Hand Made vs. Store?

[DiamondHead.exe]

I was wondering if the majority of you guys and girls who have alot of experiance (1-2 full years) use your own (ie. not bogota, unless yur Ram himself) hand-fashioned tools, or store bought ones.

And maybe a combo of both?

Post why you use a combo and why you use one over another!

[unbreakable]

Hey,

Cool poll, Im surprised it hasn't been done before. At least, I haven't seen it.

Personally, I use homebrews simply because I havent bothered to spend money on a pickset . I spend most of my money on locks....

[sams choice]

machined picks quality far out due the quality of my homemade picks, but i like using my homemade picks because you cannot buy the designs i make, plus if they break i dont really mind it too much.

[mattc]

For pin tumbler locks I vote "bought" picks, but prefer home made tools for lever locks

[skedone]

hay mattc were in essex are u mate???

[Biff]

I use picks that I've purchased because they tend to hold up longer than anything I've made (just means I need practice )

[Deathadder]

i use a combo of store bought and bogotas, but mainly store bought. my homebrews suck, took me 5 times just to get the bogotas right

[LockNewbie21]

Straight up homebrew homeslices

Get good and make picks that that works for specific locks.. ask ray, you cant get a better finish then a homeade

[nip1024]

I've just recently bought my first 'real' set of picks. I can see why people would want to make their own. Of all the picks I bought I only use one (short hook). There are several others I would love to try out, but they didn't come in my set. So, basically I paid about $42 for a $2 pick and a few tension wrenches in a nice case (plus a wonderfully useless brass handle). I just wish I had some place to set up a small shop to roll my own (live in a 1-room condo w/ no garage).

If I were to lose all of my picks tomorrow and I still couldn't make them, I would definitely buy the individual picks instead of the near useless prebuilt sets.

nip

[CVScam]

I have almost as much fun making a pick as I do using it. I used to make all my picks by hand with just small files. I use a grinder now and a dremmel but I still do the final sanding and polishing by hand. I used a friend's new store bought picks and they could have used some sanding and polishing. I have a new Medeco lock that I think I will have to make a new pick for it I am having a hard time rotating the pins with my hook.

[LockNewbie21]

Exactly, i mean compared to most mine suck, but i am proud because heck they were a windshield wiper before


I mean making comercial ones i see that theres no way for those people to finish them properly becuase how many thousand do they make a day? But! i think that it should be addressed, or even throw in some emory paper and lube.

Either way fine tuning a pick for a lock is great.

For the medeco i dabbled in a few, but i am buying a new mortice becuase it took a beating.
Andy

[LockNewbie21]

Actually to add most of all my SO hooks.. the awful W-rake, and some others i modded, ha with a little bending and grinding i took one of 3 broken key extractors and made a double ended pick with it.

O sorry for the double post.

[Deathadder]

if you use all the picks, you can find out which ones work in different scenarios... i can open all my locks with any pick i choose, and i think that is to my advantage, because when i come across a lock i cant open with a particular pick, then there's always the other 10 to try

[lockedin]

So far I've bought everything from Southord. I lack the patience and the expertise, and from $1.50 per pick it is cheap to replace them.

[pinsetter]

I have never bought a single pick. I have made all my own and am very happy with the set I ended up with. I made aq lot of standard shapes, but have also been able to experiment and make picks that work great with non-standard head designs. I doubt I'll ever buy a set of picks unless I just want to compare mine to a purchased set.