Saturday, March 24, 2012

SpanSlides!

Hi Folks,

Hey, any Strider Knives fans in the house? :D

As many of you may remember, some years ago I made a few batches of Prybabies(R) and I incorporated a spanner wrench in the butt end to fit the pivot pins on Strider folding knives. Well, I won't be making any more of the Spannerbabies, but I still get requests quite frequently for them. So recently I was playing around with my old school AR folder and I realized that there might be a way to incorporate the spanner tabs into a Lanslide bead. So, after some quick drawings and a couple of days spent fine tuning the design at the machine shop I have some of these little beauties ready to rock and roll.

The SpanSlides have a jewel like quality to them. They are made of 1/2" titanium bar stock and there's quite a bit of milling involved to get them to work correctly. They are roughly the same size as the 5 rib Longslides, slightly longer if you take the spanner wrenches into account. I wanted to make them so that they could be used when on a paracord lanyard so I milled a deep channel into the sides so the cord has a place to go and the resulting spanner works very well indeed. In addition, there is a deep O-ring groove for enhanced grip or to keep them quiet when banging against another metal object and a couple of o-rings are included with each one.

The first wave is rifle knurled and they are anodized green. I'll have blue ones coming up early next week and then some diamond knurled ones after that in various colors. Maybe I'll do some in plain bead blast finish on military colored cord for the folks in the service too.

The SpanSlides run $35 each plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for stopping by and hope everyone is having a great weekend!

First Wave is gone! Wow, that was quick. I have a ton more of these coming but this is all I had time to finish so far. Thanks so much everyone!






23 comments:

melman8r said...

Peter,
Very cool design, you're my gadget hero!

Anonymous said...

nice.

Rob said...

Any chance of a black one Peter? Really excited by this. Looks great. Sad I missed this one.

Murrrrrrrr said...

Wow! Must have just gotten in under the wire. Left Paypal and the link was gone. Don't have a folder to use these on but they'll look awesome on my green Prybaby or used on an old camera as a Lifeleash

vegassprky said...

Neat idea Peter. Would like to see a bead with 1/4 in. hex insert cut in the side of a bead, if thats at all possible? Just a thought. Gary :>)

The Maddox Family said...

GREAT IDEA!!! Any chance for a spanner for the xm18?

spiff said...

very cool, only if i have a PT.

Scott Hopkins MD DC said...

wonderful tool! I wish I had a use for a spanner tool. Its just so cool when you one thing that can be used for another like that.

egrep said...

Isn't it funny how $35 can get a guy to spend $500 more? Very cool twist on a lanyard bead Peter! Thank you!

Peter Atwood said...

Thanks guys!

These do not fit the small PT unfortunately. The PT has a press fit pivot on the side where the spanner slots are so it does not turn. All other models will work though.

OD and black are for aluminum only. These are titanium and the anodizing process is totally different so only my usual titanium colors will be possible.

Rick Hinderer has his own spanner size and his own spanner tool that he sells so I won't be making any spanners for the Hinderer knives.

CW said...

These are so sick, the ultimate knife lanslide tool combo. Looking forward to outfitting my AR and GB:)!

Anonymous said...

Count me in for a couple of the diamond knurled ones (right place, right time, and all that)..... cool design, Peter!

Dave67 said...

Looks great Peter, hope to get one.

toybot studios said...

ack..! really need this tool.. such a simple, yet fantastic idea

Chris K. said...

didn't leave a comment earlier... but thanks for letting me get one. i have been dying for a tool like this for my strider for a long time.

Kemtitec said...

Awesome looking. Was hoping to get one for my PT then realized there is no lanyard hole. Bummer.

Peter Atwood said...

It doesn't work on the PT because that one has a press fit pivot pin on the spanner side.

Alex said...

I am so impressed with the design of this tool. The paracord channels are particularly well conceived (and executed). Dieter Rams would be proud.

Paul V. said...

Man, these are awesome!

HighSpeedTROUBLE said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Murrrrrrrr said...

Mine just arrived. My favourite lanslides yet! Wish I had bought more than two!

Zaidee's Life said...

I will take one for my xm-18 too.

Randall said...

I now have 3 of these. They are super dooper! With Strider Knife Incorporated shutting its doors I doubt we will see any more of these.