Wiper Blade Insert Question [Making first pickset.]

[nostromo]

The hardware chain stores and places like WALMART usually stock a universal chainsaw file right next to the chainsaws. Same tooth count and diameter since chainsaw teeth are pretty much the same. Only a few bucks. If you go to a real old time hardware store the folks working there will have a larger variety of files, but should know what you need.

Check out Raimundo's 'how to' at viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8205

There are great tutorial threads at viewforum.php?f=4

[dnullify]

ah so "chainsaw file" is the type of file, and size. i went to home depot the other day, and found circular files in different diameters, 4mm, 5mm, 6mm... i was looking in hardware where the hand tools were... didn't think to look near the chainsaws.

thanks! i'll have a look tomorrow to see if i can find one.

[raimundo]

chainsaw sharpening files are made in various diameters, I use the quarter inch, possibly 5 or 6 mm in metric, this works so well for me that no template is involved, you just make the grooves the file is made for. I use the eighth inch diameter chainsaw sharpening file to do the mass wasting of the undercuts beneath the peaks, then I deepen the center oft this cut with a tapered four inch long needle file. the tiny kind, not the six or eight inch needle files.

[rontgens]

Here's a couple of picks I've made recently. A double ended one Diamond and just the square end that's sometimes left on wiper blades. I made the handle by gluing together some lollipop sticks and filing them down. And a rake of some description, which is really small and the handle is more wiper blade insert glued together and bound with elastic bands. The Diamond works well on a troublesome Corbin padlock I have.


http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a68/nothing_studios/Corbin2.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a68/nothing_studios/Corbin1.jpg
p.s sorry of the pics are too big.

[unlisted]

Sorta off topic.. Nice to see we are on another "watchlist" now.. Government of Rajasthan, Jaipur...

[awol70]

Canadian Tire? Have a cruise through the parking lot and grab some discarded old wiper blades. That's what I did to amass my collection of wiper inserts. If you go on the first day of rain after a dry period, you can grab a whole bunch. Just make up some reason to explain why you're pulling stuff out of trash cans if you have any pride... I don't so it's easy.

Can. tire is also where i get mine..i used to dig thru the garbage barrels in the parking lot as well ..,then one day , one of the mechanics asked
what i wanted them for,and offered to start setting them aside for me...now in winter ,(rainy season here) i go in once a week, and get 100 or so inserts...i never stop finding new uses for them, and have collected several thousand...
so try and talk to the mechanics...(inserts make great "wind chimes" if you are hesitant to say what you are using them for...)
(and they really do..)

[raimundo]

Hey Awol, do ya ever read paperback books, the pages like to snap back together, you can make a bookmark that is a bit like a giant bobby pin, just take a length of the stuff, and cut and round off and sand the endes so it dosent gouge paper, and bend it in half with the bend wide enough that it can take the spine of a paperback book, leave one end of the pagesnapper longer, this can make it easy to just pull it off the book with one hand and then after turning page, snap it back on by hooking he long end under the book and lifting the short end over the pages.

[anarchy_punk]

Yeah I made hooks, half diamond, camel, and also you can make those wipers inserts into tension wrenches for like really small locks for like luggage

[MrAnybody]

OP- The absolute best first pick(set) to make is Raimundo's Bogota set. Go shopping and get yourself a chainsaw file and just about every grit of autobody abrasive you can find. Follow all the directions on the posted thread. You want smmmmmmoooooooth.

After that, get or make a variety of pick profiles and tension wrenches and experiment to see what best works with your 'hand'. It's a wonderful time!

I too just got some wiper blades. i'm planning on trying bogotas. The files i've got now are pretty small, probably only good for finishing. what dimension is a good chainsaw file for that project?

Raimundo recommends a 1/4" chainsaw file.