My new tension/pick tool material from the auto wreckers

[steve0527]

Hi, hope all is well with everyone. I just got back from the auto wreckers. I was looking for metal and car door locks and I found a bunch of stuff. The people thier let me tryout some of my car opening tools, it was great. For $20 I got 7 car door locks and around 10lbs of the metal strips from wipper blades. If you likes making picks, than the auto wrekers is where you should go.

Here are some pictures of my new tension/picks i made just now.

[freakparade3]

They look pretty good. Some of the picks look like they could use a little sanding to get rid of the sharp edges.

[steve0527]

They look pretty good. Some of the picks look like they could use a little sanding to get rid of the sharp edges.

Thanks freakparade3
They don't look shiny in the pic, but they are. I sanded them a lot. Whats wrong with sharp edges. Does it help if they are more round? If so how round do you think they should be?

[freakparade3]

I am not an expert pickmaker by far, I know that picks with sharp edges damage pins. If you have a pick with sharp edges and use it in a lock over and over the pins will be damaged and it will affect the picking of the lock. As far as exactly how rounded to make the edges, I'll leave that to the experts to say after they see your picks.

[gotta]

Those look good. I use a small Arkansas wetstone, fine grade to debur the edges. You can also use it for surfacing the face before sanding. I use 600 grit, then 1500 grit. If the stone is too big to get into the small areas, I use a wire wheel with my dremel.

[josh0094]

So those picks are from whipers? dont whiper insurts bent a bit easy? if not then that will be my new material

thx

[gotta]

Most of the wiper inserts are a decent grade of stainless steel. They come in different widths and thicknesses. You can cold bend them for tension wrenches without fracturing. I shape the picks with a dremel and a grinder. I do purchase stainless sheets for wider picks, but there's a lot you can do with wiper inserts.