Anatomy of a Coast Sport Mechanic (type 1) fixed-plier multi tool

[ChopperCharles]

I have a Coast Sport Mechanic and several copies of the Coast Pocket Mechanic. My Sport Mechanic is a later model with spring-loaded jaws. Unfortunately the spring broke. I'm handy, and I figured I can fix it... and while I'm in there, I plan to add some additional tools from a Pocket Mechanic and maybe some other tools.

First off, a quick comparison. An unmolested spring-loaded Pocket Mechanic is on top, and the opened-up Sport Mechanic is on the bottom.

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

Now here's a close-up of the broken spring nestled in a notch in the backspring to the serrated blade.

Charles.

[ReamerPunch]

 

[ChopperCharles]

And here is the anatomy of the tool. From top to bottom:

1. Side plate with spacer for jaw (tack-welded on)
2. Backspring for serrated blade (note notch for spring)
3. Serrated blade
4. Liner
5. Backspring for fish scaler
6. Fish Scaler
7. Liner
8. Backspring for plain edged blade
9. Plain-edged blade
10. Liner
11. Backspring for scissors, with phillips driver
12. Scissors
13. Side plate with two-piece jaws still attached. Spacer under jaws similar to spacer on the other side plate.


The tool is assembled very much like a large swiss army knife.

Charles

[ChopperCharles]

Here's the anatomy of a Coast Pocket Mechanic I left the spacers out of the photo by accident (I broke the tack welds). Ignore the burn marks, I tried some welding modifications, and realized that stainless wire in my MIG is only good for thick materials. I need silver braize to do major modifications to small stainless parts.

This version is an early model without spring-loaded jaws.  From top to bottom we have:

1. Zytel handle
2. Side plate
3. Plain Edged blade
4. Backspring with phillips driver
5. Liner
6. Serrated blade
7. Backspring for serrated blade (note the lack of a notch for a spring)
8. Liner
9. Saw blade
10. Backspring for saw blade.
11. Liner
12. Bottle opener/flat driver
13. Backspring for bottle opener
14. Side plate
15. Zytel handle

On the left is the two piece jaw and the screws that hold the handles on.

What I'm going to do is toss the fish scaler out of the Sport mechanic and put the saw blade in its place. I'm not going to swap the bottle opener over, instead I'm going to add a can opener from a Sheffield tool, and use the bottle opener backspring for that.

I'm also debating installing some tools from the 2nd generation Coast plier tools... specifically the stand-alone file and the inline phillips driver. But we'll see, I don't really want to sacrifice one of those if I can avoid it.

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

Now that the anatomy lessons are done, lets start things off with a repair!

To replace the spring, I found a nice pocket clip. I don't have any clue where these came from. When I bought a lot of Schrade multitool parts on eBay, the seller threw in 5 or 6 of these clips as freebies. I cut a small section out of the clip, filed it to the correct width, and gently bent it with my MP600 and a different Pocket Mechanic. It fit like it was made for this tool. And it bends and works properly as well!

That's it for tonight, but stay tuned for reassembly and some mods coming soon!

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

The can opener from a Sheffield plier multi tool is roughly the same shape as the bottle opener/screwdriver tool from a Pocket Mechanic. I could modify the backspring for the screwdriver by filing away just a bit of material so that the blade of the can opener doesn't contact the backspring when it's closed... however, with that backspring the can opener's nail nick sits a little too low, and is difficult to reach. So, instead I modified the backspring from the Sheffield. The front hole is in the right place, but the rear hole needed to be moved backwards a little. A small round file fixed that right up. Then I changed the profile of the backspring to match the other backsprings in the Coast tool. With a file of course. The can opener itself needed the pivot hole reamed out a little larger to fit the coast pivot pin.

It's all fitting together so far!

Charles.

[gerleatherberman]

I'm at work right now, so can't read through it, but I'm looking forward to reading it all this evening.

[ChopperCharles]

Initial assembly. Note that I removed the fish scaler and added a saw -- and of course the can opener. I tried to keep the fish scaler in, but I didn't have enough spacers for the jaws. This is essentially now a Sharper Image Pro Pocket Mechanic (rare model) with a can opener instead of a bottle opener, and the Sport Mechanic needle nose jaws. It's a very useful configuration with can opener, saw, serrated blade/file/flat driver, plain edged blade, and scissors.

Now to the jaws. All Coast multi tools have precisely machined jaws and good cutters. However, the cutter surfaces meet almost flat. The Sport Mechanic cutters are slightly better in this regard, but still not perfect. So I dressed the cutters with a file and got a nice bevel, so they cut sharply and do not crush wire as they cut. Hopefully this will be a nice improvement. 

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

Aaand I had to take it back apart again, and finagle the liner and tool count to make it exactly the correct width, to match the jaws. I thought I could just shim the jaws with washers, but it turns out that doesn't work so well. It's a great learning experience though!

Charles.

[gerleatherberman]

Excellent thread, Charles!

Modding fixed-plier tools is not common (if anyone actually does it), so this is a good outline of the processes of doing so.

Thank you!

[ChopperCharles]

Thanks! This is a fun bit of work, and it's coming along nicely.

Charles.

[gerleatherberman]

 


I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with ultimately.