Emerson CQC14 Pop On Lock

[STR]

I hate doing this but this gent had a knife confiscated recently from his customs. So at his request I have made a 14 lock to fit the 14 I have here for this same job (almost done) and I'm shipping this one down under in the hope he can pop his old liner lock and G10 scale off of his folder and pop this one on in its place and go right back to work. As shown I've also included my custom made replacement floating stop pin to rid the knife of the rattle so many have complained to me about. I don't do this replacement on every model but here lately most have been done that way and it is requested. I've even had some guys request it on their stock folders and have done that twice now for folks not wanting the frame lock conversion.

Anyway, In the past when I've done this pop in replacment on CQC7 models a couple other times it mated right up and worked just fine for them so hopefully that will be the case with this 14 also. We'll see. This is the first 14 I have done this for so the jury is still out on how this will go. I am figuring with the modern machining and precise engineering of the parts that it will pop right on there no worries. Guess we'll know in about ten days plus or minus. Thanks for looking.

STR

[jylong_away]

Can't wait for this one to get here...

For those of you 'in-the-know' about how customs down here operates, they have a truly broad definition of what constitutes a 'gravity/switchblade', or 'flick knife' as it's known here. Fortunately, the police and a lot of the 'hands on' customs people (ie the ones who actually examine stuff, rather than hash theory at policy meetings) seem to have a more common sense view of things. Still, better safe than sorry. I cannot begin to thank STR enough for accommodating me, as the linerlock on the CQC-14 has been the one factor preventing it from seeing and heavy use...or any use at all, pretty much.

Photos, and possibly a play-by-play assembly to follow once it arrives. Does anyone know a good free image host?

[jylong_away]

Got the lock in the mail today!

Was initially planning on posting a play-by-play reassembly, but realized that the only camera I have right now is on my phone, and as some of you might know, the camera on the Nokia E71 is *crap*. At any rate, the end product looks just like STRs previous 'bare bones'(though they're anything but!) framelock conversions which he's posted here and on his blog.

Let me just say that it wasn't hard at all to reassemble the knife with the framelock. For Emerson owners who have taken apart and reassembled their knives for cleaning, etc, it will most likely be intuitive. If not, STR gave really good step by step instructions during our email communications.

Lockup was early, which I prefer. As Steve promised, the tolerances were tight. No rattles or gaps where there weren't supposed to be.

Want to say a big thanks again to Steve for agreeing to do this pop-on for me. Saved a load of potential hassle with the paper-pushers in Aus Customs. It also gave new life to a knife which would otherwise have spent most of its life in a shelf, because I had little confidence in its liner lock.

With Emersons in particular, I feel this is an issue, as there is no 'backup' designed to prevent the user from being 'bit' if the lock fails. By this I mean some inherent feature of the knife that will prevent the edge from hitting your hand/fingers should the blade close. In kershaws, it's the flipper. Spydercos seem to be designed so that the blade choil(even if it's not a 'functional' one) will hit your fingers, rather than the blade, as long as you're holding the handle in a 'normal' fashion. Can't say the same for emersons in that regard, so the framelock at least allows some degree of control over the lock while I grip the knife.

Thanks again Steve, and I hope to be able to get this done for my Mini CQC-7B once this last hassle with customs is somewhat behind me.

[STR]

Glad you like! If you're happy I'm happy! Thanks again. 2thumbs

STR

[jylong_away]

Oh I am HAAAAA-PPY!!yea!

[STR]

If you get some pics later post em!2thumbs

STR

[jylong_away]

Okie dokie, giving it a go with the camera phone! Apologies for the bad resolution.

The first attachment shows the CQC-14 disassembled, with the original locking side replaced with the pop-on from STR

Next is the lock side, with the pivot assembled, and the blade attached. STRs non-rattle stop pin has also replaced the original stop pin.

3rd image shows the lock-side attachment of the stop pin. It's a flat-head, recessed phillips screw on this side.

4th is the other side of the stop pin, after the non-locking liner has been installed. I've intentionally focused on this part of the assembly, because it's the main difference between STRs framelock, and the 'stock' Emerson ones.

Final attachment image is the T7 screw that fits into the other side of the stop pin, and fixes it to the other liner.

From here, the scale screws fit as per usual through the liners and spacers. Steve supplied 4 spare scale screws in case the stock ones got tweaked during the disassemble. I used 2 of them to go through from the G10 side to the lock side. They're slightly longer, so came up exactly flush against the exit holes on the Titanium lock side. I kept the original screws going from the Ti side to the G10 side, as they come out *under* the G10 scale, and need to be a bit shorter.

The end product:
http://usera.ImageCave.com/jylong/26092009073.jpg


And yes, that's my kitchen counter :p It's the only place tonight that I could find proper lighting to take these pictures2thumbs

The upgraded '14 has replaced my Manix 2 as EDC. Had initially decided to carry the Manix for the rest of the year as a sort've experiment(I know, promises, promises..), but as you can see, this baby is too good to leave on a shelf for that long!