How's everyone this morning? I'm fairly new, but have been reading for a few months now. I am currently working on my first folder, but forgot to order a pivot pin. So, I was curious as to how to make one. Brass or stainless rod I'd guess, but how would one go about drilling into it end-ways and making sure it's perpindicular? I have a drill press, but I can't think of a way to be sure that the drilling is square. BTW, I want to make a pin that is threaded on both ends with screws to hold to the liners.

Thanks guys!

Merlin,

welcome to the forum! I'm only answering as I guess I got here before most of the guys did. You didn't advise what type of folder you're building. When I decided to build a folder (slipjoint and linerlock), I thought the best thing I could do was to view all the enteries made on this forum to get some kind of a background. It helped me. Now to your question, if you're building a slipjoint folder most fellas use nickle as a pivot pin approx 3/32". Brass would be too soft for the pivot. You can use SS but you would also want to use SS bolsters (if so inclined) to blend the pin into the bolster. I don't know if I helped or not but if I didn't you might run a search on this forum for pivots. Also don't miss Chris Crawford's tutorial on slipfolders (if that is your choice)--Dan

Dan, I'm making a liner-lock, probably 3/32 rod-stock is what I'll use.

3/32nds is very small, hopefully the knife is also very small. As far as I can recall, I've not seen any commercially made pivots that small, 1/8th is about it.

The only easy and reliable way I know to drill the center of a small cylinder like that is with a lathe. That exact reason is why I bought a small lathe in the first place. I made some pivots on the drill press but they were mostly unsatisfactory.

An alternative to making one could be to use a nut off a Loveless handle bolt if you happen to have some. Most of these are 1/4" but some are smaller and I used quite a few of them in the beginning. If you mess around with electronics much, you may have some stand-offs on hand that could be used.

The last suggestion I can dream up would be a stop-gap measure. Drill your pivot from both ends about half way through, as carefully as you can. Then thread from both ends about half way. The screws may be a bit off center but if you allow for that when you countersink for the screw heads it would not be easy to see that on the finished knife.

On the other hand, it might only take a couple of days to order some pivots, depending on where you are (a good reason to include your location in your profile)....

I like the lathe idea. What's a good mini-lathe? I do have some stand-offs for motherboards, if that's what you're talking about, but the shank is not round, rather six-sided. Using those would fix the drilling/tapping issue, but then there's the issue of making it round, which without a lathe would be pretty hard to get it even, I would think. I guess I could chuck it up in the drill press and sand it round, but I don't know how exact that would be. 1/8 rod would work also. The blade is under 4 inches. I'm not opposed to buying the pins, but hey, I like building things so why not build the pins too!

Thanks guys!

As Ray said, the only real way is to use a lathe. Here is a link to mini-lathe.com

http://www.mini-lathe.com/

Any of the mini type lathes would be suitable for pivot pins and making spacers etc..

Hope this helps..

The stand offs i was thinking of would be round already. Trying to make the six sided ones round probably wouldn't be any better than drilling your pivots on a drill press.

Any small metal lathe will do and Andy has provided a good place to start looking. I use a 7x10 that came from Harbor Freight, which I got on sale for $350. The real problem is finding one that not too high priced since most of them seem to push $500. I'm not aware of any new one for less than $350, and that would buy a life time supply of pivots.....

Ray,
a very good point of price vs. part produced. Well, I guess I'll buy a few for now, and think about the lathe for later.

Thanks everyone.

Hey, I just thought of something (and that hurts!).

Take a piece of nice thick metal - aluminum or steel would be good - with nice square sides on it. I know you don't have a mill but some metal, especially aluminum is available already squared up like this, or a machine shop could do it for almost nothing.

Now, put that block in your drill press vise and make sure the top face of the block is perpendicular to the drill chuck. You could do this using the modified brass jaws that I use. We have been discussing those in another thread around here somewhere.

Drill a hole in the block about 3/8th" from the edge. The depth of the hole would be the approximate length of your pivot, the diameter will be a very close clearance fit for your pivot. This will require that you drill slightly undersized and then ream for a clearance fit.

Once that is done, drill a small hole in from the side of the block so that it enters into the pivot hole on the center. Thread this hole and put a screw in it, a #6 or #8 would be more than enough. Now, when you put a piece of rod into the hole in the block this screw can be used to lock it in place so it cannot turn.

With the block mounted in your vise, chuck a piece of your pivot rod material into your drill chuck. Lower this to your block which is mounted in your cross slide vise and use the rod to position the block. All you do is position the block so that the rod will drop into the hole without deflecting the rod at all. Once you have that, turn the drill press on and make the final adjustment for run out by moving the block slightly so that the spinning piece of rod will slip into the hole without deflecting.

Once the block is positioned, put in your drill bit and drill the center of your pivot which is now guaranteed to be directly below the drill bit if you did everything correctly. You may have to buy a cross slide vise (no folder maker should be without one), some specific sized drill bits and reams but, even so, it will be far cheaper than buying a lathe!

:)

Ray has "Almost" the same method that I would use.

I would do as he says but instead of drilling and tapping a hole, use your bandsaw and cut in from one edge all the way to the hole. You can then put a piece of your pin stock into the hole and use a welding clamp to squeeze the ends and close up the gap left by bandsaw. This squeezes the pin and prevents it from turning.

I do this when making hinges for gates. I use 1-1/4" solid round and can drill a perfect 3/4" hole through it. You just have to work on smaller stock.

I get my pivots from Halpern Titanium, I have been using the 7/32 for most of my folders (I like them strong). They are 303ss, I'm not sure if they are hardned or not. I usuall have them in 3 days after I order, there good to deal with.
http://www.halperntitanium.com/

Jeremy

Thanks everyone for the information! I appreciate it.