aka TCLP).

The original Compact now had its combo tool swapped for the openers layer from the CT Lite, and adding the bit tool from there as well has created the Cyber Climber Plus.  I took a snap of the parts before assembling it.

What was the Hiker has donated its wood saw to make the bespoke Huntsman Lite, with the "spare" metal saw layer going to the TCLP.  The back Phillips has become a corkscrew from the CT Lite.  So the remaining parts make a venerable Spartan, which gets an  for originality and interest.  I haven't rebuilt that yet, and am pondering whether to make an Alox style Spartan or maybe mix it up with something else sometime...

[Little Tinker]

A few things I discovered along the way...

• Measuring the stacked springs as shown in the pic, doing the same with the liners, and then adding 10mm gave a decent estimate of how long to cut brass rod for each pivot pin.
  
• Putting a bit of hex bar in my hammer drill mounted in a drill press created a semi-useful riveting tool.  The head was rather flared and flat, but acceptable.  See the pic with red ovals showing the result of using a 4oz hammer (bulged head at bottom) compared with the flatter, almost hidden result above the knife.  I originally tried using an inverted 0.25" screwdriver bit as seen in pic, but it was too small to stay in contact as things bounced around.
• A pin clamp made from a couple of aluminium bars placed together with a slip of paper in between then drilled through with 2.5mm and 2.2mm bits was handy for riveting the first scales bush onto the pin before starting assembly.  I redrilled the wandering 2.2mm channel after taking the photo  .

[Little Tinker]

Peining one of the rivets went badly, with the pin bending rather than spreading.  Drilling out the riveted surface on the other side was looking difficult compared with working on the smooth surface of a Victorinox built knife.

To help avoid wandering drill and subsequent damage I made a little guide jig in the same aluminium bar used for the pin clamp by drilling a 2.2mm hole and then going into the same spot about 2mm deep with a 3/16" bit (about 0.03mm larger than bush diameter from my measurements). This was  about 5mm from the bar edge so that the larger hole could be placed over the small size bush to leave the 2.2mm hole aligned for drilling the centre of the pin.

That worked really well, and if I was doing more of this foolishness I think I'd make up a jig with all four holes aligned to pop over the knife when doing the strip down.

I'll try and add a picture...

[T14]

Loving the pictures and the details of your exploits 
Good stuff

[Little Tinker]

Just realised that for completeness I should acknowledge that the back Phillips from the Hiker was swapped onto the TCLP, helping to leave me with a pile of Spartan components.

That feels better.   .