Laser cut, punch or ground

[WilsonTrucking]

Ive been toying with the idea of trying my hand at making a set of dimple picks, as there don't seem to be too many options out there. My thoughts are to have a 6 pick kit with small and large of flat flag, left curve and right curve as well as 5 different size tension tools. In terms of forming the picks themselves I've come across 3 main options. Punching shapes from metal sheets, laser cutting from same, or grinding from small round stock. Just curious as to what your opinions would be and what you guys think a fair price for such a kit would be.

[kwoswalt99-]

Punching or laser cutting seems like it would only be worth it if you are making a production run. Hand grinding them isn't difficult.

[OrMeanGene]

You could always just buy a set of 13 dollar goso picks and put the work into finishing them real nice. Like spooxe. Its a nice starting point and they fairly tough. If you damage them learning, its only 13bux.

[gumptrick]

Punching or laser cutting seems like it would only be worth it if you are making a production run

I have operated a machine shop for more than 15 years now, and had plenty of similar experience beforehand. Your assessment is correct.

Punching requires expensive dies to be manufactured. That is a very high up-front cost and would only be remotely practical if you were making many thousands of picks. Those dies will require ongoing maintenance as well; the relatively hard metals used to make picks are hard on dies.

Laser cutting can be practical, but you would need to find a laser cutter who specializes in precision parts. Many laser cutting shops are set up to do industrial work that is many times thicker than the picks we use. If you had such a shop cut some picks then you can expect a very rough finish--perhaps so bad that the roughness is actually more significant than the shape of your pick! I have had a lot of stainless steel in the .060" range cut for my business and it took me many attempts before I found a shop who could deliver a nice looking finish. The problem would be even worse with something as thin and precise as as lockpick. Another concern is the "heat affected zone"--the laser heats up the metal near the cut, and that heating can ruin the temper of the metal. It's normally not much of a concern for most parts, but for lockpicks I can see that as being a potential problem. Many picks are so thin/delicate that the heating of the laser could compromise their strength. If the shop has as lot of experience with small delicate parts then they may know how to get around that problem, but I would be very concerned about it if you just sent out your drawings to a random laser cutting shop.

Abrasive waterjet cutting is another option. That shares the same concerns as laser cutting, except that the waterjet cutting doesn't heat the metal.

Hand grinding them is simple, and so long as you have a nice clean wheel/belt on your machine and take your time you shouldn't have any problem with heating the metal and ruining the temper.

[greengrowlocks]

You could always just buy a set of 13 dollar goso picks and put the work into finishing them real nice. Like spooxe. Its a nice starting point and they fairly tough. If you damage them learning, its only 13bux.

If you could make your own that would be awesome but from a cost to performance ratio I think modifying the Goso picks is the best option. I bought two $14 sets and have had a lot of success modifying them for specific locks. I'm not much of a craftsman but have also tried making dimple picks from feeler gauge but have never got one that turned out well.