dropped the pins

[BUNGYSTRAP]

Everyones worse nightmare. A quick key alike job and I have just dropped 3 pots of Corbin pins. But this has got me thinking, has anyone got a tool or system for sorting mixed-up pins? A few idea's are rattling around my mostly empty void but was wondering if anyone can shed some light

[Mad Mick]

One quick idea off the top of my head...

Get a piece of the plastic which is made like corrugated cardboard. (may get it from a garden centre)
Cut it in half, i.e. leaving the flat parts intact and cutting through the corrugate part, to give you a series of channels.
Mark a channel (or a few channels) with the heights of each pin, i.e. start with the smallest and make a slit in the side of the channel with a stanley knife, get the next pin up and make another slit... then just slide the pins down and sort into like piles.

May take a while though, but it's quicker than measuring each pin.

[BUNGYSTRAP]

Cheers Mad Mick, I think it will be quicker/easier to replace. Was hopingfor a moment of genius to help but I think there is no easy answer.

[MrB]

How may pins are there, hundreds or thousands?

If only hundreds, I find one way of sorting pins is to line them all up side by side on a mat between the edges of two wooden rulers. The rulers will tend to grip and hold only the longest pins in the row. If you can use some kind of makeshift frame like two crosswise wooden slats to position and hold the rulers securely, you might with care be able to lift out the pins the rulers are holding and separate them from the others.

I've only done it with a few pins rather than hundreds, but repeat a few times and you could eventually get the different lengths separated out.

[vector40]

Someone should concoct a device similar to those electric coin sorters... for pins

[Mad Mick]

...I think it will be quicker/easier to replace...

I know a good home for them if you're thinking of throwing them out. I'm sure one of our picking youngsters on the forum could sort and use them...

Or, you could give one of the local kids a couple o shiny coins to sort em for you. Way back when I was young, I used to wash cars for 50p...how much is that nowadays?

[vector40]

oh god, sorting pins... that's cruel and unusual. Sounds like a great way to go blind.

[Mad Mick]

Sounds like a great way to go blind.

May save em from going blind the other way.

[Chucklz]

^

Spilling two bins of pins. Somehow I think these are one size step away. This could be a pain. Of course, I would save these for a day with no calls, or when you are layed up and sick.

[Mad Mick]

Or a day when you've had a fight with the Mrs...beats kicking stones.

[BUNGYSTRAP]

Thanks for all the input guys. As for 50p for washing cars, I use to charge a pound and I am old as dirt so either I was expensive or you are really old Mad mick.

[jongir]

Hi, Just stick them in an envelope and send them to me. I will make it a fun game for my kids.

[BUNGYSTRAP]

you'll need to pm me for an address to send them to. Nearly always have extra pins and springs kicking around from keying alike / master keying.

[Mad Mick]

I use to charge a pound and I am old as dirt so either I was expensive or you are really old Mad mick.

lol, I'm not quite as old as dirt yet...perhaps you were washing high-end cars whilst I was washing bangers.

[Shrub]

Just make a go no-go gauge, it wont take long and once into a system of useing it you will soon sort them,

Get a piece of steel and file slots around the edge the width being the length of the pins, then it is simply the case of picking a pin up and trying it in the slots to find the pin size, once you have done 20-30 you will be able to narrow down the number of slots you try through reconition until you chose between 1 or 2 to try before you correctly identify the pin.

Alternitively you could just use a funnel and alter the size of hole at the end so only certain size pins will fall out, start with the shortes and work up, you may have to shake it a bit to get them to fall down, use this as the first method to roughly sort them, then use one of the other methods to finalise it,