My First Homebrew!

[poor paperclip picker]

Where I live (The Upper Peninsula of Michigan), we have had some very warm weather lately, about mid 20's F, and a lot of our snow melted. With most of the snow gone, there is sand all over the roads and trash every where. It looks really nasty, and apparently the city thought so too, so they decided to send out some street sweepers. So the day after I heard one go by at 11:30 at night, I took a walk to try to find some bristles. I did find some and I decided to try to make my first pick out one.

It still needs some fine filing done to it, but it opens a Schlage cylinder I have pretty constantly in just a few seconds.

Here is a picture of it.


And before everyone tells me to smooth it out and polish it with sand paper, look at the one file I used to make it.



the course side of the file:



The narrow part of the file used to make the cuts:



And the finer part used to smooth and some what polish:



It was kind of meant to be a bogota, but the cuts were quite difficult with the file from a Leatherman. Even though it doesn't look to pretty, it is pretty functional.

I cannot wait to start making some more picks!

[Engineer]

That's not bad at all for a Leatherman file and a first attempt. Well done.

The idea of smoothing is to improve on the speed and success rate.

Does anyone know how often the brushes need replacing on street sweepers? Only I've noticed when ours come round, there's usually a bristle about every 25 yards or meters.

[tuscarora]

Very good result from using such rudimentary tools. Must have taken you ages. Get a dremel and a vice, couple of files and some carbide paper and you'll be flying. The tools are a good investment anyway, they'll be useful for all sorts of stuff.

I sometimes think I enjoy making the picks almost as much as using them.

[savs2k]

pretty decent for what you used. Invest in a small cheap rotary tool. It's well worth it. the cheaper ones with slower rpm will just take longer. But the quality you come out with is alot better then hand files. I've made a few hooks from files when I was bored but for the time I spent doing it and how much my hand was tired, use a dremel. Good job though.

[phippoD]

very well done for using only that file but if you plan on making more picks you should look into a grinder or a dremel. haha i started to use hand files to make picks and it was i found just very time consuming and i recon that i got just as good results by grinding only then giving them a good sand


-PhippoD-

[nostromo]

Poor Paperclip Picker,

Nicely done! A cheap source of abrasives is your freindly neighborhood dollar store. You can get a pack of a dozen or so emery boards in the womens makeup section. The tool section usually has sandpaper of various grits - the finer the better for a Bogota. Sometimes you can even find abrasive sponges.

Is there a Harbor Freight near you? They have decent prices.

[poor paperclip picker]

yeah I know I need some sandpaper to smooth it all out, I just haven't had the time to pick any up lately, or I forget. Also I have been kind of sick lately too. But thanks everyone for your comments.

[raimundo]

Multitool files are usually deburred by the manufacturer to take the sharp edges off so no one gets hurt. Im suprised that that tool was effective.

[Challenger909]

Thats alot better than my first pick. It was supposed to be a half diamond but now is more of a half diamond/hook, it looks bad but works great