Spinning Female Bolt, Need Help Removing!

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Fire_Brand

Joined
Dec 30, 2009
Messages
175
I have a knife I am trying to take apart because the lockbar needs adjustment, but I can't remove the screws because the female side of the bolt just spins in the frame. The screw heads are flush with the frame on both sides so I can't grip them and only one side is cut for a torx bit while the other is smooth. I have tried applying outward pressure (both by wedging folded paper between the handle slabs and by applying pressure against the blade :eek: ) but the bolts still manage to spin.

I figure that they must have had some method in the factory in order to tighten the bolts down in the first place but how did they do it? It would be a serious bummer if I couldn't get this knife apart because the lockbar doesn't go in far enough currently and is causing up and down play. Also sending the knife in to the manufacturer is not an option, I either need to find a repairman with the right tools or do it myself but any suggestions within that would be greatly appreciated! Thanks guys!

TL;DR Can't remove bolts holding together frame because both male and female sides spin! How do I take this knife apart?

Thanks,

-Fire_Brand
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Loctite.
Click to expand...

So just drip some loctite into the joint? I'll be honest I actually tried super glue in one of the joints (not the pivot joint) and it turns out super glue doesn't stick to titanium :/

I suppose I could give loctite a shot though...
 
I've seen suggestions here, about using a piece of rubber or similar grippy material, pressed firmly against the female side of the fastener, while turning the screw from the male side. Sometimes that gives just enough traction to get the two separated. I suppose a piece of wet/dry sandpaper, maybe folded for some extra thickness, might accomplish the same thing. Finer grit would obviously be preferable, to minimize scratching.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
I've seen suggestions here, about using a piece of rubber or similar grippy material, pressed firmly against the female side of the fastener, while turning the screw from the male side. Sometimes that gives just enough traction to get the two separated. I suppose a piece of wet/dry sandpaper, maybe folded for some extra thickness, might accomplish the same thing. Finer grit would obviously be preferable, to minimize scratching.
Click to expand...

I've been trying this approach as well, by itself it hasn't been working but I'm trying it in combination with outward pressure. I think I may be making progress but it is hard to tell, the pivot has more side to side play now so I think that is a good sign but I have no idea how they managed to get this so tight without setting the female bolt in some way. I still haven't tried the sandpaper(I'll save that for a last resort) and I'm looking for a grippier rubber to use (currently I'm using one of those rubber drawer liners that is suppose to prevent things from sliding around).

Thanks for the advice so far though guys! I'm going to keep on trying different techniques, If I manage to figure it out I'll let everyone know what worked for future reference.
 
Fire_Brand said:
I've been trying this approach as well, by itself it hasn't been working but I'm trying it in combination with outward pressure. I think I may be making progress but it is hard to tell, the pivot has more side to side play now so I think that is a good sign but I have no idea how they managed to get this so tight without setting the female bolt in some way. I still haven't tried the sandpaper(I'll save that for a last resort) and I'm looking for a grippier rubber to use (currently I'm using one of those rubber drawer liners that is suppose to prevent things from sliding around).

Thanks for the advice so far though guys! I'm going to keep on trying different techniques, If I manage to figure it out I'll let everyone know what worked for future reference.
Click to expand...

It may also be that the fastener was already loctited together. If so, sometimes heating the screw helps loosen it up. Some have utilized the tip of a soldering iron for such a situation. Maybe a combination of heat and the sandpaper would work. Applying heat is obviously a little riskier, if there are plastic/nylon components involved (like synthetic bushings/washers).
 
imaginefj said:
What kind of knife?
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Well I avoided posting this to prevent some hate, but I'll just tell you guys so you can understand the situation better. It is one of the Chinese sebenza knock offs (not a sanrenmu either, pretty much a shameless clone), and believe me you get what you pay for, but regardless I was curious enough to buy one. So either way it's pretty much identical to a large sebenza 21 (less the quality part of course) but the female bolts/sockets are just smooth and are not D shaped nor are they locked in in any way.

I wouldn't have messed with taking something of this quality apart in the first place except for the fact that there is not enough spring on the lock bar, and now that I've started to loosen the screws I feel pretty committed but I'm afraid now that unless I find some miracle technique to get this thing apart it's going to be totally ruined (side to side play is pretty significant now that I've been tinkering with it).

Worse yet since the quality is low on all the parts the screws are not hardened and are beginning to strip out so I have to be extra careful now trying to remove them which doesn't help when brute force is required.

Obsessed with Edges said:
It may also be that the fastener was already loctited together. If so, sometimes heating the screw helps loosen it up. Some have utilized the tip of a soldering iron for such a situation. Maybe a combination of heat and the sandpaper would work. Applying heat is obviously a little riskier, if there are plastic/nylon components involved (like synthetic bushings/washers).
Click to expand...

I was thinking there may be loctite in there and I've actually been using a lighter directly against the screw head to heat it up, and I actually think this is the one way I have made progress, it's just incredibly tedious. This may be the trick though to finally getting it apart but since making the meager gains I have the screws aren't turning any easier so I don't know if I've broken it free or if there is even loctite at all.

Thanks again guys I appreciate all the suggestions!
 
I would just take a run to Home Depot and get another torx bit to hold the other side still.
 
I had a similar situation with a Kershaw Shallot. I put a length of 1/4" wide rubber band under the head of the pocket clip and tightened the pocket clip screws to put pressure on the head of the T-nut. You may be able to make a jig out of bar stock which will apply pressure to the female side of the screw set and still give you access to the male side. Using 2 bars with 2 screws holding them together, the bar on the male side could have an access hole in it. If you didn't feel drilling and tapping the jig, you could use C clamps.
 
sandpaper is a good tip but try applying some superglue to the pivot head and then a piece of sandpaper grit side to the head. then glue on another piece but back to back. that might give it enough grip to break loose.

if this does not work i would try to apply a soldering iron to the torx side first to help break loose any locktite they might have used.
 
Are you sure it's a screw and not just a fancy rivet?

You could try supergluing or epoxying a nut to the top of the bolt. If it works, you can use heat or acetone to remove it later

One method of last resort when dealing with something like this is to use a dremel tool with a cutting wheel to cut a slot in the top of the bolt
 
If you dont mind a couple of small marks, take a center punch and "stake" about 3 locations around the head, I did this on a Leek that was tough to take apart, and it worked great, just catch the edge of the frame and the spinning portion of the pivot and punch it. This displaces a small amount of metal and causes enough interference to hold the screw captive.
 
Hey guys,

I really appreciate all of the responses, I tried many of them (including the whole jig system to apply pressure) and I have finally been able to remove the screws. I ended up cutting slots into the female bolts so I could use a flat head screw driver, and basically through slowly loosening and tightening each side and making small progress I finally broke the screws free and was able to take it apart. It turns out someone in the factory just way over did it on the loctite (though it wasn't actual loctite and didn't free up from heat, I used both a lighter and a soldering iron).

Either way I now have a somewhat beat up looking but now fully functional knife!

Thanks for all the tips!
 
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