Help my Loveless Nut fell Off

Sticks

Sticks

Well-Known Member
OK I guess I've been lucky so far. This is my fifth knife and by far the most problematic (see post on soldering lesson learned.) To get to the point- while I was grinding the handle the nut part of the loveless bolt fell off. I found it but its no thicker than a finger nail. A) I didn't drill the hole deep enoughto seat it , or B) the hole filled withe epoxy before I placed the nut in the hole. I was thinking, just glue it back on and "polish" it with stainless steel. But that doesn't seem very craftsman like. So I read somewhere that the bolts can be removed by heating the screw end with a soldering iron until the epoxy looses adhesion. Any thoughts on that?

The knife looks a little stubby. The blade is 3 5/8" and 8 1/8" overall, African leadwood scales.
 

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I've worked with epoxy extensively and once it fully cures it doesn't change back. The only this I've been able to do is drill it out. It should be mild stainless, so drilling through it is fairly easy. But you have to make a precision hole. Maybe try using a dremel and a tiny burr and burr out the epoxy around the bolt part in the handle.

But hey at this point I'd prob try the heat gun method first.

edit:

I had another idea. The epoxy won't bond to the bolt very well so you can try and drive it out with a punch from the side w/o the nut. Just make sure to protect your scales.
 
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Don't know what to tell you. I had a similar eventhappen to me on a knife a year or so ago. I now use corby bolts.
 
I like hikerdudes idea. Get a helper to hold it and punch it out over a hole or gap in your vice. Start light.
 
Thanks Guys,

I think I'll try the soldering iron first. If that doesn't work, I should be no worse off than I am now. I'll think about trying to tap the bolt out. They were a really tight fit and tapping my cause the wood on the intact bolt to chip. Leadwood is heavy, hard and dense, but it is prone to chipping. I thought of using a dremel and grinding out the bolt and then a deeper area to seat a new "half" bolt and nut. I'd have to sacrifice a good bolt and screw and this fix would be decorative rather than structural.

Jay
 
Hey sticks , better watch those loveless nuts falling off !! I f one hits the ground it can be painful

:biggrin:
 
Don't ya just hate it when your nuts fall off?

If I were faced with this dilemma, I think I would punch and drill most of the bolt out from the intact side then drive the pin from the other side. That way you will have less resistance to overcome when driving the bolt out.

Just a thought.

Carey
 
Ha! Ha! I have to admit after I read my post, I chuckled a little bit at the title. Well, after holding a soldering iron on the bolt end for a half hour with no appreciable results, other than a tired arm, I gave up on that. Might have worked on fresher epoxy but this was glued up a week ago. But I found the part of the bolt I cut off. Its thick enough that if I can fit it into the hole, it will be okay. I imagine all the other bolts and nuts are pretty thin, just haven't fallen off. So that will be this morning's project. Right now I'm picking the dried epoxy out with a needle, slow going!

Does anything dissolve cured epoxy, acetone, alcohol?
 
Ha! One thing she doesn't know anything about is a Loveless nut! I hope... Well, picked out the dried epoxy and found out what the problem was. I used a 90 degree counter bore, which leaves a funnel shaped hole. The bolt, or nut can't go deeper than the widest part of the funnel, which was just about flush withe handle. So, I decided the bolt had to go.

I used a spot drill bit to get most of it out and followed up with a small dremel grinder bit. The dremel actually worked better than the spotting bit. Then I ground the tip off the counter bore so I could get a deeper hole. I marked the centerline of the blade, so I was drilling at same angle used for the bolts the first time.

I clamped the handle in the vise along the centerline and turned the quill with the modified counter bore, by hand, until I removed enough of the scale to let me set the nut 1/8" deep. I used the piece of the bolt end that I had cut off earlier and epoxied that in the hole. Not a perfectly tight fit and poor by comparison to the other three I think, but....Gudenov.
 
DSC_0708.jpgDSC_0709.jpgReplacing the Loveless nut continued. After the epoxy had set awhile, I use slow cure, I noticed gaps. I mixed some of the wood dust with epoxy and filled those. Let dry all dry overnight then filed the excess nut off the handle after taping the scale to protect it. A little while on the grinder and now I'm ready to move on to the next challenge. The first picture shows the "modified" counter sink. Both ends looked the same originally.
 
I have been trying to resist, I really have....but I just can't help myself......:60:

Maybe your Love-less nuts wouldn't fall off if they were Love-more nuts! :biggrin:

Ok, ok...going to my room now for punishment... :34::34:

Oh yeah....nice save....
 
Purchase the step drill Counter sink from the supplier that you get your Loveless bolts from. The are matched so that there is no variation.

I buy my Bolts and step drill from Jantz supply. I think bossdog sells them as well and I would be confident that his are great quality. You have to be careful because in the past I purchased 200 Loveless bolts with nuts & drill from another supplier and many weren't machined consistently which led to problems.

I prefer the loveless bolts over Corby because they are a stronger and you can do different thickness of handles easily! You can also buy longer 8/32 bolts and do any thickness you wish? Since I make culinary knives I get the Stainless on Stainless. The brass oxidizes to easy.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
Thanks Laurence. I like the Loveless bolts, simple but strong. I've snapped the Corby brass bolts by overtightening.

Jay
 
I agree, nice save. I had the same thing happen on the second knife I built. Gonna have to try this fix at some point also.
 
For future reference, Acetone will dissolve most epoxies.
I use it for clean up if any gets on the ricassio area etc.. It's nasty stuff. Have lots of ventilation when using Acetone.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
Laurence, do you oversize the holes a little bit and let the epoxy fill the small gap? I read somewhere that it is suggested, especially with wood scales, as this will prevent future cracking. I like to have have the holes tight to the bolts, but...
 
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