Hacker Badge Request

Higgins617 · **on:** January 04, 2018, 04:57:04 AM

More a repair than it is a true mod, but I thought it counted as it did involve disassembly and alteration of the original design. Backspring on my Schrade Tough Tool had sprung, rendering the whole side of tools(phillips, file, and blade included) useless. And these were all tools I used frequently when I carried it, so it's sat for over a year and I finally got the idea to say screw it and try to fix it. So here goes.

Materials Needed: Dremel or similar rotary tool, Carbide cut-off wheel for rotary tool, Hammer, Punch, Solvent, 3.5MM Allen screw and bolt, Ziptie

Here is a shot showing the issue, which seems to be fairly common for these tools unfortunately.

First step was to take the dremel and grind/cut one side of the rivet off to allow it to be punched out. Once punched out, the tools can be removed in one clump to maintain order of tools and washers. This is where the ziptie comes it, I slid it through the tools to keep them in the correct order.

The solvent was used to try to clean up the inside of the tool a bit, not required, but mine was pretty grungey. Then the hammer and punch came back out to "persuade" the backspring to be a spring once more. Sitting just below parallel with the handle edges resulted in a more solid snap than it had prior to breaking. Next, and final step was reassembly, which was fairly painless. Slotted the tools onto the bolt one by one, pushing the bolt a little further in each time. Once in, the nut was torqued on until I felt the tools had adequate friction between them. I went pretty snug as I liked the additional confidence in lockup the tightness adds. Once torqued, I dremeled off the excess bolt and gave the end a few raps from the hammer to deform it enough to discourage backing out.

Not exactly a precision engineered fix, but it got a favorite tool of mine back in action, and I'm pretty happy with the feel and lockup of it.

Be glad to hear any thoughts.

Sam Lim · **Reply #1 on:** January 04, 2018, 05:55:13 AM

I only dream is that all MT are using screws and nut! It's a real pain working with rivets!

hiraethus · **Reply #2 on:** January 05, 2018, 10:56:47 AM

Good hack.

You should submit a proper badge request though - it's tricky to assign a badge to you if you if you don't. I've done it for you this time though.

Higgins617 · **Reply #3 on:** January 05, 2018, 04:52:42 PM

Quote from: hiraethus on January 05, 2018, 10:56:47 AM

Good hack. You should submit a proper badge request though - it's tricky to assign a badge to you if you if you don't. I've done it for you this time though.

Sorry boss, don't quite know what I'm doing and didn't read directions correctly

Thank you