My First atempt at making a Pick

[Bluenkight]

My First attempt at making my own. The pick works OK but I really want to make it into BOGOTA Style. Any Advice on what kind of file I should use?

[Jburgett2nd]

It looks usable, the same as with everything else it just takes practice. You got this!

[GWiens2001]

You can round out the slopes in between the peaks, and have the peaks more pointed. That will allow you to affect fewer pins at the same time.

And when done, sand and polish your picks. It will make the pick work so much easier and smoother it is hard to believe.

Good 'lock', and keep at it!

Gordon

[Bluenkight]

You can round out the slopes in between the peaks, and have the peaks more pointed. That will allow you to affect fewer pins at the same time.

And when done, sand and polish your picks. It will make the pick work so much easier and smoother it is hard to believe.

Good 'lock', and keep at it!

Gordon

Thx Gordon. It is working and I just got my bristles from Squelchtone so I am going to make several more and I will do the polishing on all of them... the way the pick is now i have been able to pick a lock several times in under 30 seconds. so imagine how much faster I will get once its finished and i have practiced more.

[streak]

Bluenkight,
I am knew here and have only just started making my first picks.
It was recommended that one uses a blade sharpening file.
I picked up a set from Harbor Freight and use the largest one for the Bogota.
Spacing works out almost perfectly.
In the beginning I tried really hard to make the start of the next filing touch the end of the previous one to get better pointed peaks.
Now I just try and get close and then file the square bits at 45 degrees using a flat file.

I am struggling to get the undercuts perfectly lined up but that will come with practice.

Here is an example of my first few. Since taking this picture I have used 1000 grit paper on one of the smaller files to further smooth the peaks and valleys.
As ugly as they are they both worked within seconds on my test locks.

[Bluenkight]

[quote="streak"]Bluenkight,
I am knew here and have only just started making my first picks.
It was recommended that one uses a blade sharpening file.
I picked up a set from Harbor Freight and use the largest one for the Bogota.
Spacing works out almost perfectly.
In the beginning I tried really hard to make the start of the next filing touch the end of the previous one to get better pointed peaks.
Now I just try and get close and then file the square bits at 45 degrees using a flat file.

I am struggling to get the undercuts perfectly lined up but that will come with practice.

Here is an example of my first few. Since taking this picture I have used 1000 grit paper on one of the smaller files to further smooth the peaks and valleys.
As ugly as they are they both worked within seconds on my test locks.

I did get a set from Harbor freight a couple of weeks ago. I have made a new one which looks much better now. I will post a new picture when I get a chance. yours look really nice... I like the straight one with the heat shrink on it..

[jimu57]

I bought a set of needle files. Make sure you get the good ones made for metal. The ones at Lowes and Home Depot are cheap and mainly for using on wood. These smaller files allow me to do some nice shaping on rounded parts.