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Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.

KhitSicker · 19 · 10783
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Offline KhitSicker

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Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
on: July 21, 2013, 06:51:23 AM
After lurking in these forums for a bit over a year I finally decided to mod a Leatherman charge of mine. Inspired heavily by Metropolicity's work but with a decent amount of my own ideas thrown in.

The main goal was to take the already good tool set in the stock charge and expand it through modular design. If i desire I can carry just the charge its self without losing any of the original tools but for a small size and weight increase I can greatly expand on the number of useful bits and blades.

At this point the main tool is complete and I have every day carried it for about 2 months. I have used just about used every tool and bit at least once and I am satisfied of the performance enough to want to show it off :).

Any constructive criticism is welcomed as are suggestions for addons. While I am not new to modding in general, (just about everything I own I have modded in some way), this is my first attempt at modding a multi tool.


The main mods I have done are replaceing the stock pliers with rebar pliers, replaced the saw with scissors out of a 91mm vic, and replaced the combo file with a completely 100% custom built blade exchanger that fits t-shank jigsaw blades as well as the leatherman surge combo file.






For the blade exchanger I used a 1/16th inch flat stock of hardened D2 steel. Traced the shape of the knife blade pivot and locking end. Then positioned and traced a t-shank blade. I cut everthing out with a dremel then filed the small details. The sleeve is made out of very thing stainless steel sheet that I picked up from the hobby store, I believe its .02 inch. It took alot of trial and error before I got everything fitting and moving properly. I made several prototypes out of alu to see which design fit he best. Also I special ordered a small piece of titanium that I will make into the final blade exchanger after some long term testing as well as a camping trip. The small piece which was custom cut 1.5in by .65 inches cost me 20 bucks.






The total thickness of the blade exchanger is less than the one off the surge however i did have to flatten and sand the little raised area of the scales near the pivot. I did not however have to remove so much material that the scales became weakened or thin enough to be sharp. All of the jigsaw blades as well as the surge combo file are too long to be able to fit into the tool. I had to trip off a couple of teeth from the smallest jigsaw blade to get it to fit.

The scissors came from a 91mm victorinox swiss army knife. I had to enlarge the pivot hole but I don't simply drill trough. I offset the hole as well as grinding out the locking tab. The scissors sit fully flush when closed and lock using the stock liner lock when deployed. As with the blade exchanger I had to file down the raised section of the scales. I did not have to remove any material beyond just making it level as the vic scissors are the same thickness as the leatherman blades.





The inside tools were pretty easy. I moved the micro bit driver to the same side as the large bit driver and cut 90 degree slots in them





The other side has the can opener, flat screw driver, and i dropped in the rebar awl. I had to grind and file the awl and can opener so the rebar piler head would sit flat.



You may have noticed in the previous pics that I also ground and filed down about half the thickness of the ends of the 2 scales which have the leatherman badgeing on them. I did this so I could have more spots to connect things such as the lanyard ring and pocket clip to. This is also where the modular design comes into place. I plan to design addons which will fit and lock into those slots. I have drawings for a standard size ratcheting hex driver and a carabiner so far but the sky is the limit.




The current EDC setup is without the pocket clips but in a sheath with 1 "card" of bits, the bit extender, and 4 additional blades. Its a little too heave and bulky for pocked carry but on the belt is just fine.




Other than the modular tools I plan to engineer some sort of grip addons. I also am really smitten with the idea of some how integrating a pin vice to hold drill bits.

That's it for now. I will probably be slowly updating with any progress I make. Any questions or if you want to see pics of the tools removed let me know. It will probably take a couple days as this is currently my edc and I would have to take it apart.

us Offline Breezy12

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #1 on: July 21, 2013, 08:09:14 AM
excellent work!  :salute:  I look forward to seeing what else you end up doing with this Charge...
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us Offline Delta10

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #2 on: July 21, 2013, 08:20:30 AM
That is one impressive mod! I'd been wanting to add a blade exchanger mod from a Surge onto my Rave for a while, but you just kicked it up to a whole new level. Great work!  :tu:

Welcome to the forum (officially, that is), you're gonna fit right in.  :cheers:

gb Offline Zed

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #3 on: July 21, 2013, 10:04:35 AM
Great mod mate,welcome to mto  :cheers:
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se Offline Lillebror

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #4 on: July 21, 2013, 10:51:55 AM
Wow! Thats some real nice work :)
Inspiring. That pliars from a rebar, is that a straight fit or did you file something. Only thing i miss with my charge is the exhangble cutters.

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00 Offline kirk13

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #5 on: July 21, 2013, 12:54:28 PM
Welcome,nice work,particularly like the use of SAK scissors :tu:

Love your username too :rofl:
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ca Online Grant Lamontagne

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #6 on: July 21, 2013, 01:00:57 PM
That looks like a pretty involved modification.  I like the idea of using Victorinox scissors since I'm not a huge fan of the scissors they usually put on a Charge.

Def

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hr Offline enki_ck

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #7 on: July 21, 2013, 01:38:03 PM
Welcome to the forum and an awesome first post. :2tu:

Really liking the modifications you made on that Charge. :salute:
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au Offline mvyrmnd

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #8 on: July 21, 2013, 01:55:25 PM
Mmmmm scissors. I like this idea!
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Offline KhitSicker

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #9 on: July 21, 2013, 03:32:57 PM
Quote from: Lillebror on July 21, 2013, 10:51:55 AM
Wow! Thats some real nice work :)
Inspiring. That pliars from a rebar, is that a straight fit or did you file something. Only thing i miss with my charge is the exhangble cutters.

Skickat från min PadFone 2 via Tapatalk 2

For me the rebar pliers were a straight fit. I have the previous model Charge TTI. If I had left the stock scissors in I might of had to mod the pliers head a bit but because I removed those I was able to mod the awl and the can opener rather than the pliers head. I needed to do no modification to the bit drivers to get them to fit however if im not careful and slam the pliers shut some times it rubs against the large driver.

us Offline sawman

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #10 on: July 21, 2013, 06:14:29 PM
If LM would only make them like your mod from the factory then I might be interested in a Charge again.  EXCELLENT work my friend!  It's an honor to have you on this forum  :cheers:
SAW

gr Offline kkokkolis

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #11 on: February 28, 2014, 06:33:55 PM
Truly awesome. Especially the Vic scissors on a Leatherman.
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00 Offline screwloose

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #12 on: March 01, 2014, 11:45:28 PM
i don't mind the sisscors but i LOVE the saw!
was thinking about doing something like that with my MUT...
you made me think.... :think:
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us Offline Poncho65

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #13 on: January 17, 2017, 10:20:48 PM
Very cool thread with an awesome mod 8) :like: :like:
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Offline Diego Jimenez

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #14 on: January 09, 2020, 04:53:15 PM
Hi, i am Diego Jimenez, i am from Colombia and recently i became a fan of Leatherman multitools, i own a Charge+ but i broke the file, i already bought the blade exchanger replacement of the Surge because i thought that it would fit instead the file in order to have more blades options to work, but reading your post i wonder if it really fits or you did your customized work because Surge´s blade exchanger does not work for Charge.

Thanks for your help

us Offline Aloha

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #15 on: January 09, 2020, 04:58:14 PM
Welcome Diego,  From just a quick read the poster made his blade exchanger.  I have fitted a Surge Blade exchanger not my Wave.  I had to use the pivot from the Surge and I also made some modifications for it to fit. 

Let me try to find some links on the forum to better help you. 

 :tu:
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us Offline Aloha

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #16 on: January 09, 2020, 05:02:01 PM
Esse Quam Videri
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Offline Diego Jimenez

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #17 on: January 09, 2020, 06:30:52 PM
Thank you very much, sorry for not seeing those posts before, it will really help me, i hope to recieve the BE by the first week of february, also already bought a dremel 3000, i hope it would be useful for this work, i let you know the results, hope not to miss it up

us Offline Aloha

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Re: Leatherman Charge. Work in progress, Pic heavy.
Reply #18 on: January 09, 2020, 06:51:53 PM
Take your time and you will do great.   Looking forward to what you end up with.  Make a post of your own creation.  Good luck.   :salute:
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