A Modded Manager: the perfect 58mm...?

George S · **on:** December 29, 2017, 12:05:29 AM

There may come a day when I don't extol the Victorinox Manager, but that day has not yet come to pass! If ever I were to announce one multitool as my EDC, it is a Manager: it has nothing you don't need and everything you do.
Well...
Nearly.

I found myself wanting a tiny torch (flashlight) on my keychain, but even the tiniest torch was too big for a minimalist keychain, so I bought myself a Midnite Manager and thought, "Problem solved!"
Oh, the naïveté.

Having the Manager's tweezers constantly in my pocket has proven invaluable so to find them absent on the Midnite Manager revealed quite a folly on my part: I somehow hadn't noticed that they were mutually-exclusive.

But maybe they didn't have to be! I reckoned I could have both, especially as I was feeling pretty good about having made my first mod. Spotting these very usefully-shaped and -sized tweezers on my ol' Voyager sealed the idea:

Work began with taking apart the Midnite Manager. I'd removed quite a few scales by this point, so for it go this badly was a shock:

I'd heated the plastic under hot water first and went gently, but they still broke badly. Do 58mm models use a different plastic...?

Before I began work on the actual scale, I practised cutting up the internals of the scales on an old Signature Lite:

As you can see, it was a good job I did have a practice run...

Take 2:

Finally got it the right way round and marked & cut the internal space on the scale:

That internal rib didn't actually need removing completely so I was able to leave a sliver of it in place to keep some separation and (marginal) support between the tweezers & pen.

More importantly, what to do about the end of the rivet that would prevent the tweezers sliding in?

Again, the first attempt was... an error:

I simply smacked the end of the pin and bushing with a punch...
Unwise, so lucky this was again first done on the (Classic) internals of the Signature Lite.

Take 2 for this stage was to drill off the end of the pin to free the bushing:

And then smack it:

That's how to do it!
The schmooshed-over brass provides a fair amount of stability for the pin, but, with hindsight now, if I were to do it again I'd drift the pin clear of the liner (but not so much that it frees the tools) in order to ever-so-slightly countersink the hole in the liner to provide a recess for more brass to sit in.
I then repeated this technique on the Manager.

Here's the (almost) final result (I've tidied up the rougher edges since):

I'm very pleased indeed to have the combined benefits of the Manager & Manager Lite in one SAK. In time-honoured tradition, I would like to give this mod a name so, taking a title from the world of LEGO, may I present:

...the Micro Manager!

Thanks for reading! I know it was a long post, but I wanted to ensure that every step was covered in case anyone wants to attempt something similar without landing in the same pitfalls that I did...

tl;dr - An overly-long & cliché-laden look at an error-filled attempt to add tweezers to a Midnite Manager.