Titanium Lockpicks

by **thertel** » 5 Aug 2004 23:00

I was curious if anyone has made or seen titanium lockpicks and if so were there any benefits? Also does anyone have any thoughts on this. I've found a supplier for ultra thin titanium sheets and was considering making a set out of titanium at a machine shop i have access to, but i dont want to invest the time if there is something I am overlooking with this idea.

Here is how i see it:

They would be lighter
They would be tougher
It would be cool to have titanium lockpicks

Thomas

by **logosys** » 5 Aug 2004 23:20

thertel wrote:I was curious if anyone has made or seen titanium lockpicks and if so were there any benefits? Also does anyone have any thoughts on this. I've found a supplier for ultra thin titanium sheets and was considering making a set out of titanium at a machine shop i have access to, but i dont want to invest the time if there is something I am overlooking with this idea.

Here is how i see it:

They would be lighter
They would be tougher
It would be cool to have titanium lockpicks

Thomas

Furthermore, they would be a LOT more expensive

by **WhiteHat** » 6 Aug 2004 0:22

but they would be cool....

romstar mentioned that titanium was an ongoing project in the pick handle thread here:
viewtopic.php?p=32581

by **WhiteHat** » 6 Aug 2004 0:23

ah... sorry that would be the first page of the above link... or here:

viewtopic.php?t=3818

by **Serethipas** » 6 Aug 2004 0:35

well,if nothing wrong can happen that couldnt to normal picks...and you dont mind paying a bit more
i say go for it.it would be cool to just say "well mine are titanium"

by **WhiteHat** » 6 Aug 2004 0:41

I agree - it would be kind of like the cool factor of the jack-knife picks except they would actually be very usable....

by **thertel** » 6 Aug 2004 1:15

Well I ordered a sheet of 24 by 24 inch by .5mm thickness. Now off to find someone in the architecture department to put picks into cad for the cutting machines......either that or I will learn cad.

by **Romstar** » 6 Aug 2004 3:05

Yes, I have done, and can do titanium picks. However, since all of our picks are hand made, I was looking for some better abrasives for this material. Titanium is murder on just about everything.

If you have access to cobalt cutters on a milling machine, or a high accuracy plasma cutter, or an industrial laser cutter, these should have a much easier time of it.

Titanium is a great material for picks, it's simply hard to fashion them without certain tools.

Romstar

by **zeke79** » 6 Aug 2004 8:49

hey Romstar,

Do you have any pictures of your titanium picks? If available I would be interested in purchasing a set.

by **Hak** » 6 Aug 2004 12:08

titanium would be pretty nice, but how about platinum?

by **macaba** » 6 Aug 2004 13:25

Or whatabout carbon fibre or magnesium alloy? :lol:

by **Mad Mick** » 6 Aug 2004 17:29

Ask Chucklz, he was talking about Ti picks about a month ago......

by **hzatorsk** » 6 Aug 2004 19:15

I am not a metallurgy, expert... but it seems to me that the best material from a practical standpoint would be a material that is easily machined and has a spring steel like characteristic.

Titanium like any other 'exotic' metal strikes me as a material that would be somewhat difficult to machine. And at the size of the average pick... what would you gain.. 5.9 grams?

Platinum/Gold... No! Cost Factor!
Lead... No! To soft....
Carbon Fiber... Too thick (think lightweight fiberglass)
Magnesium Alloy... alloyed with what? why?

Spring Steel... Strong, Flexible, stampable, machineable, cheap...

I personally... will need to see a titanium pick to believe it is usable.

thertel,

Please do report your findings... I like being proven wrong! ...and will be the first to praise your success.

Harold

by **monkeE** » 7 Aug 2004 3:21

The only problem with spring steel is, it rusts sometimes... I like stainless. As for Platinum? how many Rap records you pumpin' playa? Cuz that material is more costly than gold! Gold would be horrible, as you'd end up with basically a golden crayon to mark up the inside of the lock with a nice yellow color... Spring steel is very nice, but stainless is sometimes a little better. The only problem I have with stainless is if you get the austenite (sp?) variation, you can't heat treat it... (The most common variation). Spring steel is easily re-blued or hay browned to your liking, and allows for retempering once you've wasted the life of the pick away a few times...

monkeE

by **logosys** » 7 Aug 2004 4:08

Actually, aside from it being more costly, Titanium WOULD stand up to more torture, and could (possibly) better your feel for the lock because of the increased weight.

As far as machining it goes, Titanium will rip the crap out of a standard dremel tool, but you can stamp it just the same as you would spring steel. The key to machining Titanium is HIGH TORQUE, LOW RPM. Otherwise, you'll go through 40 tools before you get what you want....

Personally, I'd like to see someone make an Inconel Tension Wrench. if you apply too much tension, it'll let you know it...

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