dental tools

[BigDaddyD]

Does anyone have an opinion on the use of dental tools as lockpicks?

I bought a few some time ago and have ground down the shanks to fit the keyways and have modified the ends somewhat to more closely resemble lock picks.

I find I can feel the individual pins much easier with the dental tools than with my (homemade) set of picks ground from hacksaw blades. The handles are longer as well and seem to fit my hand better.

Just curious if anyone else has tried this.

[LocksmithArmy]

Does anyone have an opinion on the use of dental tools as lockpicks?

I bought a few some time ago and have ground down the shanks to fit the keyways and have modified the ends somewhat to more closely resemble lock picks.

I find I can feel the individual pins much easier with the dental tools than with my (homemade) set of picks ground from hacksaw blades. The handles are longer as well and seem to fit my hand better.

Just curious if anyone else has tried this.

id love to see these dental :picks: of yours... sounds awsome

iv herd they make good picks but never expierienced any for myself

[Raymond]

I tried some dental tools a few times but found them to be too brittle. Perhaps they could be heat treated to reduce this brittleness and make them more springy.

[pin_pusher]

i tried some dental probes and scrappers, but as stated, they are brittle. they can move some levers however, but as far as moving pins they are often to large to fit into the plugs entrance. has anyone tried to clean their teeth with lockpicks? (that's the interesting twist here)

[BigDaddyD]

A picture of some of the dental tools used as lockpicks:

The background is 0.25" squares for reference. The single ended picks are about 6 inches in length overall. The shanks have been ground down to approx .025 to .050 inches in order to fit the keyways. More grinding may be necessary to slim them down even more. As long as you keep them cool in water every few seconds, there doesnt seem to be much of a problem. They are stainless steel and very tough.

They are brittle, much more than the picks made from hacksaw blades, and they wont take any sideways bending. I did a slight amount of heat treatment with a propane torch which seems to help. The second from the bottom is one of the broken ones although the small pick on the end is great for locating and counting wafers and pins - but not lifting. The top one has a rake that really works on wafers. The bottom one is the best lifting picks on both ends. Haven't tried them on lever locks (don't have any yet).

BDD

[BigDaddyD]

Well, I seem to have screwed up the image address by not capitalizing the right things. And when I got that straightened out, I find the pic is way bigger than the blog area and I dont seem to be able to crop it down with anything I have. So if you want to see a picture of the pics, goto

www.flatechnologies.com/Pics/DSC01677.JPG

Sorry. (Hey, this IS only my third post.)

BDD

[LocksmithArmy]

haha those are neat looking

[jos weyers]

has anyone tried to clean their teeth with lockpicks?

haven't we all?

[LocksmithArmy]

has anyone tried to clean their teeth with lockpicks?

haven't we all?

teeth ears nose... lockpicks make good cleaning tools

[pin_pusher]

teeth ears nose...

i'm glad you stopped there

[straightpick]

[quoteI tried some dental tools a few times but found them to be too brittle. Perhaps they could be heat treated to reduce this brittleness and make them more springy.
][/quote]

The problem is that the "dental tools" that are available are the ones that were rejected for dental usage, that is, the steel wasn't heat treated correctly. They are available for 3 or 4 dollars - the ones your dentist uses cost about 10 times as much. Do you ever recall one of the dental picks your dentist uses breaking on him?

[Raymond]

YES, during my oral surgery. A molar shattered during surgery and the pieces were very well attached. The surgeon was not happy. I had him by the llevos and we were trying not to hurt each other.

The dental picks I had tried came from the dentist after they got a little too dungy to use in anyone's mouth. I always ask for throwaway quality medical instruments. You can get great tweezers and hemostats too sometimes.

[BigDaddyD]

I would think that if you broke one of these stainless tools while picking, you are using way too much force. Other than tension wrenches none of the tools need to have that much pressure on them.. Unless, or course, you are trying to overcome binding force???? And thats a whole other can of worms. If the lock is that tough, I'll take a drill, hammer, or bolt cutter to it and save my picking tools.

I've broken the tools as well, but its during the fabricating process, generally when trying to bend the tip to a new position. A touch of heat from a propane torch to a dull orange color allows bending. Reheating to just below dull orange and then a water quench seems to harden them up while allowing a little bit of springiness.

BDD

[shinja2017]

These instruments are ideal for jewelers,mechanics,fishermen, gun repairs,and generally for dentists.And these are very useful in everyday living.

If you have these set you're lucky because it is slight expensive and have limited stocks on stores.

[raimundo]

I don't know where your at, but many places may have a surplus store like the Ax Man on university ave in St Paul, where you can find a lot of surplus electronics and tools of every kind,
You should ask around your area to see if you have such a place

The ax man can sell you dental tools cheap.