making picks

[Mad Mick]

MIT, you'll be surprised how easily you can make good picks with just a few files, some sandpaper, and the correct technique. Look at what raimundo turns out with the same tools.

Cut off wheels and Dremel bits rely on the actual speed of the tool to do the work. This only requires a small amount of pressure to be applied to the work piece, in conjunction with the high rotary speed of the bit. A low speed tool such as an electric drill, or even worse, a cordless drill is not going to achieve the RPM's required to effectively remove material and the instinct is to then use more pressure. High pressure upon a cutting disc designed for a Dremel, when used in a low speed drill, is likely to end in tears.

N.B. When using any form of power tool, please make sure you wear eye protection. You only get one pair and they are supposed to last you for life!

[master in training]

ok, cheers mick, i was just looking for a cheaper alternative, never mind, i'll see how my files get on and hopefully save up enough money to buy a dremel or some decent files. hopefully i'll get a job im trying to get in a DIY shop so i'll even get discount

[NKT]

Get down the hardware store, or B&Q, and get yourself a whizzer if you can afford it. They come with a load of bits, etc. They will set you back £30+ but are dead useful.

For about £10->£20 you can get a good bench grinder with two stones.

If you want a really quick, cheap way, get the cheapest angle grinder you can find. Makro are doing them for £7 + VAT, with TWO diamond discs and a grinding disc. They will cut you into a safe as well as a few hundreds of picks. Clamp it down and spin it up.

Getting silly, you could get some epoxy glue, and some dried raw Aluminum Oxide (sand) from the beach. Mix the two, and let it set. Use the sander you made to file your picks. That will set you back £2.

Go to a £1 shop and blow a whole £1 on some really crappy cheap files, and file your picks to shape.

Of course, but this stage, even getting old street sweeper bristles is starting to get more expensive than getting your tools.

The cheapest option, easily, is to get yourself down a car boot sale. Dig around for old tools, and buy a few old files for 20p each. Haggle.

You can buy some cheap locks while you are there, too. Or get them free, since the keys are lost!

[master in training]

i looked in Argos, they want £60 for a dremel!! i know they'll be cheaper at B&Q though, so i'll take a look next time im out that way, i'd get a bench grinder, but i live at home with my mum and so only have my bedroom to put things in, bench grinders arent really an option to be honest (we dont have a garden/shed/anything but a few slabs to work on).

i've got the ebay equivalent of those £1 shop crap files, they do remove material, but very slowly and they go blunt quickly, they're not great at all.

i'd love to go to car boot sales but i dont have a car and they're all quite far away and out of towns, hence away from bus routes, so i cant get to them, its the same with the town dump in terms of locks, a shame really.

oh, and i live miles form the beach!

thank you for the ideas though NKT, i'll ask some people if they're going to any car boot sales, hopefully i'll bug someone enough so that they take me

i'll go down to the local pawn and pound shops too, im sure i rememeber seeing tools in the pawn shop....

is there anyone in the east midlands who actually just want to meet up and make some tools and stuff?

[Mad Mick]

... but i live at home with my mum and so only have my bedroom to put things in, bench grinders arent really an option to be honest...

Good Lord, your Mum's strict isn't she? I rebuilt an RM250 in my bedroom...had to strip it down again to get it out though. (rebuilt a CR250 a few years later in the attic too. Guess my Mum was a little more forgiving when it came to my quirkiness. )

[master in training]

oh no, she doesnt mind me doing stuff, just theres no space to do it!

and if i had metal shards flying around it would seriously screw things up, as well as hurt my feet in the the carpet.

i'd never though about the attic though...our landlord had cowboy builders replace the roof a while ago, so they dumped loads of rubbish in the attic rather than get a skip, i recently went on a bit of a blitz and got up there and put some of our junk up, i could get a workbench or something up there, it would take a bit of work though. its porbably more of a job for the summer when im not at college and have time to do it.

erm, mick, whats an RM250 or a CR250? they sound like motorbikes, am i right? my dad bought me a moto-cross bike when i was about 7 and my parents still lived together, we stripped it and rebuilt it in a spare bedroom, i loved that

[NKT]

Yes, the problem in the UK is that the houses tend to be very expensive for what you get!

I've got a fairly nice house in a fairly good area, £120,000 worth (last I looked) but it is only a 3 bed semi-detached! (For you americans and others, that means two houses sharing a wall in the middle - most countries don't have them!)

Still, I have a garden, and I'm putting up a shed today (if it stops tipping it down), so I can expand further! The garage is already full of tools and (mostly) carp. I mostly need to tidy the h*ll up!

Imagine what a house you could get for $240,000 US, anywhere outside a major city! Even France is cheaper. Still, my brothers in london, and his house cost £240,000 for a two room place! The prices over here are insane!


(Wow, a lot of ! in this post)

[digital_blue]

I believe Winnipeg may just be one of the most affordable places on the planet that can still allow you some hint of a reasonable lifestyle. I bought my house just over 2 years ago. It is a 4 bedroom story-and-a-half (full 1st floor, partial 2nd floor) with a full basement. It is in a reasonably good area (sort of middle ground around here). I have a lot that is 45ft x 100ft, central air (air conditioning throughout), it came with 4 appliances (though I added the dishwasher PDQ).

I paid $60,000 CA.

db

[NKT]

For info, that is £25000. You cannot buy a house in the UK for that little money, unless it is an "Unsellable" ghetto house without any windows left.

£123,673, the average for where I am, is $294,000 Can.

You can see why I'm thinking of moving over there!

[master in training]

i live with my mum and sister in a rented terraced house, we cant afford to buy a place, its just too expensive here (one reason why i want to move), but anyway, this is getting a little off topic.

back to at least to do with making picks, does anyone have experience of converting an attic into a useable space? apart from dust, rubble and general rubbish up there, theres only joists to stand on and its not safe to work up there, what thickness and type of wood is needed to put on the floor so its safe to stand and work on? i've seen a thread about making workbenches, so i'll search for that and sort it out, but i have no experience of attics to be honest. that would give me somewhere to put tools and make some picks and stuff like that.

[NKT]

You might have problems if it's a rented place. Ask the owner what they think.

Get some packs of flooring boards from B&Q and screw them to the joists, then you can put a chair up there and a few bits and bats, and store your stuff, or make a little workroom. I did it at my last place.

Top tip is, make sure you find the highest place, then use batons or whatever to raise the boards to the same highest level. Saves a h*ll of a lot of work.

After that you can get as fancy as you want.

[master in training]

cheers NKT, im looking for something non-permanent for the reason that its rented

i was up there for a few minutes the other day, it looked like the joists were pretty level, so i was wondering if i could use something as cheap as plywood or something? i only want to do something like stick a chair up there and have somewhere it doesnt matter so much to get metal shards around etc, i've got a creamy coloured carpet in my room so anything like filing makes a right mess, i dont mind going outside behind the house, but its freezing, its starting to warm up but no light gets to it, so i was looking to set up somewhere inside i could do some work so if it rains i dont have to worry. im not looking to spend too much on sorting it out if i can, i just wanted somewhere temporary if its possible.

[Mad Mick]

MIT, yes, they were motocross bikes I was referring to.

For your situation regarding the attic space, if in your position I would go to somewhere like B&Q or Wickes or somewhere similar and get a few packs of tongue&groove MDF flooring. If memory serves me correctly, they come in sheets 4ft X 3ft, 3 or 4 to a pack. Work out roughly how much space you will require and get enough packs to cover that area, but remember to stagger the boards to give the strengh across the joints. I think the joists are 16" on centre, so the length would be laid at a right angle to the joist, and would span 3 of them. Lay the edge of the next board on the centre of the joist in the middle of the first board...and so on. You'd only really need to put a screw, here and there, on the outer boards as this is a temporary installation. Another thing to bear in mind when in the attic though, is ventilation and heat. It will get stiflingly hot in the summer...

[master in training]

cheers mick, i'll work out the space and see how much its gonna cost me to cover the area, i get the feeling it wont be cheap!

strangely enough, theres a skylight in the roof that opens, so i could open it to let the heat out

i've got an idea in my mind of what you mean so i'll look at it and see what i can do. at least i can take it up fairly quickly if we move

[Mad Mick]

...at least i can take it up fairly quickly if we move

That's the idea matey.