weak home-made picks

[njalme]

Hi,

I made a couple of picks, all out of hacksaw blades which I modeled after the slimline set by Southord. I made em slightly thinner than the southord set. They where made some hooks and small half diamonds.

Now, the picks I made all bend extremely easily, they don't have half the strength of the southord ones. I need some tips on precautions to take in order to have the picks the hardest they can be as a finished product.

I made sure to dunk the material in water as soon as I felt heat and never grinded/cut for more than 2-3 seconds in each interval. Other than making sure of not overheating the material what should I be aware of? And are there any thing I should do to the metal when they are finished to harden the steel?

(edit: could I have used bad hacksaw blades?)

[digital_blue]

Well, firstly, yes, it could be the case of crappy hacksaw blades. My experience has been that the absolute cheapest ones are the pits, but so are the most expensive. Go figure.

What I can say is that if your picks bend easily, this is not caused by overheating so you needn't worry about that. If anything, overheating would lead to brittle picks that snap easily.

It's quite possibly nothing more than the fact that the material you're using (hacksaw blade) is just not as good a material as the steel your Southord picks are made of, and to top it off you made them even thinner. The combo of those two components made for picks that bend easily.

If you want to experiment a bit, try a different brand of hacksaw blade. You can also experiment with tempering the steel (there are articles on this site to help you with that), though tempering correctly takes a bit of a "knack".

Cheers,

db

[njalme]

Thanks for the help,

while waiting for an response I made a new hook pick out of some other kind of material. I'm not sure of the name on it in english (Sparkel in norwegian) but it's the thin metal plate you use when filling in nail holes in walls before painting etc. It's very thin and seems to be tempered (blueish finish on it). It is maybe half the tickness of a hacksaw blade and it bends very easily sideways, however up and down it's rock hard. I think I'll try to get hold of more of them, maybe abit bigger ones as the pick handles get very small and you only get one good sized pick out of a plate.

Possible stupid question inc: Is it possible to shrink heat shrink tubes in the oven? Hoping to not have to buy a heat gun as they are crazy expensive here .. Oo

[bumber]

I dont know about all(but im sure its rather close) brands but the one I use, uses these temps to shrink... Approximately 85° C (185° F) to 190° C (374° F), with a typical shrinking, temperature of 150° C (302° F) 150° C will produce a shrink greater than or equal to 15% ...now the only thin I see bad about putting them in an oven is they will melt if sitting on anything...you would almost have to hang them on the rack with metal wire in order for it to go right...also watch your first set to make sure they dont drip...if they start to melt.

[njalme]

I bought some shrink tubes today, they didn't have any information about temperatures or any instructions so I just cut out the size I wanted and slipped it on the pick. I was in a bar at the time and some how fiddled it over a candle and to my amazement it shrunk (?) neatly around the pick in no time. Lighter worked too, just slip it on and 'lick' the flame over the plastic and it will shrink in 2 seconds. Won't leave any markings unless you keep the flame on one spot.

[raimundo]

If you try what njalme spoke of, it would be more prudent to put the heat shrink beside the flame, not above it. beside the flame it will get the heat without the possibility of a quick accident as over the flame would be.

for hanging picks in an oven, magnets on the rack may work, I am aware that heat may cause demagnetization, but the heat required here does not seem to be enough in my guesstimation.

[Kaotik]

Heat shrink tubing can be shrunk with whatever is at hand at the time of use. Typically, the tubing is shrunk using a heat gun and most heat gun kits come with several attachments including one intended for that purpose.

It is for safety sake that a heat gun is used because an open flame around any plastic or poly material can/will be flamable. If a heat gun is not accessible a simple blow dryer on low heat can be used to achieve the same results.

[njalme]

I'm going to make a new pick tomorrow, haven't decided if I want to make a halfdiamond or bogota. I want to make the latter just because it's abit harder to make into a decent working pick. Anyhow I'll try using a hair dryer to see how it works. I'll see if I can make a small movie of it. Maybe someone will find it useful.

Thanks for all answers!