How to Make a Snapper Pick by Sams Choice

[sams choice]

This guide, its pictures and written content is not to be reposted anywhere else or sold on cd's at ebay without the prior permission from myself and the admin of this site.


Alright I saw that someone in another thread said they haven't seen a guide for this, at least not one that is easy to find, so i decided to make a guide on how to make one. Let me know if you guys like it, yeah?

First the materials I use. Any of these can be substitued if you wish. I just dont have some of the proper tools myself. Ok you will need:

Coat Hanger (Metal)
Bench Grinder or Dremmel
Needle Nose Pliars
Ruler
Pole of some sort that is roughly 1 inch in diameter
Sand Paper (needed for success!)

[Moderator NOTE: Post is from 2006, original hosted photos are dead links now, sorry!


Alright, first thing that you have to do is cut off the top of the hanger and keep only the part that has two bends. Now bend these two bends straight.


(Very not needed photo!)

Now this is when i get the hammer and flatten the tip about 1-1/2 to 2 inches. Make sure that aftyer the flattening make a gradual ramp to the normal unflattened size of the hanger. this will make it stronger.


Make sure it is slim enough to fit loosly in a key way. Compare it to a key if you have to.

Now get your grinder and grind it down so that it is straight on both sides so it lookes like a really long small wedge. Grind it down so that it is the same width of the hanger. If you want it to open small padlocks, make it smaller then the width, but for 5 pin tumbler deadbolts and what not, it is a nice size. Now sand it so that it is extremly smooth. Round the tip on the grinder too to make it easier to get into the lock.

Here is a pics of it flattened and smoothed out.



Now at this point i like to sand the entire hanger to make it smooth, because later it will be impossible to sand. Now from the flatten tip measure out 6 inches and after the 6 inches bend the hanger at a 90 degree angle. This is where the spring is going to go.



Now bend it around the pole one time.




Now on the other long piece not the flattened tip, bend it to the right or left, depending on how you bent the spring, then up to go back and touch the flattened head part. To rephrase that look down at your pick from a birds eye view looking at the top of the flattened head. look at the spring and if it is coils to the left, then you bend it right. If it coils to the right, you bend it left. Look at the pictures, maybe that will help.






Once youy have done that pull down the flattened head so that if the other part was bent of it it will give it some tension. bend it over it to hold the flattened part down a little bit.


now bend it down the meet the part that was the whole right left or left right part. put it on the other side of the bar so that it is locked and the flattened head cannot leave the box that you just made.


Now cut it so that about a cm is sticking out and bend it so that it is locked closed.


Now it is complete! now how to hold it and use it properly. Thi9 is how it should be held with your ring finger through the spring hole, and your thumb on top to push down the bar.


This is what it will look like in a door (minus the tension wrench, I cant do that and take a picture!) If you are curious, that is a Schlage Dexter lock.


The way it works is that when it is flicked, the flat head stays in place till the bar comes back down and hit it, which makes it flick hard against the pins. I guess i will make a video. I can't use a tension wrench, because of the whole part about how i cant do both at the same time, but trust me it works. I wouldn't go through all this trouble of making this guide if it didn't.

Note - This is hard to do all alone, and film at the same time.

Click here to watch Hanger-Snap-PIck <-----This is the video! Click it!!

Just add a tension wrench, and put slight tension on it while snapping. After about 10 snaps, reset the pins and try again maybe with a little more tension, or bouncing the tension. Alright, hope this helps someone.

[wgl]

Woah, that's an ingenious idea!
Cool tool, and generally a very useful and clear Guide,
especially like the video which demonstrates the working technique

The best is that it's made of a coat hanger ^^
Only quite basic stuff required, and yet a really nice snappick

You could only add a short explanation for new users,
but whatever, go for sticky!

Really, great guide, thanks alot for that,
sure i'm gonna give this one a try

greetz wiggle

[Lock Jockey]

I like that you added a video. I'd always seen pictures of homemade snap guns but never knew how they were supposed to be used.

Nice guide!

[jimb]

Just add a tension wrench, and put slight tension on it while snapping. After about 10 snaps, reset the pins and try again maybe with a little more tension, or bouncing the tension. Alright, hope this helps someone.

Your designs amaze me. Do you read every book at the bookstore?

What area of the globe are you from?

Keep it up; I'm enjoying your designs!

[dsdayl]

With a wee bit of search-fu (snap AND picks) one can also find this:

viewtopic.php?p=53806&highlight=snap#53806

it is a very nice guide made by none other PYRO1234321 himself.

Only difference is he uses a wiper blade.

No offense to you Samschoice your's is a very nice guide.

Just thought I'd show that just about every question asked has already been answered.

Sorry if I made this sound like another "search you idiot" post. But I believe Pyro's guide needs props also. Thats where I got directions on how to make my snap pick.

DoubleShot Dayl

[sams choice]

the main thing about Pyro's guide is that it did not show how to construct it. It did not give measurments exactly how to make it. I am well aware of that snap gun, plus two others, Their guides lacked measurments and an exact, how to. Pyro got lots of props when he made it. I have no problem using the search function at all. I am actually going to do something really special with it for the newbie's in about a month. YOU can look forward to that...

[dsdayl]

Very good point ya have there. And I didn't mean to suggest that you had a problem with searching.

I just wanted to show that there were other guides out there. Although the instructions were not exact there were measurements in one picture.

That being said I DO look forward to all of your posts as you have definetly done your homework. You are very thourough in all of your guides, and me being pretty much a newbie need that.

I also have meant to write a little something on how to search. (it's the only thing I know how to do) But I'm willing to bet that not only do you you beat me to it but that your's will be much easier to follow.

Anyway keep up the good work and I'm sorry if I offended you in anyway.

DoubleShot Dayl

[alberty]

nice guide, very clear
good job

[marshall]

very good guide and very clearly explained,especially with the video. me and my friend made one this evening,probably took about an hour,and were well impressed. we opened the lock once(5 pin cylinder)but after a little while the pick end was starting to bend with the strikes(we may have filed too thin) and the spring started to lose its shape and springing action. we shall hopefully start another over the weekend and learn from the last one's errors. just to say thanks for the easy to follow guide,and let everyone know this works,cheers.

[DeadlyHunter]

I have always heard that homemade snap guns didn't work very well, however it looks like you did a great job on yours. What would you say the success rate is for it?

[silent]

coat hangers kind of suck for pick guns. They are ok for when you are in a pinch but outside of that they suck.

They loose their "springy feel" after a while and dont strike hard. Make one out of windshield wiper spine and try it and you will see a big difference.

[raimundo]

before you set it together, when the snapneedle is not cocked into the box, you can put the snap pick with the coilspring relaxed on the kitchen stove, as soon as the coils gone to steel blue, in color, pick it up with the tweezer or a hook and move it to a pan of cold water big enough to dunk it that is already prepared, so you can move from heat to quench very quickly,
after this, if you did it right, the spring will be tempered and very snappy, you can also temper the needle and this will help it against bending maybe, its all depends on the forces, but remember, straw yellow to steel blue, well under 800 degrees, you are screwing up if you let any part of the steel become cherry red, that could cause a brittle hardness or a soft spot, and you will find that reheating and quenching may help, but will not completely repair the harm of overheating.
Also, some designers of snappers mention to pay attention to the part of the box that strikes the base of the needle, if the needle shaft is struck glancingly by a round bottom box this can cause the strike to angle in the keyhole and while this may fit some situations, it is all wrong for other keyway wardings. snappers are then made with a flat bottom where it strikes the needle arm to prevent skewing this way. The one in the guide has a U shaped strikeing surface, and while this can be done right, it can also be a problem if you do not carefully form it.

[raimundo]

before you set it together, when the snapneedle is not cocked into the box, you can put the snap pick with the coilspring relaxed on the kitchen stove, as soon as the coils gone to steel blue, in color, pick it up with the tweezer or a hook and move it to a pan of cold water big enough to dunk it that is already prepared, so you can move from heat to quench very quickly,
after this, if you did it right, the spring will be tempered and very snappy, you can also temper the needle and this will help it against bending maybe, its all depends on the forces, but remember, straw yellow to steel blue, well under 800 degrees, you are screwing up if you let any part of the steel become cherry red, that could cause a brittle hardness or a soft spot, and you will find that reheating and quenching may help, but will not completely repair the harm of overheating.
Also, some designers of snappers mention to pay attention to the part of the box that strikes the base of the needle, if the needle shaft is struck glancingly by a round bottom box this can cause the strike to angle in the keyhole and while this may fit some situations, it is all wrong for other keyway wardings. snappers are then made with a flat bottom where it strikes the needle arm to prevent skewing this way. The one in the guide has a U shaped strikeing surface, and while this can be done right, it can also be a problem if you do not carefully form it.

[sams choice]

i know what raimundo was talking about. if you dont carefully set where the part that goes into the lock hits it will cause a hesitation or for it to shift to one side or the other or even pinch and loose its strength. i find that a wide open U shape makes for pretty easy use because you dont have to have a steady hand and the impact should be strong enough. if you pop it in your hand and you can feel a strong impact it should be sufficient. Plus snapper picks only work on pretty cheap locks like ones that use m1 or kw1 keys, and even then if it doesnt work in about 50 clicks it probably will never work anyway. they do lose their impact after a while. i like coat hangers because they are easier to find then windshield wiper inserts. meaning i could go to someones house and immediatly get one. good tip on the strengthening raimundo

success rate one appropriate locks:

7 out of 10 is my estimate.

[Bakunin]

wow, thanks for this great tool "sams choice"

forget all those electric-toothbrush-crap, Lo-Tech rules!