Made a Homemade Tubular pick...sigh

[sams choice]

Alright, i read a book and it gave me the jist of how to make a tubular pick. I made a 7 pin tubular pick that costed about 10 dollars for all the pieces. IT WAS NOT WORTH IT IN THE END. It is more of a novelty item. It is neat to know if i had some tubes, hacksaw, ruberband, glue and some wire, and i am locked in a room with a tubular lock on the door, i could make this in about an hour and free myself. But yeah. This thing was WAY too much trouble to make. It was a fun experiment though. Oh and it does work, Just takes a couple of mintues to fit it in and alighn correctly. Tell me what you guys think!

sorry the pictures arent taken too well. I am not too happy with the result, so pictures not to happy either. haha

[URL=http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=10311848oi.jpg]

[img=http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/1737/10311869jz.th.jpg]
Yeah...please comment...

all right i am really annoyed right now that image shack is acting funny and some how linking two completly different pictures to the same picture even though it is nevermind. i am mad.

[pip]

I am not too happy with the result

why ?

you tried....you made it....and it works

Macgyver would be proud

who cares what it looks like

[sams choice]

haha it just took alot out of me to make it. i have so many little cuts everywhere, and it does work, it is just stressfull to get it to set in right. I think the looks is all it has going for it. is is made with just brass and rubberbands

[MeisBarry]

I'm not sure if this would be possible with that material but..

If you wanted to have it set to a single alignment you could make small grooves in your tube that line up with the pins, and let the fingers rest in those.

I personally think it looks cool. I've only been picking for a few months but I have thus far refused to buy/use anything I haven't made myself. Lockpicking always seemed to me like a DIY hobby, and premade kits never seemed to fit into that view. Besides, picks aren't for display purposes.

$0.02

[sams choice]

there are grooves in the metel. there are actually 3 different size tubes. a 7 an 8 and a 9. all going inside of eachother. I cut them with a hacksaw and flattened the pieces. I was goign to make a guide on how to make it but i decided that it would be a waste of time because it took me about 3 or 4 times of minor adjusting to make it work properly.

[pip]

sam's choice guide for making a tubular pick

go for it

some guys might try it
and practice their macgyver skills

[jgencinc]

you might try using an adjustable hose clamp to give better tension.

[raimundo]

the hosers clamp will have a flat side with gaps in tension at either end of that flat side. three hours tweeking is not bad at all, every tubular pick i ever made was tweeked for a few days before it got it all adjusted.

[JackNco]

to be honest ive never seen a great deal of apeal in making most picks. for the £20 i spent on buying a simpel set 2 learn with it seemed much easier. but this looks cheap and easy to make and as the actual tools for this kind of lock cost silly money this looks like a great idea

[Nasydave]

I've used a hose clamp on my old southord when the aluminum tension nut crossthreaded (never let anyone touch your tool!). I wrapped a large rubber band around the pick and put the clamp on that. Worked pretty good.

[conker]

SWEET. that is a nice one. I will make something similar, to save on money. Nice job

[ysr50speed]

Great job. I do like it. Always like homemade projects. I to see it works is even better. Great job!

[assweasel]

I really do like the pick nice job. I enjoy doing this sort of thing myself and have made several Homemade Tubular picks.

For one I used a Key, a Dremel with a grinding stone, 7 metal meat skewers and elastic bands for tension.
By grinding slots along the key where the cuts are and putting the meat skewers in those slots i fashioned a working pick in no time at all. If you grind the key to far and breach the inner wall of the key just get a small pice of 3/8 dowling to keep the meat skewers from bending inwards.


Best picks I ever made for tubulars used parts from the locks themselves. I call this reverse engineering.

if there is interest and

As i need to make a 6-pin tubular (inverse) pick sometime next week I will write a tutorial on how to do this with pictures etc.

[Mr. Lock Pick]

well you tried and it works, its not the prettiest tubular pick but its home made and it works.. and thats what makes it original.