Frame Lock WIP! Haha, yeah it's folder time at RohdeEdge!

[Daniel Rohde]

So I know I'm starting my first slipjoint(another thread), but I figured I might as well make a my first frame lock while I'm at it.I have been trying to start taking more pictures while I work so I might as well share them. I have several pieces of titanium that have been waiting for this and it's time it gets used. Both of these WIP will probably be rather slow in coming but hopefully they will turn out.

Justin Presson's WIP kinda got me wanting to do this, and frame locks have been fairly hot lately so I figured I should give it a go!

Frame locks are a little bit more forgiving in the design(IMHO) and I'm not as worried about this one as the slip joint but I would love some side line coaching.

I don't have much to kick this off with except I have a basic design, but I'm trying to decide which one I like best. They should all rotate and fit okay but I messed with the handles some. Which is your favorit?

EDIT: the funny line going through the top three blades is just a drawn in hardening line, I usally have them and I like adding them into the drawing. I'm not sure if I will do anything like that)

This will have a 3/16" pivot and I'm not sure what blade thickness I want yet(All I know is I'm going to choose the hardware I want then the blade thickness will be chosen)

Thanks for taking a look! B

Back with more later......

 

[BrandantR]

I like all four of your designs for one reason or another. I don't think you can go wrong with whichever you choose. Good luck with the build. I'll be watching and enjoying the ride.

 

[Justin Presson]

Alright Daniel! OK here is what I like, I want blade 3 on handle 2 I will be following this and the slip joint build. Good luck and since I have a whopping one under my belt if I can help in any way let me know.
JP

 

[stezann]

Nice layout, but are you sure that in the closed position you won't have the stop sticking out in front of the handle?

 

[Frank Niro]

Well, a working model is the way to go. It can save fustration and materials as well. I see in that no. 3 no 2 you could use a back bar that would come all the way forward without having to use a stop pin. The area where the leaf spring makes contact would have a cutout this should be done at 11 degrees cut with a 120 grit belt and left at that grit to have the leaf hold properly. I sure like your straight knives, Daniel.

Frank

 

[Daniel Rohde]

BrandantR

I like all four of your designs for one reason or another. I don't think you can go wrong with whichever you choose. Good luck with the build. I'll be watching and enjoying the ride.​

Thanks Brandant!

Justin Presson

Alright Daniel! OK here is what I like, I want blade 3 on handle 2 I will be following this and the slip joint build. Good luck and since I have a whopping one under my belt if I can help in any way let me know.
JP​

I assume you mean from the top down? When I drew the blade on number three I knew that it was a Presson clip all the way! I don't know, I kind of like #4....

stezann

Nice layout, but are you sure that in the closed position you won't have the stop sticking out in front of the handle?​

I know it all won't be sticking out but I think a corner will be. I'll go check that and post a picture to see what you think.

Frank Niro

Well, a working model is the way to go. It can save fustration and materials as well. I see in that no. 3 no 2 you could use a back bar that would come all the way forward without having to use a stop pin. The area where the leaf spring makes contact would have a cutout this should be done at 11 degrees cut with a 120 grit belt and left at that grit to have the leaf hold properly. I sure like your straight knives, Daniel.

Frank​

Thanks Frank!
I think I'm just going to use a stop pin on this one, I figure that thicknessing a back bar would be a pain without a surface grinder. I work on it some more.

Thanks Fellas!

 

[Justin Presson]

Yes from the top down. #4 is a nice clean look too.

 

[Frank Niro]

Let me talk a bit about parallel sizing parts. As I wrote just above a surface grinder is definitely the way to go. For 25 years I wish I had one. I'll do the last years as I have been.
When you first start to do parts do not contour cut the part but work it as a rectangle. Do't try to take off .010 by hand sanding on a flat work plate but learn to take almost all off on your belt grinder or belt grinder and disc grinder. If you can keep the length difference at .001 - ..002 and the top to bottom at .000-.001 you will be good. Try the doubled back masking tape for holding the parts.
Frank

 

[Daniel Rohde]

Let me talk a bit about parallel sizing parts. As I wrote just above a surface grinder is definitely the way to go. For 25 years I wish I had one. I'll do the last years as I have been.
When you first start to do parts do not contour cut the part but work it as a rectangle. Do't try to take off .010 by hand sanding on a flat work plate but learn to take almost all off on your belt grinder or belt grinder and disc grinder. If you can keep the length difference at .001 - ..002 and the top to bottom at .000-.001 you will be good. Try the doubled back masking tape for holding the parts.
Frank

Thanks Frank! that's a really good way to do it, I'll have to try that.

Well, I have been working on this...slowly....

I finally finalized the design and I'm happy with it now. So I was trying to figure out how I was going to cut this 1/8+ titanium because I didn't have a metal cutting band say and using a angle grinder on this stuff didn't sound to smart so off I went googling everything under the sun and best answer I came up with was friction cutting titanium on the wood cutting bandsaw. I was about to start cutting it with a hacksaw but I really wasn't to thrilled with that idea so friction cutting it is! more about that later....

Here everything is(I cut my slipjoint folder at the same time) I printed tree copys of my designs and cut them out and glued then onto the steel for ROUGH reference.

This is pretty much my finalized design, you can see I changed it quiet a bit but I like it better now.

So more on the friction cutting, I had "briefly" tried cutting stuff like this on the saw before and it didn't work. but this time I desired to give it a full shot and it weird but it just started zipping through the titanium pretty well! It was weird! I can't explain why but it worked pretty good, I was using a old 1/4" x 18TPI I think. As I understand it it's not really the teeth that do the cutting it's more of the heat/friction build up or somthing. This worked to cutting the .098" blade steel to. I want to play with some different old blades I have to see what kind works better(no teeth or not)

So after they were rough cut I I ground out the profil of one of them and that one with be the pattern fo the other. I also used this board with nails in it to help hold the blade for flattening the face some.

BTW I found that a 60 Grit Cubitron II belt gave the best bang for your buck in grinding the titanium, What do you all use?

Slowly I'm working on it but I'm making progress!

 

[Daniel Rohde]

I have to order some counter bores now and I know I want to get but I'm not sure what counter bore to get for the 2-56(I think) screws that I'm using what should I get for those?

 

[J. Doyle]

I have to order some counter bores now and I know I want to get but I'm not sure what counter bore to get for the 2-56(I think) screws that I'm using what should I get for those?

I've never found one for 2-56 screws that was exactly what I was after. You'll have to improvise something probably. I think I recall seeing one that would seat the head nicely but was WAY bigger than I wanted for the clearance hole.

A lot of guys use an 11/64" drill bit to sink the heads. It works, and I've done it many times in the past, but it doesn't leave you a nice flat bottomed hole.

I was able to find something that seated the heads nice but was a bit big on the pilot but I turned it down to the size I needed. I can't for the life of me remember where I got it though.

If you find something good for a counterbore for 2-56 screws, let me know.

 

[Calvin Robinson]

I have 2-56 and 0-80 counter bores that I bought from Enco or McMaster Carr. You will have to turn the heads of button head screws down a little because the heads are not concentric with the threads.

 

[Daniel Rohde]

Soo...this is the same scenario as the slip joint thread! Okay, well this hasn't really been a build along like I planed...cause I have gotten side tracked and just haven't really updated this thread. I have been posting most of the build pictures in my Instagram but that doesn't work to good for some of you. Anyway, here are some thoughts and pictures of the finished knife.

It's definitely not perfect and I never planed that it would be but I have learn a LOT from this one and the next one will be better and faster in pretty much every way.

Thanks for encouraging me along the way! I'll be posting a final questions thread a little bit later

(Pictures are coming shortly)

 

[Daniel Rohde]

There are more pictures on the Instagram and also a short video of it.

Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

 

[Daniel Rohde]

Things I learned:

- I now relatively understand how everything works together and that is what was bothering me.

-What NOT to do

-The best order of process(or closer to it)

-What I want to do next time

-A surface grinder would make life SO MUCH BETTER

-Friction cutting titanium works really well!

-Don't heat treat the blade BEFORE you need to drill... cough..certain holes

-Its best to clean up the face of the titanium before you start drilling holes and countersinking stuff

-A mill would be really nice but honestly I can get by with out....so that's good!


Overall, I'm very happy with it! and most of the problems with it could and will be avoided in the future(mostly stupid mistakes) I will be making another one very similar to this one but hopefully much better

Question(s):

-Is using bronze washers a good idea? How do they compare to bearings? mine doesn't flip like I would like....

-Any Frame lock tips?

-Does anyone have some awesome little gizmo for shortening screws and such?

-when you bend the spring, should us use heat at all?

-What do you see thats good? bad? ugly?