Fatboy stuck adjustment dial

neongas

Member
Joined
May 4, 2021
Location
Melbourne
So I finally received my Fatboy which took 2 weeks to reach my office in Oakleigh East from Mill Park. It's not in the best of shape, and the adjustment dial is stuck fast. It literally won't budge, not even a little give. The doors do open and shut fine.

I didnt have much time so i gave it quick soak in soapy hot water. I'm hoping its just hardened gunk and not a fully rusted/seized thread or mechanism. It does look pretty bad as you can see from the photo. When I get home it's going to spend a lot of time in my little ultrasonic cleaner. I read on one forum someone had it soaking for weeks (!). Has anyone tried WD-40 on it? Or not recommended?

I messaged the seller but I don't think it's worth returning it as she didnt know anything about razors and it'd just be someone else's problem. Hopefully I can get a partial refund or something.

Wish me luck!

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First of all try a regular household cleaner, hot water and the ultrasonic a few times around. You might be surprised what you can shift.

If no joy, then ignore normal WD-40, get a penetrating oil and soak it in that.

What penetrating oil? I cannot remember what I've used, but much more effective than WD-40 - somebody else might chime in.
 
@neongas I had good results with this oil on a Gillette Slim with a hard to budge dial.
I've used this oil on a number of razors, works great. Don't worry too hard over toxicity or skin exposure levels and what not, you'll be cleaning much further after this initial repair oiling before taking it to your face for a shave. Use what ever you have to (not acid!!) to get it operating properly, then clean clean clean.
There is a product called "penetrene" penetrating oil, if that helps. Might be a bit pricey for the few drops you want though.
 
3 rounds in the ultrasonic cleaner with morning fresh, total of 36 mins. There was some crud floating around, and the dial was still stuck. Not even a smidgen of movement. I decided to go straight to the mineral oil soak.
 
@neongas I had good results with this oil on a Gillette Slim with a hard to budge dial.
I've used this oil on a number of razors, works great. Don't worry too hard over toxicity or skin exposure levels and what not, you'll be cleaning much further after this initial repair oiling before taking it to your face for a shave. Use what ever you have to (not acid!!) to get it operating properly, then clean clean clean.
There is a product called "penetrene" penetrating oil, if that helps. Might be a bit pricey for the few drops you want though.
+2 this is a good all round general purpose oil. We always kept a bottle of sewing machine oil in the house for those little odd jobs and this is the closest thing I can find.

A few light but sharp taps might help loosen the crud and free up the mechanism
 
I realised that the bottom plate doesn’t move up or down at all when the doors are open , which my slim does. Must be caked to high heaven. I read one forum post elsewhere that someone used paint thinner. Another, auto degreaser.

A few light but sharp taps might help loosen the crud and free up the mechanism
Which part do I tap?
 
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Around the adjuster and between knob and baseplate with the side of a fork not hard enough to damage just a few taps between soaking in penetrating oil and cleaning.
 
I'm no expert, But I reckon:;)
If your dial is on 1, the engraved bottom plate would be at it's lowest position on the handle neck. Adjusting the numbers higher pushes the that plate up towards the base plate. Open your barn doors right up, and If you can't push the bottom plate manually up away from the dial (towards the base plate/blade, you may have gunk obstructing the cavity above the movable base. Think toothpick type of tool to clean that gunk out, from the side of the razor, between the 2 plates where there is no room (except for a toothpick) when the doors are opened. Look on your slim to see how this functions and you'll see what I mean.
Hope this helps.
 
Throwing everything I have at it lol. Took it out of the oil bath and used some ph neutral car detailing degreaser I have, more detergent, hot water and ultrasonic again.

I had a look under there it doesn’t look like there’s gunk. It feels like everything is just fused together. Predictably seller not replying me even though I can see she read my message.

Oh well. Lesson learnt. Should have asked if the adjustment dial worked before buying.
 
From the pic you can see the bottom plate is actually stuck in a higher setting while the adjustment dial is sitting at 1.

I could probably shave with it now and it’s probably at my preferred aggression anyway. Obviously it defeats the purpose of adjustability.

I’m just gonna keep soaking it. Two weeks of waiting for a potential dudboy. Sigh.
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Put the handle in a vice and use a pipe wrench with a 6-foot cheater bar on it. The principle is: if it won't move, then force it. If it breaks, then it's due for replacement anyway.
HTH, no charge... :LOL:
 
From the pic you can see the bottom plate is actually stuck in a higher setting while the adjustment dial is sitting at 1.

I could probably shave with it now and it’s probably at my preferred aggression anyway. Obviously it defeats the purpose of adjustability.

I’m just gonna keep soaking it. Two weeks of waiting for a potential dudboy. Sigh.

Might be the picture but your spring clip looks bent. Here's a pic of my Fatboy

oPia6Xw.jpg


Does the plate move freely like Matt shows in this video?

 
looks like a bit of extra spring clip that's not meant to be there

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Does the plate move freely like Matt shows in this video?


Nope, it's stuck. I actually have CLR; I'll give that a go tomorrow.

looks like a bit of extra spring clip that's not meant to be there

69rBafJ.png
I can move the red spring up and down with a toothpick, it's probably not seated properly since the riser plate is stuck in the up position.

I looked at some Fatboy teardowns and it's possibly 2 decades worth of hardened gunk which I'm not going to get out in one night.

https://www.atgshaving.com/threads/fatboy-repair.18434/
http://vintagesaws.com/fatboy/fatboy.html

I'll keep up the chemical assault as I don't want to go down the road of disassembly since it's a crimped end Fatboy, unless I really have to. I read the trick is to use a 5mm socket and give it a few whacks at the end to open it up, then long nose pliers when reassembled to crimp it again. Of course the potential for things to go wrong are much higher when you have to use brute force.
https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/how-to-late-fatboy-and-slim-disassembly.46559/
 
Seller got back to me and said she didn’t know about the razors function but assumed that I would have asked since I was interested 🤦🏻‍♂️ She insisted that as per the ad it was “in perfect working order” as it can still shave and she was not to know its full functions. I argued she listed it as a fatboy which meant there was some inkling or research about it but I was hitting a brick wall at that point. She offered a $20 partial refund and I took it.
 
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