My first home made pick

[femurat]

You broke or bent your picks?

I don't think it's a material problem. Try to be more gentle while picking. You don't need to force the pins to the point of bending the pick. You just need to lift them till they became harder to move. Then they're set and you don't need to push them further.
If the pick starts bending, then you're doing something wrong. Usually releasing a little the tension is enough to avoid this problem.

Cheers

[skylar]

I did break all my picks made from the old hacksaw blades but I think it was because the metal was not correct.

If you look at Pyro's video he snaps the hacksaw blades. I tried to do that with the old ones but instead of breaking they would bend and I would feel in kind of cracking in a few places. I would then have to bend it back and forth multiple times to get it to break and I would be left with a lip to file down. The picks that came from those blades would sometimes loose there tip just raising pins with no tension.

The new picks from the hacksaw blades from the $1 store are working wonderful no more lost tips and they are giving really good response. I can pick a SPP a deadbolt that I cannot even pick with the pick set from dealextreme.

I hope all of that makes sense

[werelwolf]

Wow, I'm surprised to hear that the Dollar Store set of hacksaw blades is giving you much better performance then other picks. I'll have to remember that when I get back to college and have use of their shop tools!

~W

[raimundo]

breaking them is likely an effect of overheating them with a grinder, causing them to be very hard and brittle, but even then, its also about using it as a prybar. Femurat is right, you are pushing a very light pin against a very light spring, inside a cylinder and plug that you cannot hope to force into complience, you have to be gentle to make this work.

[skylar]

I think that street sweeper bristle/Drain Snake makes better picks. They seam to be a lot more durable.

Now that I have made quite a few picks and bought a hand full of south ord and Dealextreme picks I think that home made picks are far superior to cheap purchased picks.

As for the pressure I was putting way too much but I think that is how you learn.

I can open the there deadbolts that I own, some dollar store pad locks, American 5200 key retaining but for the life of me I can not get the American A1100 to open. Any Ideas?