Linerlock Questions

S

SHostetler

Well-Known Member
I need a little help with my linerlock folders. I've got 7 or 8 under my belt now and in general am satisfied with them except for 2 of them that have a lock that jams. On these 2 the lock bar jams and takes "excessive" force to open unlike the others. I generally wind up using a piece of plastic to pry the lock open. I've put graphite on the lock face and tried rapping the back of the blade on a piece of wood when open. Neither of these worked.

First question, what else can I try?

Second question, what can I do in the future the prevent this from happening?

Thanks,
Steve Hostetler
 
What angle are you grinding the blade lock at? Also are you grinding the lockbar itself at an angle? Make sure that the lock bar engages the knife on the front part only.
g-
 
There are a lot of different schools of thought fixing sticky locks so I'll just tell you what I've learned.

I had a lot of problems with sticky locks when I started making folders with thicker liners (.080" and up) so I talked to Mr. Terzuola about it, he said to us the wheel on your belt sander so that the lock area has a sort of concave shape to it, I tried it with my 8" wheel but still had the problem. then I was looking at a smaller Strider and noticed that the lock surface on the blade was very concave, like they had used a much smaller wheel. So I started playing around with setups on my KMG and found a way to use the 2" wheel on the top of my platen attachment and the work rest to cut my locks at a precise angle with the 2" wheel (I'm attaching a photo below) and it worked beautifully. The locks were much less likely to stick and they hold very securely, I set them at about 8 - 9 deg.. Now for the ones that do still stick there is another trick you can use, I learned it from another flipper maker but I can't remember witch one right now so I can't say who. This method is often misunderstood and sometimes scoffed at but it works well for me..... there is really so much to explain here that I'm afraid I'm not making any sense so I'll write up a step-by-step list in another post. Clean the front of the lock tab to 400g and you can even buff it a little if you want, then using a regular propane torch, heat the end of the lock tab to orange, hold it at orange for let's say 30 seconds and then let air coll for one minute, do this 3 times, do not cool with water. The part of this that some people misunderstand is your not heat treating the titanium, your putting on a thin coat of titanium oxide (i think thats what it's called) on the surface that is very hard. If you really want to see how well this coating develops on ti, take a scrap piece and heat it like described above, let it cool and then try to buff it off, it really does put a nice hard coating down, you probably have a hard time getting it off the sides of your liner when you clean up the heat coloring unless you use a coarse grit.

Here is the photo og how I set up my grinder for grinding the lock:

lockgrind.jpg
 
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To summarize:

  1. cut lock area on blade (I mostly go about 8 deg.) to just shy of lock engagement then use a 400 grit until the lock engages where you want it.
  2. clean up lock tab face with 400 grit, remember to curve the top of the lock back, you want about 2/3 of the bottom of the lock tap to engage, buff the face of the lock tab if you like. If the lock sticks at this point (or even hints that it might stick), goto step 3.
  3. Heat the front of the lock tab 3 times then clean up all the heat coloring everywhere except the lock tab face

I was hesitant to post my method, not because I don't want to help but because someone is bound to come by and say "your doing it wrong!" or something to that effect, so I'll tell you I'm offering this as something that you can try, and see if it works for you.
 
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I dont want to hijack the thread but this is a liner lock question.
Besides Ti, what other materials can be used as the liner?

Thanks
Sean
 
I've had a few probs with sticky locks so this is some great advice. Thanks

Hey Les just so you know your not totally off your rocker, I got almost the same advice about step #3 from another well known folder maker that uses that step. So there must be something to it. Thanks again!
 
Yep, heat up the lock tab. Been doing it for quite some time now without any problems.
Ialso hit the lock face of both blade and tab w/scotch brite belt after 400g. for just a little extra insurance.
 
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