by raimundo » 11 Oct 2005 9:49
Its not copyrighted, but there may not be a template, the dimensions are derived from the size of the material, sweeper bristles vary quite a bit, and the size of the chainsaw sharpening file used, I use the largest I can buy which is the quarter inch one. Start by cleaning up the metal, and cut it to length, for me that usually means cut off the end that broke from the brush, because that is work hardened, and cut off any scarred material from the other end, then you have the basic piece of stock, cut that roughly in half, round off one end for the tensor, on each piece, then set them together in a vise grip pliers, about a half inch into the jaw, if one piece is slightly longer than the other, it will shorten in this first bend that you are about to make. take another plier, not the locking type, smooth jaw is best, many needlenose pliers have some smooth jaw somewhere in there, bend the metal away from the side with the longer piece of metal, this will make the longer piece the outer radius, it will slip through the plier jaw and shorten on the far end. there should be a bit more than a quarter inch between plier jaws when you do this, if you bend without the second plier, the outer piece of metal will force down the inner one and this will cause too sharp a bend and probably crack the metal. if the metal cracks, discard it and start with new metal, no reason to put work into a piece with a crack. after you have made this bend to about 120 degrees, or 110 degrees, unsnap the visegrip plier, and examine the bends on the outer side for cracks. put the springs from two ball point pens over the metal on both ends, allow enough metal for the pick tips, shafts and about a quarter inch for the twist, and clamp the vise grip down hard behind this, grip the pickshaft area about a quarter inch from the vise grip with a smoothjaw plier, and give it a 90 degree twist, once again, some of the metal will slip through the smoothjaw plier to accomodate the stretching from the bend. the two ballpoint springs will prevent the metal from skewing out of parrallel. Next, clip the pick tip material to length with a dykes, and file the 45 degree angle on the tip, then take a file stroke to cut off the sharp tip to save your fingers. At this point I usually hold both pieces together in my left hand and hold them down in a slight groove in a solidly mounted piece of wood, bench top or tree stump, whatever you have, the groove can be easily made with a piece of hacksaw blade. make the groove at an angle to your body so that you can hold the metal in the left hand and cut perpendicularly with the right hand file. this would be an angle that crosses in front of you at something like 45 degrees.
I can usually cut the first round cut with a sharp chainsaw file but if you are new to using files, you should make a centering cut with the edge of a triangular file so that when you go to the chain saw file, it dosent skid along the edge. the edge of the triangular file is far less likely to skid than the round file, make the cut so that you can just see a bit of the metal edge by the 45 degree tip, and perserve this edge all the way into the cut,
that is the last step where the two pieces are worked together after this, you separate them, ( the springs are removed after the bend and twist)
the piece that will have three peaks is then cut with the chain saw file in the same way, leaving the natural edge of the metal untouched between each cut about this wide ( - ) on the tip of each peak, this done, the rest of the cutting is done with a flat file, some needle files for the under cuts, and when the cutting is done, the easy work is over, its time to sand it out which is the real work.
If it ain't broke.....pull it down and see how it works anyway!
