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by **LockNewbie21** » 3 Dec 2006 7:22

Here is my design for a medeco lifter pick.

The shape contours to the pin hieghts (thanks to skyler for sending the nice lock piece to get a good scale of pin hieghts.

And the rounded top lifts and rotates great. It has my usual elbow for flex and such and so on.

To be honest i suck at taking pictures so this is the best i could do. This pick took me 3 hours for handel construction filing sanding and measuring and such.. its good stuff works like a charm.

Let me see if i can't get a better shot then. and thanks to Kaotic i belive? for using the 5x jewlers scope on the lens of the camera.. so if there are little scratchs bea with me.

by **LockNewbie21** » 3 Dec 2006 7:41

Heres some whole shots, the slope before the tang is to place you finger one when rotating/ just need a better finger on tang feel. Just designed it to do both and thinned it down there to get the feel from the elbow

Again bare with the photo skills.. I'm horrible.

Handels a pinch thicker than a Metal reiforced one. The heat shrink again is for grip. Hot glue was not used here it was a special glue! :lol:

The Pick handels superb (for my picking style) the slopes dips elbow and dip before the tang all complement the other. Also if gives a great flex and feeback.

Thats all enjoy.

by **dmux** » 3 Dec 2006 10:10

nice, you need to change your name if your making picks like that, more like lock leet 21

by **LockNewbie21** » 3 Dec 2006 10:32

you need to change your name

I know right.

Ehh well I figure I just Print my sig on iron-on paper and people can't miss me at def-con.

by **mjwhit** » 6 Dec 2006 2:56

Hey there heres the start of my first pikset. Just thought I'd contribute.
So far, I have a half-diamond, medium hook, bogota rake and a completely homemade jacknife.
The case is aluminium and the picks are hacksaw blades.
The tension tool was a piece of stainless steel. I have heaps left (half a square meter) but find it too flexible, well actually it doesnt have the spring of hacksaw blades, just bends and stays bent.. I also have two other tension wrenches but theyre just old hex keys grinded down so nothing special, hence no photos of them.
Sorry if the photos are too big...

The gang together...

Cheers

by **LockNewbie21** » 6 Dec 2006 10:56

Nice pieces mang black and red is wht i use on my picks to, its the only sizes that works for picks that they sell at harbor frieght

by **UWSDWF** » 6 Dec 2006 11:03

look a little big

by **REparsed** » 6 Dec 2006 11:59

Sometimes I like the feel of a wider pick if there is enough room in the key way but in general the thinner the better. I think the best way to gage how thin you can get with the pick shaft is to file or grind a little and then try the pick in an actual lock. Keep grinding and trying till the pick gets so thin it breaks off in the lock (Did I hear someone say never pick a lock you depend on?) then make another pick ALMOST as thin.

Different materials demand different minimum thicknesses, so experiment.

by **mjwhit** » 6 Dec 2006 14:31

yeah cheers guys for the feedback.
they work fine for me but ill bust out the angle grinder tonight. :twisted:

not too sure about continously making them smaller until they break though, sounds too much like suicide... might try it one day when im bored...
haha lock newbie i hope you didnt think i copied you it was just some spare heat-wrap lying around that i saw. running out of red though--maybee three picks left if I'm lucky.
WHat do you guys reckon I should make next? im a bit stuk for ideas. From the feedback I guess maybee a smaller/shallower hook? Not a huge fan of rakes...

I thought they were allright for my first picks though.

by **iNtago** » 6 Dec 2006 14:42

try deep curve hooks

make them a bit smaller and sand and you will have a nice set

also try to find wiper inserts so you can have more tension wrenches

by **mjwhit** » 7 Dec 2006 3:15

i made a deeper hook as iNtago suggested. Heres a pic.

The new one is the at the top if you didnt know.

Do you guys still reckon theyre a bit wide?
I did cut them a tiny bit but think ill go and do more tomorrow, getting dark...

Im getting faster anyway, that one took about quarter of an hour plus sanding and heat-shrink.

I definately reckon I need some more tension wrenches.
At work there is pretty much an infinite amount of brick strap that gets put into a metal bin, might get some tommorow, and see what its like.

by **Kaotik** » 7 Dec 2006 19:12

mjwhit: Not bad but they as well as the newest one still looks to wide. The goal when making a hook as you may know is to minipulate individual pins, so it must be made thin enough to do so, but not to wide to interfere with the adjacent pins.

All in all, a good job on the shapes.

by **slleepytime** » 7 Dec 2006 23:25

waiting for my southOrd pickset.. *sigh

by **mjwhit** » 8 Dec 2006 0:28

Nice picks man.
You seem to have a flair for photography as well.

Just curoius to how that pen thing works, did you make it yourself?
How do the picks clip in?
Pretty nifty little idea really...

by **REparsed** » 8 Dec 2006 1:21

Nice work.

Gotta love those Xacto knives. While waiting for some street sweeper bristles I made a couple picks out of the pocket clips from Pilot Precise pens. The only way to hang onto them was to chuck them into an Xacto knife handle.

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