Lock pick Vs. Acid

[Anavaree]

Good news. Our tensile tester at work was more than able to break the pick.
Here it is;



It required 5.4467 KN or 1224.47 pounds of force to break. It deformed a little before breaking.

Now, the bad news.
I put the previously dipped pick in a cylinder of acid in order to reduce it. However, the increase in surface area submerged in acid caused a greatly increased reaction from the acid. Before I knew what was happening the acid had boiled over; eating a leather glove, an aluminum bottle of lubricant and a box.

It destroyed the pick while it was at it. I’ll have to start over.

Later,
~Jesse

[atticRR]

Oh man, dont leave us hanging! This is good stuff, nice set ups, good (aperture) science here. I really want to know how its all going to shake out. Keep it up!

[Anavaree]

Yeah I know, work has been really busy and I haven't had the time to dip the next pick. Our safety coordinator would freak out it they knew what I was doing. Gotta stay in the shadows. I will try to get to the next pick this week. Maybe tomorrow. gotta find the right thickness pick to start on.
Thanks for the interest.
~Jesse

[atticRR]

ha! he'd crap his pants all right! definately stay below the radar, its really interesting work you're doing so i'll be along for the ride. Honestly i thought that the corners of the picks would start losing form pretty fast as the acid is all around it instead of just along an edge. However, it doesnt seem that that is happening to any degree to be concerned with. Awesome.

look forward to the conclusion of these tests. Remember: Safety Third.

[Anavaree]

Well, thanks to the renewed interest I found the drive to move on. And boredom at work...
I just grabbed one of the last .0197 picks that I don't feel i'll use much.

So I threw it in.



I used an agitator to try to get a nice even surface on the pick. I never remember which way to hold my phone so the video is sideways, sorry.


This is just a cool picture.


Final surface on the pic once I pulled it out.


And the break:


Final tensile strength was: 4.0364KN or 907.42 pounds of force.

Finally I will have to mechanically reduce the next pick to the correct thickness and break that one. That might take awhile since it will be long and tedious.

Thanks all,
~Jesse

[Anavaree]

I finally had the time to finish this. I wet sanded this pick and threw it int he tensile tester.

It took me almost an hour of sanding to get this pick down to the right thickness.

The final tensile for this pick is, 4.4375KN or 997.589 pounds/force.

so final numbers

Original thickness, 5.4467KN or 1224.47 pounds/force
Acid Dipped, 4.0364KN or 907.416 pounds/force
Mechanically Reduced, 4.4375KN or 997.589 pounds/force

The acid dipped pick did show a slight reduction in tensile strength vs the sanded one. the previous posts show the change in flexibility the pick suffered and now this shows that the acid may have changed the structure of the metal.

Hope this is a clear completion of my little project.
Thanks,
~Jesse

[gloves]

I've been thinking about Anavaree's idea for quite some time, though I never experimented in dipping picks in acidic solutions by myself.

Rather I tried using them as anode to perform electrolysis of aqueous sodium chloride (been using it to engrave knives), and it works fast indeed due to elementary chlorine produced, too fast sometime to just fool around, though I never felt the need to apply it on ordinary pick making since I start from small stock which requires little sanding.


Cheers