Pen-Pickset For 5 Bucks

[scholls]

Hey everybody,
although I have not been too active around here, I have often found great help...so thanks for that!

To give a bit back to the community, I posted a tutorial in a German forum a few days ago, on how to build a pen-pickset (also called 007-pickset) and because of the generally positive response, I thought I'd translate it and see whether you guys might like it too...

There has been an idea quite similar to mine (viewtopic.php?f=4&t=47268). But mine is even a bit less expensive...so just check out the pdf and let me know, what you think!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PGXC1IFD

peace,
scholls

penPick.jpg

[LocksmithArmy]

wow... cool, good DIY, looks very professional

[scholls]

Hey everybody,
Ever since I posted this tutorial a while ago, I kinda got the impression that a PDF on Megaupload isn't the way to go around here...So in order to make it more accessible to everyone I decided to turn it into a post...so here it is ...Have fun!



How To - Pen-Pickset for 5 bucks

What You Need
Materials:

• 2,5mm (~0.1“) thick, hardened spring steel wire
  >>> got mine as an about 3 feet long piece at a shop for RC-cars and airplane models
  >>> costs about 50 cents
• Precision Multi-Tip Screwdriver from Dealextreme (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11268)
  >>> great shop! Don’t worry about Hong Kong...
  >>> although shipping takes a few weeks
  >>> costs $4.45
• hacksaw blade / wiper blade
• small piece of heat shrink tubing

Tools:

• heavy hammer
• hard surface (heavy piece of flat steel, anvil, etc.)
• bench grinder
• Dremel tool with cutting discs
• sandpaper (400 to 1000 or more)
• bowl of water
• vise grip pliers
• jet lighter (while you‘re at it: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1320)

Idea



The Multi-Tip Screwdriver from Dealextreme works, because all the “bits” have a flat headed screwdriver (1) on one side. It fits into a gap in the chuck (2), thereby locking it in place. That way you can apply large twisting forces.
To prevent the bit from slipping out, the chuck is tightened with a screwable head (3).
So while I was messing around with the screwdrivers, and being a bit to fond of picking, I thought: “Wouldn’t it be cool to have picks instead of screwdrivers?”.
And sure enough, I couldn’t stop myself and made my own pen-pickset...so for everyone who’s interested, I made a quick tutorial.


Time to play

There are many great tutorials on how to make picks from hacksaw blades here at lp101. Because the process is very similar to what I am about to do, you might wanna check some of them out first!

1. First of all cut off a 6-7cm (~2.5”) long piece of the spring steel. To do so you can use bolt cutters or just take the Dremel tool.


2.Grip the steel with the pliers and take the hammer to flatten the tip.
Take care not to bend anything.


3.Use the bench grinder to grind the steel to the rough shape. Be sure to take away the same amount of material from both sides.
IMPORTANT: Don’t forget to dunk the steel in cold water every couple of seconds, as it will lose its stiffness otherwise.


4.Here you can already see what it is going to be.
To get a good idea of the shape I would suggest to get a commercial pick and take a good look at it for reference. For example, I took my Majestic hook.
You can then use the bench grinder to refine the shape of the pick as much as possible and get it to the desired width (0,7mm (~0.025”) in my case).


5.To stop the picks from twisting while you are picking, you need to grind the other side into a wedge shape (see section “Idea”).
While you’re at it, you should also grind the pick to its proper length of about 5,7cm (~2.24”).


6.Next you take the Dremel tool to refine the shape until it matches your template.
Then simply take finer and finer sandpaper to polish the pick and you’re done!
Maybe you should oil it too, as I found out they’re gonna start to get rusty pretty quickly...


7.Lastly you can use the Dremel to cut off a 2,4mm (~0.1”) wide strip of hacksaw blade / wiper blade.
By using the jet lighter, heat it to the point of glowing and then bend it at the desired location.
Heat it again and then quickly dip it in cold water. After that, temper it, sand as necessary and you got yourself a tension wrench!


8.To fix the tension wrench to the pen, take a piece of heat shrink tubing and pull it over the clip. Then push the tension wrench in from the other side. Heat it up and it will be fixed tightly.
If anybody has any suggestions as to how you can fix the tension wrench, please drop me a line!



Pros of the pen-pick:

• compact / inconspicuous
• always at hand
• customizable

Cons:

• changing picks while picking is a bit awkward
• pretty small tension wrench

If anybody has any suggestions, I’d be happy to hear from you! ► scholls (āţ) gmx de
Or, if you would like to upload this pdf somewhere else, it would be really cool of you to ask me...

Have fun messing around!

peace,
scholls

[SquallLHeart]

looks pretty awesome!

[MacGnG1]

thats pretty impressive!

[Schuyler]

Awesome work, Scholls! And thanks for the contribution, this is an awesome project post.

[wolf_from_wv]

Can the picks be blued?

http://www.amazon.com/Birchwood-Casey%C ... B002IY5B6O

It would wear some, but could be touched up.

[thededer]

I like it a lot especially because the stuff is available on deal extreme. love that site

[unbreakable]

Excellent post, you should really post around here more!

[ElDunco]

Fantastic idea for sure. I think I might just have to order a couple of these.

Bluing should work and if done properly shouldn't really wear off. I've seen quite a few very old and very well used firearms where the bluing is in fantastic shape though. Depending on how long you have the piece in the solution the finish might end up being a little abrasive though and get stuck a bit in the keyway.

[scholls]

Thanks for all the positive feedback!

Bluing (or browning) might be a good idea to prevent rusting...maybe I'll try it in the future once I get my hands on the stuff...right now I simply oil the picks regularly and put a few of these silica pearls (found in shoe boxes to suck up humidity) in the back of the pen, which seems to work fine...
(for more info you might take a look in this German forum: http://www.koksa.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=14700)

But blue or black picks would definitely look pretty cool!

peace,
scholls

[blackjacker2]

can you buy this maybe somewhere els ?
"how is it with the import costs ???"

[scholls]

can you buy this maybe somewhere els ?
"how is it with the import costs ???"

I don't know where else to buy it, except in Germany maybe...

But why would you want to buy it somewhere else? Dealextreme has a service that even surpasses many local internet-resellers!
I really wouldn't worry about customs if you mean that...It's just a screwdriver for 4 bucks...what can they say?

peace,
schollls

[blackjacker2]

and those Germany one's are ?
i dont live that far away from Germany anyways "belguim"

ty for your fast response ;D

[scholls]

In Germany you can buy a similar set of files at a shop called Conrad.

Go to: http://www.conrad.de and search for "12TLG. FEILEN-SET" (got this tip from fracomingo in the German KOKSA Forum).
It's just that this costs 5 times as much and I don't know, whether it really works the same...