Home made tensions wrenches

[pickit_77]

Hi. I have been quite successful with lock picking, I can pick most padlocks and alot of doors. My lockpick is made from a grinded down hacksaw blade and that works well, however my tension wrench can be a bit of a sometimes. Sometimes it slips, I'll be picking a lock and it'll slip. At the moment its just a piece of wire with the end bent and flattened. My question is.. is the flatter the better? what do you guys make your tension wrenches out of?

I've heard of making a tension wrench out of a hacksaw blade with a blowtorch.. but I dont have a blowtorch.

[iNtago]

i pesonaly use windshild wiper inserts. just go to an auto shop and ask thay may sell you some or give you some free(i got about 50 for free).then just use pliers to bend them into shape.

you could also use
street sweper bristes
bike spokes(hamerd flat)
tweasers(very weak and will bend easy)
joinior hacksaw blades(my first tension wrench)
8 penny nail (hammerd/filled flat)

My question is.. is the flatter the better?

yes/no

not to thick to not fit in the lock but not to thin or it will bend easy

[Romstar]

I think I may have briefly covered tension wrenchs a long time ago, but I was never satisfied with it. The problem was I never revisited the issue either.

Basically tension wrenchs come in two basic flavors. American and European style. The American style tends toward a looser fit while the European stule tends toward a tighter fit. You can see this in a great deal of Euro pick sets such as the Falle-Safe set and others.

The question of course is, "which one is better"? The answer as blithe as it may sound is, "which ever works best for you".

No, I am not trying to frustrate you.

The longer you pick, the more you develop a personal style that suites various unique things about you such as the way you hold your picks, the way you stand, if you fidget when you pick or if you zone out and so many other things. Each of these uniques things contributes to you discovering what tools work best in your hands. I know people who can pick Medeco with junk, but couldn't do a thing with a cheap Bird cylinder with the best Falle picks.

So from here we move along into what to make them out of.

Without a doubt the best hobbiest item is steel retainers from used windshield wiper blades. If you happen to use 1/2" shim stock to make your tools, the narrow piece you slice of the stock before grinding your pick makes an excellent tension tool. After that come mini hacksaw blades, "music" wire and you can even buy spring steel strip in the perfect widths for tension tools.

I use several materials to make tension tools. Music wire thats bent and flattened is one of the more common. You get a round tool that doesn't require twisting, but you have to grind flats into the ends. After that I use stainless and regular carbon steel strip to make the more common type of wrenches.

I personally tend to do better with the tighter Euro style wrench so I carry a lot more wrenches that the average person. That way I am almost sure to have the proper width tool to get a nice snug fit into the keyway. Over the past while I have developed a stepped tension tool design that lets me reduce the number of tension tools in my case. This tool is made using music wire, and every few millimeters the flats graduate to a thinner step until I reach the end of the tool.

I plan on making a new tension wrench tutorial on how I make these things so watch for that, but otherwise I would just reccomend that you experiment with materials, twists, thicknesses and see if you can find something that works best for you. Also remember that the more you "finish" the tool, the more it tends to perform bettter. So a wrench that you thought was just may turn out to be a very good tool if you spend some time with the files and the sand paper.

Good luck,
Romstar

[mako]

If you've got the tools to cut a hacksaw blade (demel/grinder) you can make any type of tension wrench - but u need a blowtorch. What I've found is that its more the thickness of the metal that prevents it from slipping - thats where hacksaw blades fail.

My best suggestion to you would to be hammer down one of the above mentioned such as a street sweeper bristle, a nail or if your in Australia use a coathanger. That way you can choose how thick its going to be when your flattening it.

Personally I use a proper tension wrench because they fit the lock perfectly and will not bend out of shape.

[cL4y]

most home-made tension wrenches (from people on this site) are wiper blades.Becouse they are cheap,effective,and quite easy to make,i make mine by just putting it in a vice,bending it 90degrees,and put a twist-flex in it.I don't heat it or anything,but i know im doing something wrong (and please point it out if i am) but it works perfectly,and i can pick locks with it,and i think thats what its supposed to do

If your in australia,you will have to check out some auto joints to find some,if your in america then i think you will have no trouble there.

[Shrub]

Heres a video i made for another thread that was on heating and bending wiper inserts which is obviously not needed but in it i make a wrench from some insert, if i remember correctly it only took 16 seconds to make it so my suggestion is why even bother with grinding all that material off a hacksaw blade then have to heat it to bend then heat treat it to stop it from breaking?

In my eyes there is no better material, no easier material to work with, no cheaper material (all auto workshops will have old blades in the bin that they will let you have if you ask), its strong, disposable, rust free and looks nice,

[Bud Wiser]

Listen to Romstar and Shrub, they know their stuff, may be the Wrenchman can add some tips too.

The only thing I can add is technically it is not a wrench, it's a turning tool. Tension is not even used to turn it, pressure is used, but tension occurs at the pins caused by applying pressure on the turning tool. But I have NP calling it a tension wrench, and only bring this up forsake of clarification and make it look like I may actually know some thing (even though I don't).

I use a lot of different tension wrenches! Since tension is the single most important factor to picking next to the pick, it makes sense to use more then one tension wrench.

I do not like loose fitting tension tools, I like a nice snug fit, which is another reason I use many different tension tools.

Most of mine are made from wiper inserts. I started off using a blow torch, but no longer use heat and have had no problems with cold bending and twisting. I definitely agree this is the easiest and best material to use! However I would like to point out that refill wipers use plastic inserts! So if you can't find any used ones, before you try buying refills check to make sure! As far as I know only new full wiper blades come with steel inserts. Some refills may, but I've never found any.

I'm sure we could devote a whole forum section just on the topic of tension tools! It certainly deserves it

[illusion]

I got a nice selectionin my Falle set, but don't actualy use the double ones. I only use the classic 'L' shaped ones, and even carry a fair few wiper inserts with it, so if I need to make a custom wrench I can simply bend them to shape.

I am looking towards the Peterson flat wrenches, and on that subject, a set of Peterson tools in general.

[Bud Wiser]

I got a nice selectionin my Falle set, but don't actualy use the double ones. I only use the classic 'L' shaped ones, and even carry a fair few wiper inserts with it, so if I need to make a custom wrench I can simply bend them to shape.

I am looking towards the Peterson flat wrenches, and on that subject, a set of Peterson tools in general.

Check out the U Bend it tool that comes with your Peterson set, useful if you decide to purchase tension blanks. Yes they cost more and no you don't need them, but since they come in different flex, it may be worth while to get and have some on hand.

I like the flat five, but honestly rarely use them. If your good at keeping the tension on top of the key way you may like them. I prefer the Peterson Serrated 3 set over the flat five, but that's just me.

Would love to add a Falle-Safe set to my collection

[LockNewbie21]

My buddy jsut got a machinist job.. since were talking falle... and yes.. thats right works a computer programed and controled (never seen a manual) Water jet machine.

Just wait until his lunch break when i can get some good designs and some good steal sheets.

Seems event he double wrenchs can be cute using the water jet, just debur and put the bolts on.

Ooohh if i can get measure ments.. I gonna have's me'z some Homemade falle's bud

[Romstar]

Does that still qualify as "home" made after all of that?

Romstar

[illusion]

Check out the U Bend it tool that comes with your Peterson set, useful if you decide to purchase tension blanks. Yes they cost more and no you don't need them, but since they come in different flex, it may be worth while to get and have some on hand.

I like the flat five, but honestly rarely use them. If your good at keeping the tension on top of the key way you may like them. I prefer the Peterson Serrated 3 set over the flat five, but that's just me.

Would love to add a Falle-Safe set to my collection

I have a piece of wood I shaped to the bending tool used to Peterson - in fact I copied the entire idea.

I often apply tension at the top of the keyway, and these wrencches look nice.

My SouthOrd deforest pick gets used more than my Falle picks, but that's mostly because I really like the deforest pick. If my trusty deforest doesn't cut it, out come the Falle hooks.

[WillieCoyote]

I just made my first pick set a few days ago. I used an old Allen Wrench I had lying around. It took less than a minute and seems to work perfectly. I’m thinking about buying a set of smaller Allen Wrenches just to grind down. No blowtorch required.

[Shrub]

For the price of a set of allen keys you can buy a couple of windscreen wipers,

You get 2 strips in each and out of the 4 strips you would probably get around 25 wrenches easily,

[cL4y]

For the price of a set of allen keys you can buy a couple of windscreen wipers,

You get 2 strips in each and out of the 4 strips you would probably get around 25 wrenches easily,

Yeah and it depends on how long you want it to be.W/blades are by far the best materals for making T/wrenches