Homemade plug spinner

[Exodus5000]

Im sorry to make another plug spinner post, but while looking at southord.com and their electric plug spinner, it looks little more than a powerdrill with a bit on it that is flat so it fits in the key way. I'm not at home (and wont be for a few days yet) to try this out, but it seems logical to me. Do you think that an electric drill would be fast enough?

[salzi684]

SouthOrd doesn't make an electric plug spinner and as far as I know there aren't any electric plug spinners. I am guessing you are taking about the DINO http://southord.com/catalog.asp?cat=loc ... owstart=20 it is actually just a spring that you wind up, and when you pull the lever the spring unwinds and turns the plug.

About the electric drill, I wouldn't recommend because it seems that it would be very easy to damage the lock, but that's just my opinion.

[Chucklz]

Electric plug spinner where?

I didn't see one, could you link us?

[Exodus5000]

Apologies, on further review it doesn't look electric but more like a modified pick gun, but i think my question still holds water.
http://southord.com/catalog.asp?cat=loc ... owstart=20
about 3/4 the way down the page.

[plot]

electric drill would damage most of the locks, as plug spinners are only designed to turn about 90 degree's (they each have there own number, some turn more, some turn less) then stop... so it won't bash the plug when it gets completely turned.

a drill... takes a split second to speed up... so it might not have the initial velocity needed, and then when it gets turned, it's not gonna stop after a short distance, it will keep going grinding the plug away... wouldn't recommend it at all.

[joecool2727]

Would a strong rubberband tied to a tension wrench work at all?

[salzi684]

Yes it will work, you have to use a sturdy tension wrench though, I tried it with a standard SouthOrd and all I got was a bent wrench, but if you have a thick tension wrench (like the one that comes with most pick guns) and have some means of attaching the rubber band to the wrench, with a little practice it works.

*note- for this to work well the tension wrench has to be as close to the center of the plug as possible. It also helps if you use a tension wrench that is thick enough so that it will not slide from the middle of the plug as soon as you let the rubber band do its thing.

[i_want_to_pick]

DrDave sent me some plans on making a plug spinner that he made using a pen. He said I could give them out so PM me if you want them.
Matt

[Exodus5000]

I would very much like to see these plans. Have you tried it? Does it work with any consistency?

[i_want_to_pick]

I'm still refining my own design from what I got from DrDave's plans. He used solder where as I dont have it to use. So yes it works, but because I modified DrDave's design to work for me its still got bugs to work out. I'll PM you with more details. Matt

[thertel]

Well I decided to make a plug spinner after seeing an A-1. I do not really need it yet but I thought It would be a good use of time while I waited for someone to get off the lathe. So i grabbed a stub of copper pipe, a cotter pin, a spring, a door hinge pin, and two nuts. Then when I got home I decided I wanted it to have a release so I could wind it before picking so I used some legos and some more electrical tape...Yes legos....







Let me know what ya think.

Thomas[/url]

[maldotcom2]

That looks absolutely wonderfull!! excellent job, how does it work?

[maldotcom2]

let me rephraze that, how well does it work?

[thertel]

Amazingly I just fixed a problem and removed the legos and replaced them with a small rivet piece. I realized that I inadvertently made a button on the back end that I can press to release the spinner. so now all the rivet does is hold it in place till i press the button.

As for how it works, well I had a chance to try it today and it works very well. I'm thinking about making another one out of aluminum tomorrow s that it will look nicer and not need to be taped to hide the terrible finish on the copper I used. I guess I'm just picky about how my tools look.

Next time around I'm gonna take pictures step by step as I make each piece and assemble it.

Thomas

[Romstar]

Very nice piece of work.
Congratulations.

Romstar