D_T's Project MegAlox - and naming GAW

[Dutch_Tooler]

Hi all,

Here is the result of a project that has kept my leisure time busy the last weeks.











Part II below contains some pics and notes regarding the building of this (if I may be so bold) beauty.



Now what shall we name it? The project name is only temporary, as well as somewhat pretentious, and I am looking for a catching name that correctly reflects the capacities. I'll need your help for finding a good name.

Which is where the giveaway comes in!
I'd like to receive your suggestions for a good name. Whoever suggests the best name (which I may in fact take over, or may not, depending on the quality of the suggestions, down to my personal preference of course) will receive the Pioneer below. The deadline is Monday, 15 February at 08:00 Central European Time.
The Pioneer is in fact new, never used, and only abused to the extent of one, really very minor, detail: it used to be a Farmer from which the saw layer has been taken out (hence the new designation), and the pivots redone. t's new, shiny, and beautiful and it offers ample opportunities for disassembly, for instance to give it a thorough cleaning or to... mod it! (The downside is, warranty is void.)



(continued with part II below)

[Dutch_Tooler]

Part II - construction notes

For a project of this size, you'll need some donors.

Apart from the tools retrieved from my Aquatic Huntsman project (91 mm file, pliers, magnifier and in-line Phillips screw driver) I needed four (!) donor Farmers and 1 donor Pioneer X (thanks to hiraethus for the parts count ). The Farmers were needed for the extra blade backspring (for magnifier/Phillips) and four saw backsprings (2 each for pliers and saw/file). This is the reason why this is a one-off, and any requests for series production will be met with stony glares and dismissal. One donor is being disassembled in the pic below.



By the way, the pivot material is MUCH harder than brass; drilling should be done with care and good tools, and pre-drilling with a centre drill is a good idea. My old drill press (holding a houshold drill) was not up to the task and destroyed one set of scales due to wobble in the vertical guides, as I found out to my dismay. I have invested in a better column drill since, which I had had an eye on all along anyway. A good drill (preferably column) is essential.



Construction principles

Thanks to advice in Syph's thread, supplemented with some PM exchanges, and some mechanical musings on my part, I became convinced that I needed a central almost full liner to enhance frame stiffness. I was also going to use brass pivots (better for manufacture) filled with steel screws for stiffness. In principle stainless steel pivots are better, but much more difficult to drill and tap, so I chose brass instead. The many liners and lengths of steel screw filling the holes should be sufficient, hopefully. (If not I may convert to steel later on...)

In order to also have this stiffness available while assembling, I decided to build the tool up from the central liner by screwing half-pivots to either side. This also, crucially, allows more of the length of pivot to be stiffened by the internal screws. Otherwise one would have had to contend with an almost 22 mm long pivot - perish the thought...

Centre liner (0.6 mm stainless steel) in preparation:





The 91 mm tools (except the file - note the pliers handle needs some, but not too much, shortening and thinning, and the Phillips pivot profile needs adjustment by filing too), pivot holes previously drilled to 3 mm using a tungsten carbide drill bit (a couple, in fact, where the carbide insert was trimmed down to make it exactly 3 mm and to sharpen the cutting edges; used my Dremel with cutting disc for the latter step), and completed liner:




Preparing to add the half-pivots (turned from solid brass stock, drilled to 1.5 mm and tapped with M2 thread. Do not use already drilled/rolled stock with a through hole. Ask me how I know.)
Just insert a screw part-way into one half pivot (slightly less than half the length of the thread), use loctite or similar for locking the thread, then saw off the head to make the other bit of screw thread accessible to the other pivot:




This is two half-pivots joined to form one pivot. I used my lathe chuck and a loose drill chuck (on Morse cone no. 2) to tighten the pivot (also loctite!):





Starting to assemble the tools. Some hit and miss was involved to make them all accessible!







That's all, folks!

[Top-Gear-24]

 

[Mechanickal]

A mechanic + explorer?

The Mexplorer!
Or
The Explanical!

Since you EXPLAiNed your mod, that might be the better one?

And that Pioneer...

Where did you find those screw rivets??

[hiraethus]

Great job, D_T.   You picked a good project to get your teeth into.  Got any more notes/lessons learned on the build process?  I'll have a think about a name.

[magentus]

Fantastic job DT 

Would love to see more pics and your thoughts about using the screws.

Will muse on a name worthy of this gorgeous beast. 

[Dutch_Tooler]

Thanks, all 

I've added more explanations in Part II above.

[hiraethus]

Good idea using the stainless central liner to mount the pivots.   How much does the completed knife weigh?

[magentus]

Name option - MesTool

                           Mes Gereedschap

[Dutch_Tooler]

I haven't weighed it. It is now also very busy attracting pocket lint, so will increase in weight . I'll weigh it later. It feels positively massive.

[kottskrapa]

Awlsome work and it truly is a beauty! Writeup is good too.

Seems like it could fix about anything so while you watch others try and fail you feel this beauty in your pocket and after a minute or two you just say "stop! I will fix this!" and then get the job done.. But after a couple of times you just want the job done and pick the tool up and say Ifix (not affiliated with Apple, but as a dry joke).. This boils down to the fact that my suggestion for a name is "iFix" and that pioneer is a nice one too

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

[Dutch_Tooler]

A mechanic + explorer?

The Mexplorer!
Or
The Explanical!

Since you EXPLAiNed your mod, that might be the better one?

And that Pioneer...

Where did you find those screw rivets??

Brilliant - the Explanical... will think about it.

The screws are M2 sunken-head Torx (various lengths as necessary: I used a mix of 10, 8 and 5 mm lengths) and screwed plus loctited onto the brass pivots. Available at conrad.de for instance.

[hiraethus]

What was it like tapping the M2 threads into 1.5mm holes? The tapping drill should be 1.6mm though it probably makes little difference.

[Dutch_Tooler]

What was it like tapping the M2 threads into 1.5mm holes? The tapping drill should be 1.6mm though it probably makes little difference.

Yup, should be 1.6 mm - but this makes no appreciable difference, in brass. I also only used the no. 1 and 2 taps. Both measures were taken in order to keep the contact between the threads of the screws and pivot as intimate as possible - complemented with loctite (or rather the strong variant of a local equivalent) for the final lock.

Tapping was no problem - put the pivot in the lathe chuck and use a tapping tool handle to carefully tap the thread (keeping it aligned with the lathe bed). With a lathe on slow speed you can also turn the pivot that way whilst keeping the tapping tool handle still, if you feel brave (I did, after a few pivots) and let loose at the right instant.

Drilling the holes before tapping is likewise best carried out on a lathe. Some tips:
(1) use a centre drill, at least the first time
(2) drill through past the length of the pivot to have a centre hole for the next pivot (avoids repetition of (1))
(3) retract the drill once every few mm of advance, bits of drilled out metal tend to assemble around the drill bit point and might snag it, with breakage of the bit as a result.

[ReamerPunch]

TaskMaster

Quite the set-up. 

[RF52]

Great SAK, call it The Do-it.

Sent fra min FRD-L09 via Tapatalk

[jaya_man]

Awesome mod D_T...

Got 2 name suggestions:

1. The Tooler
2. ToolChamp

Names befits its owner...


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[SteveC]

Great work !   

[styx]

nice work. First thing that came to mind when I saw it was holy smurf

[Dutch_Tooler]

Thanks all

...holy smurf

Is that your naming suggestion? I'd capitalize it, for sure...

[Poncho65]

Awesome alox mod

I would call it the alox Master Ranger Plus

Very nice

[magentus]

Thanks all

...holy smurf

Is that your naming suggestion? I'd capitalize it, for sure...

That's a brilliant suggestion with the colour an all 

The Holy Smurf.

[Nix]

That's a great job building a very nice SAK.

I gotta second the suggestion of 'Explanical'. 

[Mechanickal]

Or it's a Ranger with pliers?

It's a Power Ranger!


And it's the blue one

[VICMAN]

Hi all,

Here is the result of a project that has kept my leisure time busy the last weeks.

Nicely done DT! 

[Dutch_Tooler]

Thanks guys 

I have just been notified of a law suit initiated against me by the NAPAKS (National Association for the Prevention of the Abuse of Kitchen Scales).

My impression was correct, at least qualitatively. The MegAlox weighs in at a whopping 182 grams (6.4 oz). This is just 3 grams short of what the SAKWiki reports for the SwissChamp.

[Ron Who]

 

[stoneshank]

Bravo! Bravo sir! I'm trying to do something similar. 2x recruits with a wood saw in the middle. I have it done with celidor scales and peened. But I have a red scaled cadet coming my way and I'm thinking to thread it three way you did it instead. 2.25 mm is kinda thin to drill into though and I don't have anything more than a handheld drill. Any advice it's very welcome!

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[zoidberg]

That is a beauty, congrats on the good work.      I will go with (thanks to the recent Super Bowl LII) The Linebacker.

[Simyo]

I like the sound of mega man AKA “the blue bomber” since it feels like a bomb in your pocket and it has enough tools to take care of anything that gets in its way.