Hey I was building my first GPC1000 and was having a hard time getting the scales drilled up perfectly. Is the step drill bit that is for sale on this site (size #38 (.1015) body x .065 pilot ) the one for drilling up scales to fit those round head screws? Excuse my ignorance. This is only the 2nd knife I have made:)

Cary,

Welcome to the CKD Forums!

From the knifekits.com site --

KKTS56 5/32 body x 3/32 pilot This is for setting a 2-56 socket head cap screw.
**This is the one for making kit handles with.
15.95/ea

I hope this helps!

Be sure to post some pics of your knives as you finish them up!


Bob Sigmon

Thanks Bob. I guess I need to pick one of those up. Another question, when you drill up the scales, do you back drill them through the frame? I did that but needed a very small drill bit so as to not damage the threads and had to increase the size of the holes to fit the screws. The result was that my holes were off ever so slightly and now my scales do not fit my bolsters. There is a slight gap. You guys must have a good method for this...

Cary,

Use a 1/16th bit as a pilot for the step drill. Try to keep the scale material as tight as possible to the bolster and just center the 1/16th bit as best you can.

My first DDRI was off on my first set of scales also. If you want to save the scales, you can epoxy a liner to the bolster edge of the scale to make up the gap.

Bob

CaryCary-

First things first...for the future, when you want to drill your screw holes, clamp the scales to the liners (having 1st taken the knife back apart). Clamp the liners with attached scales one at a time into a vise and drill through the back using a 1/16" drill. This is for location reference for the 3/32" and subsequent 5/32" for screw heads (or step down drill, which is much easier).

After you drill the 1/16" holes, unclamp and by sight fitting, double check to see how accurately the holes line up to the screw holes. If you're off slightly (this happens to me now and again), simply adjust slightly to the left or right for each hole when you go to drill using the stepdown drill. (The scales should be unclamped from liners at this point when using step-down drill).*

This should leave you with a perfect fit.

Now, to deal with your current problem...
I'm guessing the gap you reference is between the scales and the bolster. This is a perfect opportunity for an easy (and attractive) solution. Put a spacer there!

I had the same thing happen to me awhile back with my "Tiger Coral" knife...for whatever reason, it came up too short. I filled that gap using a small piece of Carbon Fiber as a spacer...it positively made it into a better looking knife than planned!

There's an old saying that the diffrerence between an OK knifemaker and a great knifemaker, is that the great knifemaker makes fewer mistakes and has learned from experience how to cover them up well when he does make them! This can be one of those experiences for you! ;)

Hope this helps.

Dennis

Yeah Baby!:smokin

* To further clarify: Even though you've drilled through the holes in the liner to create a "pilot" hole, and in theory these should be perfect, if you drilled favoring the left or right side of the hole and then use that as a pilot for the larger drill, the pilot hole's now slightly offside center could cause the larger hole to be even farther off. Using the technique I described will get you back on track. Just make sure the final hole does not extend past outer edge of the pilot hole.

I hope this is sorta clear:rolleyes:

Thanks for the info. That's very helpful. I have seen some interesting material for filling the gap that I have between the bolter and the scale. I think I will try doing that. The first set of scales I made from Lignum Vitae. They look good but I think I will make a set out of some cocobolo too just to see which look better. I will post some pictures when I am done.

Dennis is right, but I don't clamp, I use a couple drops of superglue to put the handles on. Clamps can allow some slippage and the superglue will hold it firmly. It will break back apart very easily, just clean it back up, it scrapes right off. Have yet to have a bit of trouble using this method.
You can use just about anything for a spacer if you need/desire. Just ask Mr. plastic plate Dennis. His use of plastic plates has to be the most innovative idea yet. I think that I am going to 'borrow' it for the GPC I got the pre-drilled scales for. They have a gap at the bolsters.
Make sure you get us some pictures when you are done and let us know if you need anymore help.
Dan

Forgot about the super glue thing...that works better still..

The plastic plate idea works great...it depends of course on how much space you are trying to fill. On my Tiger Coral knife, I wound up liking the effect of the CF so much I ground off even a little more of the Coral to make room for a larger Carbon Fiber spacer. I loved the way the black CF contrasted with the Coral.

You'll quickly find that your "error" will open up a whole world of ideas...

Dennis

Yeah Baby!:smokin

OF course filling the gap poses another issue. The gap is not even so I will have to make it so. That may take some doing. I was not sure how to match the scales to the bolsters to begin with. The method I used was, with the bolsters clamped to the blank scale I scribed a line, then I used a rotary file in my drill press to get a very smooth cut to the line. That seemed to work ok but took a while as I had to sneak up on the scribe line to get it perfect. I understand there is a tool available to cut the scales to match the bolsters... I ordered it friday just to see how it would work. Have any of you used it?

KKTS56 5/32 body x 3/32 pilot This is for setting a 2-56 socket head cap screw.

eh?

I thought that the screws used were 1-72.

To further elaborate on some confusion regarding the stepdrills, I went to knifekits and discovered the following:

Stepdrill S-56 is described for use with socket head 2-56 screws, "the one for the kits"

Stepdrill B-56 is described for use with socket head 2-56 screws also!

Aren't button heads used with the kits for scales and bolsters, NOT sockets? These are 2-56?
Are the 1-72's for the backspacers?

I've been wondering about this myself for awhile, just kept forgetting to ask.

Dennis

Yeah Baby!:smokin

Anyone looking for information on the kit screws:
The thread at the top of the forum has the information.
This is a sticky that will be up for a while.
FORGET every thing you hear and read it.
The thread explains the thread system for knifekits.com.
Darrel