Hey guys, I just went out and got myself about a dozen tubular locks for mesurments and I am now going to make myself a 7 pin pick. The 7 individual picks that push the pins down are a small gauge of steel (can't exactly remeber the size ) and the main body is going to be made out of aluminium on a metal lathe.

I'll upload some picture when I'm done

Hey Slim,

Where'd you get the locks?

SlimPickens, i'm in the process of trying to do the same, but i don't have the pleasure of havig acess to a lathe, or actually seeing a real tubular pick (reverse engineering from pics and diagrams). I'd love to get a dependable method/design of making a tubular picks that could be shared with others. the biggest issues i have faced are making the parts with the exact size & uniformity required (a lathe will really make the body easy to make). the other issue is getting uniform adjustable tension/friction on the pins. all my attempts so far have been to sloppy to use.

perhaps we can use this thread to help share ideas and designs for anyone interested in a DIY tubular pick.

The tubular pick of that design that I own, uses a rubber O-ring for tension. The O ring sits inside a machined sleeve, which is securly fasted around the body of the tool. Tightening of an outer nut forces a small metal ring to compress the O ring longitudinally. THe O-ring tends to expand radially.

CitySpider- I have the luck of knowing a few people who work in Coca-Cola, and is a machine has be vandalized beyond repair or has been in a fire they are sent to the nearest manufacturing plant dismantled for salvageable parts. However since the locks are all from different areas and getting the keys for them is hectic they just throw them into a box at the back of the shop to never be seen again.

PYRO1234321- Unfortunately I do not have a tubular pick to measure myself but I am measuring a variety of 7 pin tubular locks and they are all very, very close. I am fortunate to have a friend who owns a metal shop so I can work with his help and experience.

For tension I planed to make a notch similar to the inside of tubular keys. If this does not work so well for tension I will try the rubber O-ring method.

Due to a busy schedule I have just started to measure the locks but later this week I will be able to start work on the main body of the pick.

I once made a tubular pick. I found some metal tubing of the correct O.D. and used a milling cutter to open up the I.D. of the tube to the right size. Then I used a slotting saw in a mill to cut the slots for the pick feelers in the outside of the tube. In order to get the slots in the right place, I borrowed a "cross indexed rotary dividing head" to hold the pick while milling the slots. Then I made a notch where the turning nub for tensioning goes, and brazed a little piece of brass in there to apply turning tension. The pick feelers were made from standard flat spring stock of the correct size. For tensioning the feelers, I just used a rubber band, but found that lubricating the feelers with a little silicone grease could make it pick faster when used for ACE I type tubular locks. I could usually pick one of those in about 10 seconds, however the later ACE II locks needed a more refined tensioner for the feelers than a rubber band could provide. All in all, it was quite a bit of work to make, but the workmanship and machining tolerances are nicer than usual commercial tubular picks you can buy which probably accountd for a lot of how fast I could pick with it. The other thing that made it work fast was getting the right amount of controlled tension on the pick feelers.