Problems making picks.

[MBI]

Is this normal? okay i have been working on cutting the metal part of a tape measurer out and i finnaly got it out but now i am covered in blisters. anyways once i heal on my right hand or atleast can hold a friggin pencil with out bleeding. how do i want to go about making this into a pick the size of the southord pen lockpick

[bumber]

are you talking about the tape that has the numbers on it or are you talking about the spring thats inside of it?
And why do you have blisters

[headshot tM]

I think he might be filing it.

Not exactly sure...can you elaborate a bit?

[blade10327]

sorry umm yes i am filing and i am talking about the spring inside. and i dont know why i have blisters lol anyways. how should i make my picks from the spring? and i think will buy a grinder lol i have 5 bandages on 1 hand lol.

[bumber]

There are SO MANY stickies and posts that I cant imagine you didnt find your answer in a few of them Look at some of the templates to get an idea, once you get a grinder or dremel you will be making them left and right.

[headshot tM]

Yeah it's a good idea to buy a grinder, you can't go wrong when they sell them from $39-69 CAD.

I'm going to pick up a grinder, vice and some bits from my dremel tomorrow to make some high quality picks.

[blade10327]

i probaly will i bought a double cut bastard file and it hurts like ****. so after i get out of school today. halfway done with school. i will go to *** the hardware store i bleeped it out because of advertising. and buy a grinder. gtg lunch is over cya!

[Safety0ff]

Why are you destroying a tape measure when you can just get hack saw blades which are much cheaper and less work?

[bumber]

Well i dont know what Ace... I mean 'that hardware store' charges for a grinder but once you get it you can use it for all kinds of fun stuff so it's good to get one. I say that because I would never tell someone to go out and buy a grinder JUST to make picks, i would tell them to go buy picks...but then again the amount of picks you could make......

well anyways I would imagine the tape was broken in the first place, if not it was a cheap tape and needed to be torn apart (been in the mood to break stuff lately ) Plus you could get a few feet of material out of it so its not that bad of a source for metal.

[vitti]

if you don't foresee yourself using the grinder for many other tasks down the line, look for the cheapest one you can find. Making picks puts such a minimal load on the grinder that even the lowest quality models should last forever (assuming no major design/manufacture flaws). Just make sure that the wheel size is a standard one.

Sometimes you'll find some oddball closeout specials with a proprietary wheel that you'll never find a replacement for.

[blade10327]

i bought a dremel. and i hvae been using an attachment that is tipped with some green material for cutting. it works well and it has no sparks flieing every where. but how do i transfer the templetes to my tape measurer?

[headshot tM]

Are you trying to make the picks out of a tape measure? If you are ...why?

Just get some hack saw blades/wiper blades.

I just use a template from the template sticky thread, I then photoshop everything out of it so you can't see anything but the pick, no white except where there are curves.

I then open it in Microsoft Word, and resize it to W: .31'' and L: 4.7''

for example, here is one *not resized*



Then I cut it out, glue it to the hacksaw blade, trace it with a fine tip permanent marker (so it won't go off when you quench it).

[bumber]

and i am talking about the spring inside. how should i make my picks from the spring?