Lenny Balisong Trainer

Balisongs are a type of folding pocket knife that originated from the Philippines and are a great/fun way to express your creativity. Similarly to how people express themselves through playing a musical instrument, I like to express my creativity through flipping balisongs.

The balisong trainer that I have created, in Ms. Berbawy's Principles of Engineering class, is a variation of an already existing balisong trainer called the Squiddy-B, a trainer from Squid Industries. Although the design is heavily inspired by the Squiddy-B, there are some changes that I made to the design to better suit my balisong preferences.

This instructable is my process on how I created the Lenny Balisong.

CAD Software:

My preferred CAD software that I used to design the Lenny Balisong is Fusion 360. However, you can use any CAD software that you are familiar with.

Materials/Tools for Assembly:

Squid Industries Squiddy Hardware Kit

Balisong Maintenance Kit

Squiddy Silencer Mods

Arbor Press

3/32'' Pins

3/16'' Pins

3D Printing:

Markforged Mark 2

Onyx Filament

First, I created the designs for the handles and blade in Fusion 360. I uploaded these CAD files to Thingiverse for anyone to see here. The designs for the components were all designed by me in Fusion 360 but were heavily inspired by the Squiddy-B

Then, I uploaded the files into a Slicer. I used eiger.io because I printed from a Markforged Mark 2.

I made sure to orient the handles so that the channels are facing upwards. This will ensure the best print.

I edited the default print settings on the application to best suit my prints. One balisong trainer requires 2 handles and 1 blade, which I printed at the same time on one build plate.

Once the handles and blade finished 3D printing, I cleared up a workspace so that I could begin removing the supports that printed with the components.

Using an exacto knife, I poked and peeled all the supports from the components.

Then, I stuck a small magnet to the bottom of the metal ram of an arbor press. I attached a 3/32'' pin to the bottom of the magnet so that the pin faced downward. This pin is the zen pin.

I lined up the handle under the zen pin and magnet. Then I slowly pressed down on the ram of the arbor press to gently press the pin into the handle.

I made sure to be extremely cautious during this process because too much force from the arbor press could easily shatter the handle.

I repeated this step for the 3/16'' pin for the bottom hole of the handle. This pin acts as the weight pin to add weight to the overall handle.

I repeated these steps again for the other handles. The ending result were two handles with the zen pins and weight pins successfully pressed in.

For this step, I used a hardware kit, maintenance kit, and the handles/blade that I previously prepared.

I took 2 washers and sandwiched them over the blade with one washer on each side. I slipped the blade along with the washer on each side into channel of the handle so that the pivot holes of the blade and handles lined up.

Then I stuck my T-10 Torx Driver into the washers, blade, and handle so that the parts stayed in place.

Next, I stuck a pivot onto the edge of my screwdrivers and pushed it into the handle so that all the parts stay into place.

I repeated these steps for the other handle so that the trainer is almost fully assembled.

I took the black screws that came with the hardware kit and applied a very small drop of loctite to the threads of the screw. Then, I lightly blew on the loctite so that it evenly coated all the threads of the screw.

The loctite is the shorter bottle of blue liquid from the maintenance kit.

Then I screwed in the screws into the handles using the T10 torx driver that came with the maintenance kit, making sure not to screw it too tightly.

I tested the handle swing of the balisong and adjusted how tight the screw is depending on the handle swing. I made sure to loosen the screw enough to where the handle swings freely but not too loose where the handle has too much play.

Once the balisong was tuned to my liking, I added a drop of lubricant to the top of each handle where the washers meet the blade. I repeated this step on both sides so that there's 4 drops of lubricant in total.

The lubricant is the taller bottle of clear liquid that came with the maintenance kit.

Finally, I swung the handles to work in the lubricant.

A helpful YouTube video I used for the tuning process is Squid Industries' guide on how to tune a balisong.

Next, I pressed in the nose pin. The process was extremely similar to when I pressed in the zen and weight pins into the handles.

Using an arbor press, I pressed the 3/16'' pin into the blade hole instead of the handle this time. I used a small metal plate with a hole to control how far the pin gets pressed in.

Once the nose pin was correctly pressed into the blade and centered, I put an O-ring on each side of the blade on the pin.

At this point, the balisong was complete! I started flipping it more and continued to adjust the tuning and added lubricant accordingly.

I am overall happy with this project. After assembling it, my initial thoughts were that it is very light even with the weight pins added. However, after flipping it for a few minutes, I got used to the weight and it actually became fun to use. I found myself fidgeting with the balisong very often while sitting at my desk and I am having a blast with it!