First homemade lockpick

[Imp]

I used drain snake as the steel, and did most of the work with a dremel. I don't know what I'm doing with the handle yet, its not even sanded, or shaped.



Things I learned,
Good sanding seriously is a night and day difference.
My bluff skill is high enough, I convinced this piece of steel that it was a med hook, somehow without drawing a template on it.
I need a sandpaper grit between my smallest one (no idea, came with the dremel) and the polishing wheel
omg, sanding.

Anyone have any ideas how to flatten out this piece without changing the temper? Its got a very slight bend in it.

Works great.

[femurat]

very well made for a first pick. I'd try to flatten it before the shaping process... maybe with a hammer on the flat area of the vice. now I'll leave it with the bent, to avoid the risk of breaking it.

cheers

[Imp]

So I've made my second pick now. I made it, because I wasn't sure how well I could deal with the tight curves with my dremel.

Not well.



The one on right is my SouthOrd made one, the one on the left is its slightly slow, dumpy, but far better polished brother. I'm not really that sure how to get the curve deeper without widening it up, short of moving on to a needle file. Any advice? Don't get me wrong, it works great, I'm just not that happy with it. Good learning experience though.

Things I learned.
The wire wheel for taking off rust works surprisingly well as a sanding wheel before moving onto polish.
I think I may need a new polishing compound, or maybe I just need to stay on that step longer.
I have an engraving tool that -may- work to deepen the valleys on the tip, but I haven't tested it yet, I thought of it after I was done sanding. Screw that.
The felt wheels on a dremel are cleanable with soap and water.
I may be far too picky. It works great, but I don't like it?

[Imp]

Ok this time I made 3 picks, and a double ended tension wrench



I'm really happy how these turned out, I think I'm actually getting the hang of this.

Things I've learned.
Wiper inserts heat up, _way_ faster than the drain snake I've been using, I've got the burn to prove it.
Drain snake isn't worth making wrenches out of, after multiple tries with blow torch, it would either end up too soft or snap. This is with heating it up and letting it cool slowly, then bending it, then getting it red hot and squelching it. Long sentence. Even if you do get the right temper, you still have to grind it down anyway. Not worth it, when inserts are about perfect.
That being said, I prefer making picks out of the drain snake steel, I honestly couldn't tell you why though.
400 Grit sandpaper is an amazing investment. I'm thinking of trying to find something even finer, as the polish from my dremel really seems worthless. Maybe a baking soda paste or something.
Sanding the face of the pick with anything more than about 200 is counterproductive, at least with what I'm working with. The paper just mars the steel. I should have known this.
For getting detail on the tips, the metal cutting wheel does an impressively good job.
The engraver does not.

That's all I can think of, I hope these posts can help someone out.