sonicare toothbrush

[knitpick]

has anyone tried to make a pick out of the sonicare toothbrush. It seems like it would really bounce those pins.

opinions please.

[bushd]

I saw the title and thought I had posted. The other day I had a post up but I never posted about using one. It definately would be much more powerful then any electric on the market. Bite down on it and it will keep vibrating and so will your head.

[CaptHook]

Ive tried it. I had a worn out brush head, so I cut it down and installed a sewing needle. Had no success with it whatsoever, it vibrates well, but the motion isnt large enough. If you worked on the head, trying to get a larger range of motion (bouncing the needle as opposed to just letting it vibrate), it may work for ya.
Chuck

[knitpick]

thanks for the input, I will try myself soon when I wear out my brush head.

Please keep the opinions comming.

[toomush2drink]

If you made the needle longer wouldnt that make the range of motion larger ? Or maybe make the needle have a bend in it a bit like the standard snap gun type thats available.

[mcm757207]

I tried this as well, I found that it didn't work at all. If you get too far away from the head you end up loosing a lot of strength- it barely moves the pins.

[milligan]

A friend of mine was able to modify one of those generic electric toothbrushes to surpass the speed of a sonicare by stacking batteries and doing a little rewiring. I'll play around with making a pick out of it, because it's pretty much useless as a toothbrush now (it could tear your gums to shreds).

[silent]

The older toothbrushes seem to have more up and down movement. I could get my old one to open simple locks but never anything above a quickset.

[^kimba^]

Most electric pick are actually modified versions of an electric screw driver! Means it comes compete with mountable charging unit etc. All that has been done is a pivot has been fited to the end, the sharft replaced with a pivoting lever, that is attached to an off centered disc on the end of the motor. This whole mechcanisum is then limited by a screw at the end, to adjuct the range of motion. I did make one myself, and it came to a few quid less than just buying one from someone online etc.

Still it's a good feeling to make things yourself, feels like you personally have managed to beat the lock

[frollard]

thing with a sonicare is its not a direct drive - just magenetic-mechanical, a computer controlled electro magnet determines the vibration, so I think it would just *even if you had the strength and range of motion* too fast.

[okasional]

frollard is right on. The brush is stuck onto one end of a very stiff spring, with a couple of very strong magnets at the other end. The magnets are close to an electromagnet coil that's driven at high frequency by a microcomputer chip. The spring is designed sort of like a tuning fork, and resonates at the drive frequency. The mechanical resonance depends on the weight on the end of the spring, which is the plastic brush. So if you experiment with replacing the brush with a pick you should try to keep the final weight about the same, else the resonant frequency will change and it won't be excited into vibration very well by the coil.

What's really surprising is that anyone would even try to make an electric pick gun out of a Sonicare, considering its cost.

[DeadlyHunter]

Why pay so much for your toothbrush pick idea? DIY for under $10 thats more powerful than the leading toothbushes.

http://www.g4techtv.com/flashpop.aspx?video_key=8874

[CaptHook]

I dont think anyone was rushing out to buy one for this purpose, it was an idea from people who already had them.
Chuck

[samwalker]

This is the first time I've heard of toothbrush being used as a tool to pick locks... I wanted to verify such statements, I'm gonna try this one at home...

[mattc]

It worked pretty well on nearly all all lower security locks I tried it on, but not as fun as doing it manually. Further reading