ratyoke's picks

[Jaakko]

Probably won't be making anymore like these, at least not exactly like these. They look simple, but they were way too much work.

Round bar, mill with a slotting disc, a ball form tool bit on a lathe and 10 minutes + the actual pick heads?

[ratyoke]

Round bar, mill with a slotting disc, a ball form tool bit on a lathe and 10 minutes + the actual pick heads?

Pretty much, except I used a file to make the round ends. The set up for cutting the slots was one of the difficult steps for me. Along with tapering the thickness of the pick steel.
The entire handle in 10 minutes? You are clearly a better machinist than I.

[Jaakko]

Well, looking at those pictures it looks to be just a rod with turned grooves, rounded ends, a few axial grooves (which by the way can be done on the lathe also, just use the carriage as a broach), a some sort of hole in the end and then two holes for the attaching screws/rivets (on a drill press).

Insert stock in the lathe, center drill, use live center, turn the grooves, switch to broaching tool, make axial grooves, rechuck it to near the chuck, drill the end, switch ball end forming tool, form the end, flip around and form the other end. Put in the drill press, make two holes. Easy

[raimundo]

Slot the whole rod for both picks as one piece would help in just eliminating having to reset material in the lathe.
The design also looks like it could incorporate a set screw and have several extra tips from sweeper bristle size stock in a drilled out back end, for using the handle storage for several tips. obvioulsly the concept may need refinement, a pressure lock like a vise grip has would be a good way to tighten the tang of the pickshaft, You could cap the end with a screw in spite of the slot and with proper fitting of that screw, it would also prevent them from dropping out that slot. Well its an idea that I had looking at it, there are commercial attempts at makeing picks with tips held in the handle, but most of them are not that good, I am sure some of the talented pickmakers here could prove that it takes artisanship to make something like that well.

[RangerF150]

Probably won't be making anymore like these, at least not exactly like these. They look simple, but they were way too much work.

I'm not quite sure why someone would try to belittle the workmanship that went into these, awesome stuff, best dimple picks out there
In my experience, that which looks simple to do, is usually the hardest !

[ratyoke]

Well, looking at those pictures it looks to be just a rod with turned grooves, rounded ends, a few axial grooves...

Yep that's what it is, but it still wasn't fast for me to do.

I never knew about cutting a slot with the lathe like that. I will try it someday.

Its not a hole drilled for the pick. There is a slot cut all the way through the handle for the pick. If you look at the top edge of the top pick you can see barely see the steel along the edge. I thought I took a pic showing it, but I can't find it.

I'll leave the picks with interchangeable tips to someone else, it doesn't really interest me. I prefer separate picks without having to change tips.

[Jaakko]

ratyoke, how did you make the pick ends and from what?

[ratyoke]

ratyoke, how did you make the pick ends and from what?

1mm high carbon steel feeler gauge stock. Drilled holes for the screws. Ground them on a grinder to close to the right shape, filed the taper in thickness so they are .5mm at the tip. Finished shaping them, rounded the edged that were requested to be round, sanded and polished.

[roxylass]

jon your work is superb full stop.

[cppdungeon]

BEAUTIFUL. i don't know why but that color and shape are appealing. keep up the good work! dont get discouraged by it being hard!

--Cpp

[savs2k]

wow those are some nice picks. I'm going to try to make myself a carbon fiber set sometime next month but I dont think they can compare to yours. Keep it up

[bembel]

Very nice work indeed. I enjoyed the pictures very much.
Congratulations.

[oi_punk]

whats the prise on these gorges picks? 1 or a set ?

[Engineer]

That is a good bit of machining! I like the idea of them being "Watermelon Picks", sort of a good name for them.

Don't worry about the time they took. Speed comes with making more of them. All protoypes take longer than normal, as apart from anything else, you usually want to make them with as much care as you can, so you naturally take more time and pay more attention to doing them.

There's also some quite serious Zen-like stuff about slowing down for the first time you make something and it actually being good for you as you take in more of the experience and learn the precise control necessary more throughly.

[5thcorps]

I'd love to try out htis process but with my 2 year old running around I won't keep acid within a mile.