How to fix this?

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OLDE CUTLER
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How to fix this?

Post by OLDE CUTLER »

A friend of mine dropped off this knife the other day for me to look at. It is a nice old bone handled Pal camper style knife with the two piece can opener. It is obviously in good condition and worth a few bucks at least. The problem is the the tiny spot weld on the two piece can opener has broken so now when you pull the can opener out to use it, the lower part stays in the blade well and just the top portion comes out. It needs to have the two parts fastened back together. I see a few options for fixing this, some good, some not so good.
1. Use the wire feed and try to put just a dot of weld in the same place as the original spot weld. Would require knife to be dis assembled, might be kind of risky to the heat treating of the blade. (You know Bubba, I think I can lay a bead on that with the wire feed!) lol
2. Silver soldering the two parts together. Would require knife to be dis assembled. Not sure how strong this would be if the blade was used to open a can. Leverage when opening the can could cause the two parts to separate.
3. Drill a tiny hole thru both pieces, countersink the holes on both sides and pin with a steel pin. Could probably be done without dis assembling the knife. Would most likely be visible when done and might detract from the knifes value. The metal in the 2 parts is likely to be hard, but a carbide drill bit would do it.
4.I saw this recently here on AAPK, but can't remember who mentioned it, a process that I believe was called laser spot welding. It was described that the heat is so intensely localized that you could hold the part in your hand while welding it. Probably would not require dis assembly of the knife. Does anyone remember seeing this or who posted it?
Probably the only work this spot weld has to do is hold the two pieces together to facilitate opening the blade and having both parts come out together. In use I think both parts bear against the spring.
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muskrat man
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by muskrat man »

Any of those options will work. Laser welding would be the least invasive method and would probably run around $30-35
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ea42
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by ea42 »

A regular clamping spot welder would do the trick if you have enough room to get the tips in there.

Eric
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Jeffinn
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by Jeffinn »

I believe the post about laser welding was from Bill DeShivs.
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OLDE CUTLER
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by OLDE CUTLER »

Jeffinn wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 4:22 pm I believe the post about laser welding was from Bill DeShivs.
Thanks Jeff, I think you are right.
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orvet
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by orvet »

ea42 wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 4:13 pm A regular clamping spot welder would do the trick if you have enough room to get the tips in there.

Eric
I think I would be inclined to try the clamping spot welder myself. I have used them before and they don't generate a great deal of heat.
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just bob
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by just bob »

I'm pretty sure I would have an opener for that if you want to pay the postage I could send it.
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OLDE CUTLER
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by OLDE CUTLER »

The owner elected to have the two parts pinned. A hole was drilled thru both parts with a carbide drill bit, countersunk slightly with a carbide burr, pinned with a piece of coat hanger wire, and filed flat. No dis assemble needed.
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by doglegg »

Knice fix OC. ::tu::
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orvet
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by orvet »

Nice save! ::tu::
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by Reverand »

Nice work! From the picture you can never even tell that it happened!
I did something similar to an old Imperial punch once. Even after annealing the tang, I had to use a carbide glass/tile drill bit to drill the hole. Those old steels are hard!
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Jeffinn
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by Jeffinn »

That turned out great!
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Byrd
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by Byrd »

Great work! I can't even hardly tell where the pin is. I bet your friend is happy!
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Re: How to fix this?

Post by glennbad »

Looks factory to me!
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