Milling Liner for Folder

Patrickknives

Patrickknives

Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Messages
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I have been soldering my bolsters onto my liners and it takes quite a bit of work and its hard to keep the whole piece flat duing the assemby process.

I bought a small mill that that should be heavy enough to do the job. I plan to mill 416 SS. I am starting with a piece of 3/16 and plan to remove out 1/8. I think this is a little thick but I have ordered some 1/8. I am planning to use a 4 flute 3/8 carbide endmill. I am making a aluminum table to hold every thing down and will place the liners side by side to get the cut even on both.

Anything you suggest?? I can see how up I can see how I can do climb milling on one end of the cut for a good edge but how can I get a good edge on the other end of the cut without turning the piece around, I cannot reverse direction on this machine.
 
I mill my handles from stainless and titanium, usually with a 10mm 2 flute carbide slot drill. I start with 4mm thick material and mill down to 2mm. I don't have a problem with milling both ends and I don't turn them around for each end. I usually leave a fraction of a millimetre at both ends until I have milled to the required depth then finish mill both ends to make sure they are completely square. I check with a lens to make sure.

I use a fixture to locate and clamp down the handles before milling to make sure both sides match perfectly

Theres a titanium handle folder with milled handle and front and rear bolsters.

 
I purchase .138 thick 410 sheet stock from Slice of Stainless. A bit tougher to machine than 416 but I find I have very little waste. I mill .104 leaving .032 liners. I surface grind one side first taking about .002 to clean the side up.

I use a standard 4 flute endmill running around 900 rpm and use dark cutting oil. I will take .015 per pass. I use the table stops and a pin through the bolster into a tooling plate. This is how I get a mirror pile side frame and bolster. I do not know if it saves any time over soldering. Depending on the size of the knife along with how I clamp depends on if I get any warp or not. If i do , i use a small square to bend the liner/bolsters straight.

While many, many millions of slipjoints have been made with bolsters attached either by solder or some other means, I believe that integral bolsters are the way to go, but just my opinion.

Hope this helps a bit.

Ken
 
Thanks to both of you very helpfull, I think the billit is going to be better to cure a bending problem I have. Seems that a very little temperature change can bend the liner when the handle is glued in place. The time I spend on straightening will be paid for in the milling. This I think is the next step to move my folder up and give me a chance at a multi-blade.
 
Patrickknives said:
Seems that a very little temperature change can bend the liner when the handle is glued in place.
Click to expand...

I run into this problem with milled integral bolsters/frames also. If you come up with a way to cure this let me know!:D

I have had better luck, making sure the scale material is not fit too tight to start with and as an experiment I have relied only on the scale pins. This cured the problem but I normally will use super glue between the scale and frame.

Good luck on your multi-blade!

Ken
 
I've been using 1/8" 416 and milling it out on a jig I made to fit in my vise. I take them down to .040 for the liners. I like to HT mine when Im done as well, makes for a better finish and takes the flex out of the liners.
 
I hope I get this right, your HT will take the flex out of the liner? Mind in I ask how you do your HT, this is the cure I am looking for.

to deal with the warping I have warmed the parts prior to assembly which helps alot. I can see where a glue that is not fully drying would help as well. I dont have much trouble with bone but wood is a mess.
 
Heat to 1000*F for 5 min and oil quench, temper 350 for 2hrs. thats how I do it anyway, there may be other ways.(do not temper above 400)

It takes most of the flex out, it will still flex a little bit, but it will spring back to shape more as well.
 
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