When it comes down to it there is nothing better than manual tools for your Lock pick Set, whether they be retail, homebrew, macgyver style. DIY'ers look here.
I have searched a lot for making picks and found some of the best ever sources of info on lp 101, but what is so amazing is that I have found very few lock pick making guides that use dremels to there full. I saw a video by this guy on making lock picks on a dremel and using the grinder, I thought this was a good idea until I had a better one five minutes later. It is simple, why the hell do you se a grinder attachment on a dremel for making lock picks, why the dont you use the cutting disc, I made my first decnt pick like this in an hour, yeah it was slow but I also make a tension wrench aswell, the next two picks I did at the weekend and they took me half an hour for the pair, the next one a few weeks later took me about 5-6 mins max. Use he cutting attachment to cut out triangles in the hacksaw blades and just methodically cut away until you get a nice flat shaft with a place to make a pick head on the end, it should take no time at all and the discs cost a dime a dozen. Try it, you will be surprised how quick it is. here are a few picks that I have made.
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I thought thats how everyone who uses the dremel did do it (with a slittling disc)
I made a hook today which took around 30 mins, if i hadnet been taking a picture of the process every minute i could have done it in 10 mins, i used a bench grinder,
I was looking for ages but loads of people just use the grinder attachment, it doesn't really make sense as it takes longer and the grinder wears don in about five minutes, the grinder is only there for small jobs and sharpening carving knives.
I dont really make hand cylinder picks but i did make a set of split wafer rakes a while ago and i did use a dremel type tool as you say it was better to cut slots along the form with a disc and then cut in between those slots and so on until it just needed cleaning up,
I think this site is short on a lot of videos on how to do various things like this and hardening etc so its somthign i may get on to at some point,
I use a bench grinder, dremel, and files. It's just so much faster starting on a grinder. I do more precise shaping with my dremel, and fine tune with minature files.
I've tried to do the whole process with just a dremel, and while it can be done, I believe it takes longer and is more dangerous. I love my dremel! But am still glad I have a bench grinder
