We've got a rude one!
After yesterday's fun picking that horridly cheap lock, I decided that I wanted to try something I never had the chance to: make my own pick. I'm not really at the point where I need more picks, but it's an interesting challenge -- and one that create pretty sparks.
After a trip to Lowe's, the first step was to heat treat the hacksaw blade so it'd be more workable. In order to do this, I needed to heat the blade quite a bit, and then let it cool slowly to room temperature. In letting the blade cool slowly (the slower the better,) you end up with a larger crystal grain in the metal -- which means the metal is softer and more workable. All of that meant that I was crouching on my porch with a propane torch, repeatedly heating the blade until it glowed red. This had the side effect of burning the paint off, which was convenient, given that I'm not sure how it would've interacted with the Dremel.
Speaking of Dremel, I next had to cut the 12" blade into two 6" blades. Unfortunately, as soon as I spun the tungsten carbide cutting bit up to 20,000 RPM, I realized that this wasn't going to be quiet.. And my worries were confirmed.
Cutting metal in my spare bedroom probably isn't too nice to the neighbors, which is why I only progressed to gently shaping the pick end. When I next work on this project, I'm going to have to pick a very polite time of day and restrict the amount of shaping I do. Sooner or later, though, I'm going to have a new lockpick.
No comments:
Post a Comment