World's Smallest Snap Gun

by **Orange_Crusader** » 21 Apr 2005 19:26

I was removing a ski pass from my jacket (went snowboarding a few weeks ago, but never got around to takijng the tag off), and noticed that the metal wier used to hold the tag in place was decently springy.

Seeing as I had some time to spare, I decided to make something out of it, and a impromptu snap gun sounded like a good idea. It took all of a minute to make, using a pair of needlenose pliers, and doing the winds by hand.

I haven't tried it yet, and I doubt it'll work (the spring force is very low, but it's pretty cool as a novelty item, IMO. I'm considering adding another wind to the spring, but for now it'll stay like this. It's not very neat (especially at the spring end), but not too bad for just hand-bent, with one tool. The handle is a shish kebob stick, and it superglued and taped into place.

I was going to file the end so that it would have a flat striking edge, but the metal is probably too thin to do that safely.

Kind of a keychain-sized snap gun, at least without the handle. Once I make another tension wrench (my saw blade one got snapped), I'll give it a test with very, very light tension on a small padlock. Thoughts/comments/suggestions?

Here's a scan of it, in its current rought state. It could make a pretty cool keychain item, I'd say.

by **rayman452** » 21 Apr 2005 19:30

We were talking about this on MSN, so I get to be the first to reply

. Its a intersting design, but like I was saying, I want to see if it works. I suggest getting rid of the shishkabob stick, its just going to get in the way. If it doesnt work however, attach it to a keychain, like I have a masterlock ony my wallet.

by **master in training** » 21 Apr 2005 19:32

that looks really good orange! nice job, im tempted to make one actually, just need to find some stuff to make it from now.

does it actually go right back to the last pin in the lock, it seems quite short?

get working on a new tension wrench so we can see your review of it and how well it works! :lol:

by **Orange_Crusader** » 21 Apr 2005 19:38

It should work on a few smaller locks, 3 or 4 pin at the most. I'll see how small I can go with these, maybe even one made of a staple (obviously non funtional

). Need to practise using insanely light tension, and keeping it lined up right. It'll probably take some adjustment to get enough vibration out of it for use, but I'll see what I can do.

by **raimundo** » 22 Apr 2005 10:23

wait till ya find a bike spoke, but ya might have to file the pointy end, :lol:

but seriously, there are different types of bike spokes, some are harder than others. You should find them interesting to make snappers out of .

by **stick** » 23 Apr 2005 13:58

Here's my snap gun that I slapped together with a pair of pliers after I saw this post. As you can tell, it's 7 cm (3 in) long, 3 cm (1 in) tall. Yeah, I know, numbers are off, these are rough approximations.

As for its effectiveness, it has opened every lock that the pick blade will fit comfortably in, but I still have to grind/file down the blade. I used a street sweeper bristle, one of many that I recieved from a member of this site. I won't reveal his name because I don't want people spamming him with requests, but you know who you are, and if you want credit, post below! :lol:

In hindsight, had I known that this would've been successful, I probably would've sanded it clean of rust before I did the actual bending. :oops:

The design could be a little better; the part that hits the blade isn't as neat as I'd like it to be, and I made a mistake or two while doing a few of the bends, which I had to undo, weakening the steel in some parts. :oops:

by **Orange_Crusader** » 23 Apr 2005 21:20

If you can do it without weakending the metal too badly, try making the striking bit flush with the picking end, it'll make it more effective (more area hitting the "picking" bit, and more force being transmitted at once), and there will be less wear on the picking end.

Are the bike spokes really that good for this? I believe they're made from aluminium, typically; I didn't know that it held its springy-ness that well. It'll definetly have to be flattened to fit in a keyway. Is a vice a good way of doing this, combined with a file to smooth it out? I have about 40 spokes lying around from various bikes, so if they're worth the work, I'll try them. Anyone tried a bike spoke tension tool?

I'll be trying the staple snap gun either later tonight, or tomorrow morning. Of course, it won't work, but it'll look cool. I'll work on a bike spoke one, specifically made to fit on a keychain. Anyone have any ideal sizes in mind?

by **MrB** » 23 Apr 2005 22:35

Bike spokes should be made of steel. Aluminium is nowhere near strong enough.

by **stick** » 24 Apr 2005 0:38

Yeah, I know about the striking point thing, it's an inherent flaw in the design of my small snap gun. Unless I make the bend in a V shape so that the bent part sticks forward, I won't really be able to fix that problem, but the strength of the spring part far surpassed my expectations in strength (it hurts my thumb to snap it more than twice in a row), so I'm not really concerned about efficiency.

by **vector40** » 24 Apr 2005 7:37

I seriously want to know how everyone's opening locks with a bent-up bicycle spoke when I can't for the life of me make it work using a $150 HPC electropick. Do I just suck at life?

by **rayman452** » 24 Apr 2005 9:16

Do you want the truth? Or do you want us just to say: keep trying, it will come. How would those winshield wiper inserts work? Pretty springy, and easy to bend.

by **stick** » 24 Apr 2005 11:53

vector40... :shock:

Have you tried very little tension? If so, try some harder tension, or some varying tension. Make sure that the blade is touching all the pins at once before your turn it on. Try adjusting the amount of vibration too, if you can. I don't have any actual pick gun, I'm just a hobbyist and I stick to my manual picks.

by **Orange_Crusader** » 24 Apr 2005 16:07

As far as I know, the wiper blade inserts are one of the best things for snap picks. PYRO made a great little tutorial for snap picks a long time ago, and I have it bookmarked: http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?t=898&start=30&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight

I have the staple snap gun done. It was one of the trickiest things I've ever done, with a pair of needlenose pliers, and my hands. It's a whopping 7.5mm long, from the tip of the pick end to the end of the spring. Tiny, and it kept slipping between my fingers when bending. the spring was wound around a pin, and the striking face is bent around the picking end (if anyone knows the proper name for this part, I'd be happy to learn it) pretty smoothly. I'll scan it in ASAP next to the larger small snap gun, ruler, and a penny (which can hold about 8-10 or so of the micro-guns).

by **omelet** » 24 Apr 2005 23:03

That snap gun looks very nice, good idea with the bristles; I wish I had any left now...

About making the part that snaps against the shaft flush, I don't believe that will make any difference to the performance at all, and it is not likely to cause any significant damage to the shaft. The amount of force that is transmitted to the shaft is what matters, and that will be the same whether it is concentrated on a point or spread out.

by **Orange_Crusader** » 25 Apr 2005 14:08

Here's the staple snap gun. As I expected, the metal is too thick (for a gun that size), and too bendable to "snap". It's a cool novelty, but that's about it. It's in the top left, next to the penny (note the size compared to the penny :shock:

) and the larger "small" snap gun.

I also found another very nice material for micro snap guns. When you take apart a floppy disk, there a small spring, small, very springy, and about perfect size for a micro snap gun, with several bends already made. I'll make on out of that soon, but here's the staple gun picture to tide you over.

I'll just link to it, to save space.

http://img134.echo.cx/img134/909/staplesnapgun1bo.jpg

World's Smallest Snap Gun

World's Smallest Snap Gun

bike spoke

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