Typewriter TYPE

[bumpin88]

Has anyone thought of useing the type out of an old type writer to make picks? I saw an old typewriter the other day, and noticed the shape of the type and it dawned on me . WOW! great pick material. I guess they are stainless, which should make a good pick. Well, as soon as I can find one thats shot then I'll try it out.

That should be a few weeks, but if anyone has access to old junk type writers you should look into.

[Olson Burry]

There certainly are some interesting bits on old style typewriters.

I assume that you're thinking about the daisy wheel part like this:
http://content.answers.com/main/content ... AISYWL.GIF

And not, perhaps the even older style "ball" printers and typewriters although even on those there are interesting parts. They mostly collectors items though.
http://www.malling-hansen.org/typo3temp ... 32e366.jpg

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbvi ... r-ball.jpg

You can probably find an old daisy wheel typewriter in a charity shop or car boot sale or something for next to nothing, there may well be further interesting parts inside too.

Interesting thought.

[mr_chris79]

i think its the old manual typewriters where when you press the key it lifts a lever up with the letter on the end and stamps the sheet of paper, if you press a few keys at the same time the levers get tangled up, im probably wrong though

[Olson Burry]

Yeah, youre probably right in fact, those mechanisms have longer arms and would possibly be more useful than a daisy wheel, those were generally used for automated printers and things.

In fact, the evolution of the keyboard was such that they tried to get the letters that were most used together, the furthest apart, to avoid the crossing of the arms you described. These started out as AZERTY keyboards but we now use QWERTY keyboards as it became less of a problem later on. The names came from the order of the first letters on the top row.

[bumpin88]

"OLD" as in like pre computer, but I guess the same basic design probably went back to the early 1900's. Now you got me thinking history.
Yeah the daisy wheel mechanism. The arms from that looked nice to try and mangle. The arms looked like you would not need to file much away thickness wise, just give them the shape of a pick. Its not to hard to see.
The only problem I saw was that the type appeared to be soldered on? maybe just spotwelder or something. I am just used looking for different ways to make my picks. You can never tell when you'll be in a pinch. Again I wouldn't make a ton of picks out of these only if I had the parts, and nothing better.
I'll try and get some pics up, when I find the parts, thks for eBay.

[raimundo]

I am always impressed by the speed and accuracy of the electro servos that align the IBM ball typewriter, the guy who thought this one up and made it work, could probably make the ultimate electropick for things like medeco, imagine a machine that accuratly locates the position and height of the pins.

[bumpin88]

Hey Ray thanks for that bit of information! It gave me an idea!? Anyone feel free to add to or correct this OK!
Take the lever mech, I am not to up on these machines, I just glance at one the other day so sorry about the bad terminology. Shorten it up a little. Maybe mount in a custom handle/holder/shell, something, AND you would have a SWEET snap gun. Maybe a need to find a pic of the mechanism, but I am sure you all know about these things more than me.
So this thread had gone from making picks to making pick guns, thanks for the thoughts guys!!

[Olson Burry]

How typewriter works

[bumpin88]

Thanks, thats useful. Well all i need to do know is tear into and start making very small copies of parts.