Thumb screws keep loosening
- This topic has 28 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 08/07/2020 at 3:55 am by
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Welcome to the forum Jim. The WE100 is one of the most basic model sharpeners Wicked Edge offers with the least adjustment capabilities. Positioning your guide rods based on the inscribed markings and indents are just a suggestion and an approximation of the actual bevel angles. Like “airscapes” wrote above, these indents are calibrated with a 5/8″ tall knife above the jaws, which many knives are not.
If your thumb screws are not directly in line with the indents in the square bar, when positioning your guide rods, when attempting to tighten the thumb screws, they may not insert the full depth into the detent to afford the maximum holding power. Then they may rattle loose when using the guide rods. This may well be what’s happening. Sometimes jiggling the angle bracket better aligns the screws with the indent to allow deeper penetration of the threads. Some people use a towel or a tool like a pliers to afford a better grip on the thumb screws to apply more pressure. (Be careful using a pliers on the thumb screws. This can easily strip the threads out on the bracket arms or possibly twist the head off the thumb screw). If it continues to be an issue possible a non-permanent type thread lock product like “Locktite” may help.
Some people choose to rotate the square angle bar 180º so the detents are facing to the rear. This does two things.
- it allows you to position the angle bracket freely along the square bare with out the use of the detents.
- It requires the thumb screws to tighten against the flat square bar itself causing small screw dents when enough pressure is applied
If you rotate the square around 180º you loose the demarcations and indents used to position the angle brackets. This is when the Digital Angel Cubes suggested by “airscapes” and “Organic” comes into play. These allow an alternate and more accurate method to set you guide rod angles. You may still find the thumb screws will come loose after rotating the square bar. Again the recourse is to apply more tightening pressure. There are two opposing threaded screw holes in the “L” bracket. A second 10-32 threaded screw can be inserted in the second opposing hole. This applies opposing locking pressure and holds the “L” brackets more tightly. As seen in the photo below:
Good lock and welcome
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)The WE100 is a knife sharpener. It’s best to grind the edge profile on your newly made knives with a suitable method like a belt grinder. Then you can easily sharpen these knives with the W.E. To grind the edge profile from the new flat knife blank using just the W.E. puts a lot more wear on the W.E. sharpening stones then they are meant for. They will wear out prematurely.
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)1 user thanked author for this post.
Jim, turning the bar around fixed the issue for me. I really do not know if this is an issue for a majority of users. It may just be as new users we don’t take the time to fully center the screw in the indent and just crank it down. Now that it is no centered, it then comes loose. Once you turn the bar so there are no indents, it stays put.. My assumption is this is a problem but in fact I have only seen 4 or so posts recently about loose thumb screws, along with my own experience. So I kind of misrepresented the issue. On the flip side, once you get the angle gauge you will be able to set the angle where you want it rearguards of knifes height.
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In the L bracket the threads for the thumb screw go all the way through so I put a nylon bolt in those threads on the back side of the L bracket. that stopped the “Wicked Edge” thumb screw from vibrating out.
I have the old L bracket that was made before 2017. I do not own the new version.
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