Homemade Handles

[Thedonofdeath]

ok so walmart trip. elmer's glue all check. craft sticks check. electrical tape check. super glue. check. so steps 1) cut sticks to right size 2) super glue sticks to custom pick 3) fill cracks with elmers glue for protection and long keeping 4) wrap in tape for good looks and extra protection 5) pick a lock lol

[LocksmithArmy]

not to be mean...
i dont like it

it seems uncomfortable and short lived, it will whear out and i doubt the feedback is worth anything...

[Thedonofdeath]

i could make them longer. feedback is good. the are super glued. then reg glued. then wrapped in electric tape. i don't think they are short lived. and i don't think they will wear out. but thanks for your opinion. i will keep everyone posted.

[Thedonofdeath]

ok so its been a few hours. made another one. took the first one. picked some security locks (yale, master, brinks) feedback is good. handles are sturdy. messed with one. the pick actually bent and the wood glued handles stayed intact. so for all the nay sayers. ITS Working!!

[ChemicalRobot]

Nice! I love seeing innovative designs. Have you tried anything other than electrical tape as the covering material? I think if I was doing this I'd sand the handle down once it had bonded, and then not even worry about adding a cover.

But all in all, good on ya! I saw something similar to this done with popsicle sticks a while back. It was in some document about making picks for Medeco locks. I thought it was pretty clever.

[Thedonofdeath]

i like the tape makes to look nice.. shirnk tubing might work if you sanded it down. if you have any thoughts i would love to hear it

[ChemicalRobot]

My qualm with using electrical tape is that after a lot of use, moisture from your hands will cause the tape to peel and then you have to deal with the sticky side touching your hands. What I've wanted to try for a while was liquid rubber coating, but I haven't had a chance to get my hands on any yet.

[LocksmithArmy]

im not saying the glue or wood is the short lived part... electrical tape gets stickey and slides in heat and it loses its goodness with age...

i dont know how well superglue holds metal to wood, so my advice would be to score your metal first(scratch it up)

[elbowmacaroni]

If ya do get plasti-dip to coat handles DO NOT get the spray can! That shit sucks ass BAD! It peels off very quickly, I was very disappointed with it. Gotta buy a regular dipping can of it, should be alot better.

[happykill]

I've actually done this wooden popsicle stick method before, a couple months back. I was messing around with propoxy 20 after seeing a member here using poxy for handles and I used the wooden sticks between clamps as the "mold" cutting the extra off around the edges before it dried fully. I would then peel the sticks off the propoxy. But using the sticks like that I decided to try a regular all stick handle, I had no luck with it even forming it with a dremel. It's just not strong enough imo.

I love seeing people try new off the wall things for handles though, it's good to keep the creative juices flowing. One bad idea might lead to a fantastic idea further down the road. Keep the idea's coming.

[Thedonofdeath]

well its working for me. i could always use duct tape. that stuff doesn't go bad.

[elbowmacaroni]

im not saying the glue or wood is the short lived part... electrical tape gets stickey and slides in heat and it loses its goodness with age...

i dont know how well superglue holds metal to wood, so my advice would be to score your metal first(scratch it up)

Yeah, elec tape gets funky over time (and not that much time on pick handles in my experience, then you get the black adhesive all over your hands and it's annoying) under any kind of extended usage. And yeah, CA glue will bond metal to wood, but it won't last a long time (while it does last it'll be strong though,) the PVA glue around it will help it last longer than CA glue alone since it will help to dampen the shearing forces on the CA glue bond, but eventually the CA glue will dislodge itself from the porous wood (mainly due to micro-fractures causing small wood particles to break off which will then be stuck quite solidly to the metal) and then the PVA glue will get all wiggly...

CA glue isn't really meant for porous surfaces and will eventually fail as it is only bonding to the raised areas of the grain. The rest gets wicked into the porous material, in this case the wood.

They should hold up for a while at least, and they're cheap and fast handles to make so, when it eventually fails, you can just slap another together in a few min. After removing the splinters from the pick body with acetone first of course.

I would expect the feedback to be decent though.

You know what would be good is some 2 part epoxy like JB weld or something. That'd last longer than the wood probably! I've heard of people making handles of just JB weld too... and why not, it's machinable...

I was talking to him earlier and suggested using gorilla glue, or alternatively milling a slot to accept the pick into the sticks and then using contact cement.

But all that said, at least he's experimenting and trying different things, there's alot to be said for that! It's that spirit that helps drive this sport/hobby.

[awol70]

heh, i remember back in the day when slimpickinsooooo aka jimmy showed this method on youtube...
i think a dip in clear 2-part 'poxy resin would work well.

[Thedonofdeath]

hmm all interesting stuff. i think the solution is either going to be shrink tubing. or duct tape. cause the picks work just fine. feedback is good. i have no doubt in my mind that the SUPER glue and REG glue will hold it together. although the tape issue does concern me. like i said before i might use shrink tubing if i can find some big enough. what about like yellow tape. or painters tape. i use that stuff for my computer desk and it holds up pretty good

[Thedonofdeath]

and thanks wiz for responding to this. i was kind of hoping to get some input from you. do u have any ideas for the outside. the inside is find. but obviously the tape won't last long? got a better alternative? please? lol