DIY piano wire wave rake pick

[staiper]

Hello community
This is my first post here.

Through years I have interested in lockpicking (as hobby only ) so not complete "newbie".
Already I have done some dozen of picks out saw blades and some of sweeper bristles but still
none of piano wire.
Yesterday I have taken look at topic about "bogotas" and it inspired me to try to make one wave rake
out of 1mm thick high tensile piano wire which I have found hanging on nail in garage wall.

So ..grabbed some shaky pliers , good wire cutters (this piano wire is very hard so it will make dent at cheaper wire cutter-pliers)
+ one old smaller adjustable wrench (a.k.a."french wrench") - come handy as little wire holder while bending.

After ten minutes of bending , a bit of filing , a bit of fine sand paper work I came out with this:



Wave rake and tension wrench

..tested it immediately and opened (within 30-40 seconds of raking max.) 4 of 5 cylinder locks on doors around house/ garage.

I did not took pictures of process of making first one so here is second:

1. Find , buy.. some ~1mm high tensile wire (piano wire) (:) ..yes fingertips a bit smudged -just in case)



2. Cut a bit of ~140mm



3. Start bending ( ~30mm from one end )



4. Be carefull with pliers , wire is hard and pliers slip easily .. hehe



5. ..improvise a bit . I am using old adjustable wrench (little one) as wire holder
to help while bending with pliers.




6. Bending done..


- make "handle"



7. Cut exes of wire at the rake tip end , nice round out sharp cut end,... grind or file "sides" of rake to make it a bit flat and thinner, finish with fine sand paper, polish..


..just a bit of fine polishing required..

I use them with "too-much-coffe" jigling technique and works really nice on most 5pin cylinders I have find around.
To be honest first one appears to be better for most cylinders. It is with a bit shallower "waves" (only top-end wave is a bit deeper and a bit more "pointy" )
But second one with "even" and a bit deeper waves have opened some cylinders as first (a bit harder - longer work) but than easily opened lock which I cannot open with first prototype..

I am planing to make five different wave shapes (all with 3 waves but bit different depth patterns) and than "color code" them by covering "handles" with thermo-shrinking wire insulating (I do not know good name in english for that.. I hope you understand what I mean)

..That is it ..for now

[ridinplugspinnaz]

Beautiful work! This is an exemplary first post. Welcome to LP101!

[raimundo]

theres a member here from the caracas venezuela lockpicking club, whos handle I dont recall right now who makes picks from some heavier wire that he then thins with files or belt sander or something, his handles are made square
Now we have a member who uses triangle handles,

personally I prefer and recommend the finger loop, at an off set angle, like this 6 or like this 9

[LocksmithArmy]

get everyone together... makje a geometry pick set

[staiper]

Hello,

Here is set of five as I planed:


All of them are flattened at sides of wave-rakes.
They may look easy to bend or "weak-bendy" but believe or not I am really
surprised how strong and stiff is this 1mm thick tensile wire. It can tolerate very "agressive" jigling
without any deformations. In my opinion this wire hits exact target combination of hardness and "springyness"
for making such "jigling" tool where some quality sawblade made ones may be too "hard-brittle" for casual use without too much care.


Best wishes

[staiper]

Just to add some information.. I am from Croatia so using them-picking only euro 5pin locks I have available around.
I am using only hard tension wrenches (not spring ones) .. and varying with very light to medium "tension touch" and while "jigling" motion axial rotating pick within keyhole (just few degrees left-right)
Also successfully tried them on few padlocks (small and medium ones)

[mhole]

Ingenious - nice work!

[unlisted]

Homebrew is the best... And I like what your creating. Keep at it!

[ToolyMcgee]

theres a member here from the caracas venezuela lockpicking club, whos handle I dont recall right now who makes picks from some heavier wire that he then thins with files or belt sander or something, his handles are made square
Now we have a member who uses triangle handles,

personally I prefer and recommend the finger loop, at an off set angle, like this 6 or like this 9

Abridor makes music wire tools with square handles. They are his signature style. I don't know if he is registered here or not... I've seen your name next to bogota on the Caracas site too Raimundo.

Nice looking rakes staiper. Thank you for showing us how you made them.

[lock2006]

I think this is the guy raimundo is talking about from caracas venezuela lockpicking club

http://www.youtube.com/user/lockpicking ... BjhcldaCjI


by the way i like this wave rake picks good job man.

[ToolyMcgee]

Abridor is lockpickingmen's mentor. He even gives a shout out to Abridor for making that pick in his style using a coat hanger in the vid you linked. He's a very talented picker, and a nice guy.

[raimundo]

There are some sites that I once signed up for and then somehow forgot my pass word. thats how you find one or two old posts from me there.