my new materials lol

[jamesphilhulk2]

hi i finally got my pick making metal which is stainless steel and a bit of mild steel (dont know what to make out of the mild steel yet suggestions).

anyway here are some pics of them:

this is my mild steel the measurments are 376mm x 1254mm



and this is my stainless steel the measurments are 561mm x 1003mm



i wonder how many picks i can make out of it lol.

p.s any ideas on what to make out of the mild steel

[mjwhit]

if i read that right you have about half a meter of stainless steel.
Hopefully it will be strong enough, dad gave me about this much for picks and it turned out to be too flexible. DO you know hoe thick the staainless and mild steel is?
No idea wat to do with the mild steel, after seing some posts on this site maybee a small safe?Im sure youll have fun with that lot...

[jamesphilhulk2]

yeah they are both 1.5 mm thick so i will have to sand them down a fair bit

[UWSDWF]

tension tools maybe... a metal pick case.... a dirty shank... lots of staples... a spring... rivited chainmail... let your imagine flurish

[jamesphilhulk2]

so how much will i have to sand them back for the right pick thickness?

[Anero]

.025 inches

[jamesphilhulk2]

so thats like 0.6 mm i think, hmm it will take a while to sand all that down lol

[Deathadder]

a dirty shank...

Shank, shank!!

I recommend feeler gauge for picks, I tested a piece against my southord key extractor (don't even use it) and the key extractor snapped first with less effort. You can get them in a variety of thicknesses to suit which is best, and thicker ones can even be made into nice tension wrenches.

[m3ph15t0]

I read somewhere around here that mild steel is much too weak for a good pick.

[jamesphilhulk2]

well i guess that i will have to go back to the drawing board on this one i made a double ended hook pick out of my stainless steel but its far to soft after working on it so i have thrown the pick

[gostone]

Mild steel is much too soft for picks, give up on that material. Get yourself some hardened spring steel .025 thick or go for the same thickness of machinist's feeler gauges. You can buy them in individual strips, they are tipically 12" by 1/2 " should be good for 2 picks per strip.