Review on Raimundo's picks.

by **Varjeal** » 10 Dec 2004 11:20

Greetings, all. Approximately two weeks ago I received a parcel in the mail from Raimundo. Sure enough, it was the set of picks I ordered from him 5 days previous.

But wait a minute...there's FOUR sets in here...what's that all about? Three were in sets of two, and the last was a set of three. Hmmm..interesting.

In case you were not aware, Raimundo, a member of LP101, designs and manufacturers his own particular model of Bogota and Sabana picks and tension wrenches. He uses highly sanded and polished sweeper bristles for material, which you wouldn't be able to tell unless someone told you so.

Three of the sets have radius "L" handles while the third had finger loops. This makes things somewhat interesting, and I forgot to ask if if was intentional, but the picks with "L" handles can also serve as tension tools.

He takes great care in twisting the bristles and angling the shafts and handles to provide maximum comfort, and although "plain" to look at, a careful look at the details shows that some serious work went into the making of these tools.

So...I slipped off the plastic tubing that covered the shortest set of the bunch, grabbed one of my "confidence" filing cabinet locks and promptly opened it in less that 30 seconds.

Not bad for new and unique tools. Especially since as some of you know, I'm not a great fan of "handless" pick tools. These one's, however, are in a class of their own, and in my opinion the finest home-made tools I've used to date. (still waiting on a set from Romstar, so we'll see.)

I should mention as well that included in the sets were two different shaped hook picks for obviously very specific purposes.

In addition to all the goodies, Raimundo also sent along an email with some instructions (which I asked for) in regards to use of the Bogota picks since I had little experience with them.

Indeed, these are a unique type of tool unlike most standard picks, and do require some special attention. That said, however, I have had a great deal of success with Schlage-type keyways and others where MACS was stretched to almost the limit.

I'd highly recommend investing in a set of these if you are not heavy-handed, but would not necessarily recommend them to a newbie.

Anyways, I promised I'd post a review once I've had time to play with 'em a bit, so here it is.

Enjoy the read.

by **raimundo** » 11 Dec 2004 11:49

yes, the concept was to make the smallest most versatile set possible, and so the tensor is on the end of the pick, fewer pieces to keep track of, and a little spring-pin devise to make sure they don't fall out of your pocket. you can make more of those pin on things by screwing a ball point spring onto a saftypin. when the set is nested together, they can be put through the pen spring and compressing the pen-spring helps to follow the curve as it goes over the twist. once the set passes over the twist, it's locked on and won't fall out.

by **reboot_zero** » 13 Dec 2004 6:23

Got any pics of your...picks? O.o

by **PickPick** » 13 Dec 2004 7:15

Here's a small picture: http://tinypic.com/e3u2r
The two picks on the left with the round handles were made by Raimundo.

by **reboot_zero** » 13 Dec 2004 11:25

Man, that's probably one of the oddest...yet coolest picks I've seen in quite some time. Does he sell them? And that picture really showed alot of purple

. I thought you had a set of purple-hazed picks ^_^.

by **Chucklz** » 13 Dec 2004 15:29

Ive used Raimundo's picks for quite some time now. I too have a lot to say, but I've been having a devil of a time with some thickheaded computer people here, and its finals week. Look for more from me next week.

by **reboot_zero** » 13 Dec 2004 16:13

Chucklz wrote:Ive used Raimundo's picks for quite some time now. I too have a lot to say, but I've been having a devil of a time with some thickheaded computer people here, and its finals week. Look for more from me next week.

Computer people? I'm a computer person O.o...go ahead, talk nerdy to me

by **Jarod** » 13 Dec 2004 16:27

ok then you asked for it,
i have a amd athlon xp 2500+ runnith on a biostar M7NCD mb 512mb of ultra ddr 333mhz seagate 28gb hard drive, 4.3gb hd, 1.5gb hd, and a 52x24x52 cdrw with ultra powersupply w/120mm led fan in chrome color, front usb, all stuffed in a ultra (cheiftec) mini dragon case w/clear side panel, tubular lock on bay door, in blue.

oh, its got gentoo linux with the 2.6.7 mm-sources kernel.

by **reboot_zero** » 13 Dec 2004 22:48

Jarod wrote:ok then you asked for it,
i have a amd athlon xp 2500+ runnith on a biostar M7NCD mb 512mb of ultra ddr 333mhz seagate 28gb hard drive, 4.3gb hd, 1.5gb hd, and a 52x24x52 cdrw with ultra powersupply w/120mm led fan in chrome color, front usb, all stuffed in a ultra (cheiftec) mini dragon case w/clear side panel, tubular lock on bay door, in blue. oh, its got gentoo linux with the 2.6.7 mm-sources kernel.

Not too shabby, I'm actually running a similar system. 2500+, 512 megs ddr400 (for future athlon 64), Abit's legendary NF7

, Radeon 9600 (it works), Audigy 2 plaitum ZS, American media full tower (I actually find it is more convienent than the Lians), 80 gigs HDD, all running under Xandros 2.0 .... was running slackware, but I like random changes ...hints why I love picking

. I'm soon to be moving back to slackware though I think.

by **WhiteHat** » 13 Dec 2004 23:09

reboot_zero wrote:
Jarod wrote:ok then you asked for it,
i have a amd athlon xp 2500+ runnith on a biostar M7NCD mb 512mb of ultra ddr 333mhz seagate 28gb hard drive, 4.3gb hd, 1.5gb hd, and a 52x24x52 cdrw with ultra powersupply w/120mm led fan in chrome color, front usb, all stuffed in a ultra (cheiftec) mini dragon case w/clear side panel, tubular lock on bay door, in blue. oh, its got gentoo linux with the 2.6.7 mm-sources kernel.
Not too shabby, I'm actually running a similar system. 2500+, 512 megs ddr400 (for future athlon 64), Abit's legendary NF7 , Radeon 9600 (it works), Audigy 2 plaitum ZS, American media full tower (I actually find it is more convienent than the Lians), 80 gigs HDD, all running under Xandros 2.0 .... was running slackware, but I like random changes ...hints why I love picking . I'm soon to be moving back to slackware though I think.

oh - shtop itt.. yoou'rrre maakiingggg mee droooooool... onn my keyyybooarrd.. -- mmy kkkeysss arre stikkkkingg..

by **WhiteHat** » 13 Dec 2004 23:12

oh - yeah - I have a bogota rake and a diamond (if you can call it a diamond) made by raimundo - they're very high quality, although I've had limited success using the rake on security pins like it's supposed to be good at, but practice makes perfect I'm sure.

both picks just slide in and out of the lock like they're oozing lubrication.

by **Luke** » 13 Dec 2004 23:47

both picks just slide in and out of the lock like they're oozing lubrication.

That sounds wrong.

by **reboot_zero** » 14 Dec 2004 2:00

Luke wrote:
both picks just slide in and out of the lock like they're oozing lubrication.

That sounds wrong.

...but yet arouses me x_x jk

by **reboot_zero** » 14 Dec 2004 2:24

WhiteHat wrote:
reboot_zero wrote:
Jarod wrote:ok then you asked for it,
i have a amd athlon xp 2500+ runnith on a biostar M7NCD mb 512mb of ultra ddr 333mhz seagate 28gb hard drive, 4.3gb hd, 1.5gb hd, and a 52x24x52 cdrw with ultra powersupply w/120mm led fan in chrome color, front usb, all stuffed in a ultra (cheiftec) mini dragon case w/clear side panel, tubular lock on bay door, in blue. oh, its got gentoo linux with the 2.6.7 mm-sources kernel.
Not too shabby, I'm actually running a similar system. 2500+, 512 megs ddr400 (for future athlon 64), Abit's legendary NF7 , Radeon 9600 (it works), Audigy 2 plaitum ZS, American media full tower (I actually find it is more convienent than the Lians), 80 gigs HDD, all running under Xandros 2.0 .... was running slackware, but I like random changes ...hints why I love picking . I'm soon to be moving back to slackware though I think.

oh - shtop itt.. yoou'rrre maakiingggg mee droooooool... onn my keyyybooarrd.. -- mmy kkkeysss arre stikkkkingg..

...um, I hope that's drool that's making your keys stick there buddy O.O .

by **Chucklz** » 14 Dec 2004 13:56

Now about the Bogota rakes...

If you use them like a normal rake.... they aren't so wonderful, simply because they are not meant to be used in that manner. Think about how you would use Computer picks, or jigglers, and combine the two. I prefer to insert the rake all the way into the lock then withdraw the pick so that the front , so that the last 2 pins in the lock are in the region of the front of the pick. I like about a 1/2cm in out motion with a bit of an up down, depending on the keyway, and the progress im making in setting pins. Even tough keyways pose little challenge to raimundo's design. Try it, and practice with it, and soon you will love it.

Review on Raimundo's picks.

Review on Raimundo's picks.

yep those are tensor handles.

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