Picks from Meccano

[Oli-Picka]

I have made a pick from meccano and a grinder ad it is working rather well, i was wondering if there were any mre materials i could use to make picks from. Im a bit of a newbie and 14 but ive ben intrested sice i was 12 just no tacted on buying/making a set. The reason i havent bought a set is that noone wants to buy me 1!!! This is a wickskid site and is very helpful. Thanx all you guys!!!

Oli

[cormu]

good items to use on grinder is Hacksaw blades,

and steak/butter knifes also,

It is very important that during grinding not to heat the mettel too much or it will get brittle and easely brake,

anyhow if you do find the cash for manufactured picks I can definatlly recommend them particually the southord slimline set www.southord.com

[Chubby]

Going by the quality of southord, they also could do with making some of their picks from brick strap, and steak/butter knifes, it would be an improvement on the materials they're using...

[cormu]

? how is that it is harden spring steel and I have never had to replace any of my picks from them ... in fact They are some of the best picks I have used .. although I would like to try the Falle ones.

[Oli-Picka]

Whats the deal with sprung steel?

I dont like southord because im UK based and i cant be botherreed with importing and stuff so i thought id make my own set, just bought a varialble-speed grinder for 40 pounds. Money is no problem as i jave a part-time/fulltime job.

Its not the pick its the hand which holds it

[macaba]

I make my picks out of Carbon Steel (for picks) and Steel (for tension tools) hacksaw blades. They look very nice and professional, and i dont like the look of the handles on the Southord ones. So i made my own lock picking tools for £2 and i still havnt used all the hacksaw blades.

However i conpliment Oli-Picka on his constructive use of french lessions, as i never got anything from french, and found it laborious. So instead of meccano, go down to ya local market (with a DIY stall) buy some hacksaw blades, if they bend without snapping (and staying bent) they are steel, if they snap (BE VERY CAREFUL, IT HURTS YOUR HAND, not to mention bits flying towards ya eyes) they are carbon steel. Also on the same market stall buy a stone grinder thing about 5-8cms in diamitor which is designed to be put in the chuck of a power drill, make sure, as they are cheapy to strew up the strew holding the stone to the shaft. I brought all this for £2. I would also buy some eye protection- well worth it (i already had it) having goggles has prevented superglue from going into my eye- who said it was alrite to use superglue without eyewear?

It is my experience that caretakers will then usually bash the lock until it opens! So save them the trouble and get more pratise!

Be cautious.

macaba

[Oli-Picka]

Wow macaba that was a long and very informative post, how do you actually get the carbonfibre into a pick shape? I have a bench grinder wheich i use anyway and the cost me 40 outta a screwfix catalogue and its working well for me. how thick does a tension wrench need to be or no be?

[macaba]

A fellow lock-picker in need is a friend indeed!
i isnt carbon FIBRE i use, it is carbon STEEL, this is a hacksaw blade material. After re-reading the rest of the thread, i relised you had brought a bench grinder and it is a good start. i think it would be useful for getting the rough shape at least, and it depends on your skill and whether the grinding disc has a sharp edge to do precise grinding. Any idea as to the diamitor of the grinding disc?

What i do is decide in my head what shape i want the pick to be, then i start to grind the rough shape. If you think you will have difficulty remembering the shape then mark on the shape by sraching it. What i do when thinking of a shape is to think of the type and size of lock you want to use it on (for me, my first pick was one that would be right for fileing cabinets and freezer locks!- bit bigger than ya average pick, so it wouldnt work on Yales very well) I usually make the total length of the pick wallet sized so it fits in my wallet diagonally. Then i make the thin part that goes in the lock 5-10mm longer than the longest (or deepest) lock i am going to use it one. The 5-10mm is to allow room for the tension tool handle. Then the shape on the end is whatever i fancy. The first one i made was the 'rake' shape, this looks like =======^ sorta like a mountain on the end. This shape still serves me, but soon i will be making a small hook shape to try smaller locks (i have some small locks in my toolbox). As i use a smaller diamitor grinding disc than a bench grinder, it is easyier to get more precise control.

Tension Wrenches- By thickness, some would interpret that as material thickness, which is whatever the material you use is (i only use hacksaw blades) But im guessing you may mean width. My width is determined by the screwdriver i used to use, so i would suggest finding some (electrical?) screwdrivers, trying them out, get the one that works nicest on the lock you like, then duplicate the width.

macaba

[Varjeal]

For those interested, I measured the actual thickness (not width) of some of my picks.

They avereaged .026 of an inch or .66mm for all you metric people.

Hope that helps some.

[macaba]

Hey Thanks Varjeal!

That is very useful, so are they the standard Southord picks? or the european variant, or another company?

They are thinner than my hacksaw blades so i suspect in the future i will buy some to evaluate them. No point argueing which is better as this is covered in another topic, and i will find out myself.

[Varjeal]

Most of the ones I had handy were Rytan, but HPC's and others are approximately the same and range between .020 and .030 in thickness. Of course, the thinner the better with more restricted keyways.

[macaba]

I am of the metric generation! So im guessing between .60 and .70 mm? Yes thinner lockpicks are good for restricted keyways, but smaller tools also help.

[Varjeal]

My bad...that'd be between .50mm and .75mm.