Making a pick gun: Problems

[Gsus]

I've made a pick gun out of a coat hanger but is there a quick way of the flattening the end without a grinder?

[Romstar]

Yeah.

A hammer, and then a file.

Good luck,
Romstar

[captainsawdust]

or a blowlamp and a hammer and file

[Romstar]

Yeah, well given the crap that coat hangers are made of, the hammering might actually work harden it a little.

Any sort of torch is probably going to anneal it, and tempering is more an art for than a science when doing stuff like this.

Romstar

[captainsawdust]

i'll stick to woodwork then

not metalwork

[dry132]

Blowtorch the area you want to flatten to a nice cherry red, then pound it flat, reheating as necessary. Once it's flat enough, reheat to cherry red and let it cool as slowly as you can figure out how. Air-cooling is okay, but it's generally better if you can cool it even slower, like wrap it in a bit of fiberglass (NON-flammable!) insulation or in a hot salt bath on the stove or similar.

Once it's cool, file it into the shape you want it to be in, then reheat it to cherry red and quench in water or oil. This makes it nice and brittle, so you need to anneal it to keep it from breaking. To anneal it, sand or polish the surface carefully so it's kind of shiny. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it needs to be shiny enough that you can tell when the metal turns blue. If there is black crud all over it from the quenching then you'll never be able to tell when the proper temperature is reached.

Once it's shiny, heat it up slowly while watching the metal in a bright light until you see a dark bluish/purplish color start to migrate up the metal, and don't heat it any hotter than that! If you do it will be too brittle. Once the entire "heat treated" area has been blued this way, let it cool as slowly as possible again. Use that insulation if you have it, or air cool if you have no other way. Then sand it and polish it, and you'll have a nearly indestructible pick.

As Romstar said, it's a bit of an art, but one that is far easier to learn than picking is! Just a little practice and you'll have it down.

I use this same technique to treat all my homemade picks and tension wrenches, and I have yet for one to break on me.

In all, it's probably just easier to file the darn thing flat in the first place. But if you want to heat treat it after that, now you know how


Good luck!

[Romstar]

That's not a bad description of how to do this particular technique.

Good work Dry.

Romstar

[Jas0n]

i wouldnt heat the coat hanger else it would make the metal britel and may snap off under strain

[Spectrum]

Dry, that was very helpful.
Thank you

[glasskey]

Gsus, I would like to see a photo of your pickgun if you can get it on here... if you can,but I noticed my HTML is turned off and I don't know how to get it on. ?? hope you don't have the same problem..

[Peaky]

Dont put heat near it if its a coat hanger, the heat will spread to the spring and you wont get it right again!,

Do as romstar said, hammer it flat on a hard/flat surface not level, flat like an anvil or block of steel or vice jaw if desparate, dont hit too hard to try and make it in one go, hammer it methodically until it is the right size, you can hammer differant areas of the wire to make it move in differant ways to keep it straight, one big hit with a sledge hammer will not allow this, once hammered file square and as romstar says the wire will be work hardened enough to last until mk2 pick gun (which will happen)

[Orange_Crusader]

How about heating and flattening it before it's bent? Unless the heat spreads to a part of the future spring, and it's not treated properly, it should be ok. Part of the metal, if it's not all treated, might behave differently, and that could be a problem. I'd have to agree with the simple hammering method, until you get some more experience.

[NKT]

You can easily stop the heat spreading too far by using a sink. Generally this means a set of mole grips for the amateur metal-worker, or heavy steel pliers for the total beginner.

Just clamp a few cm from where you want to put the spring, then heat treat the other end. Start heating from the far end.

You can use water as a great indicator of how far the heat has spread, too.

If you are heating with a little torch, you will probably have to heat the end then walk the flame slowly along the length to get it all hot at once. This is far from ideal. Try placing the wire through the flame from behind the head of the torch, turn it up high and work from the tip.

Once cherry red, the wire will be very soft, so you can then easily flatten it with a hammer on another steel surface. Just remember that the steel anvil will draw the heat out of your work quite quickly, espcially anything thin or small.

HTH