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Still waiting on my shrink tubing to be delivered so no handle yet, but I finally made a bogota that I don't hate. Picture sucks, I'll get a better one when I get a handle on it.


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Tried out Awol70's handle idea (seen here) and I love it. Made two shallow hooks, one with the cradle notch (not sure what it's called), to try out the handles. I'm likely going to end up using these handles quite a bit more. The cradle got scratched up a little because I used it before grabbing a picture though.













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Getting a little better, decided to not abandon this one:



I've yet to find a handle material I really like so I went with the Bogota style again. I'm thinking about trying Awol's heat shrink tubing next, it seems to be the best for cost/effort. The tension wrench is just an idea I had based on the Peterson prybar. I don't have any tools here to make the serrations though.

Pick and TW both from windshield wiper inserts, pick is totally hand filed. Only power tool I've been using is a Dremel with a cutoff wheel to cut my lengths. Also, I'm thinking it's time to look into getting a camera, my cell phone sucks.

Lookin' better Andrew! Lookin' better. You could try some side-cutters to 'crimp' the working end of the wrench. It gives you kind of a serrated/dimple affect that grips most keyways very nicely. I like to crimp it twice, fairly close together. Be warned though...lol... if you like the way it works, don't get carried away and do this to all of your tensors. The dimples it creates give you a wonderful grip... but it also makes the tensor wider to where it will limit the keyways it will fit in.

Schuyler's not the most popular guy at the moment, I know...lol... but take a look at the vid at about 1:40. Ya might like it... ya might not. Worth a try though

http://youtu.be/ovCy4e3tLec

Good ideas are good ideas, even if they come from bad people. The tricky part is bad ideas coming from good people, like that time Oldfast suggested a Schuyler Towne idea...

Wait, that may be contradictory.

No really though, thanks for that link, I tried it out and it worked just fine. I like it!

It is possible to get those PPB serrations with the dremel, if you use the 'fine' cut-off discs and move your tension wrench into the stationary dremel on a 45 and just nick it with the edge. You won't be able to be as accurate if you move the dremel to the metal. Just hold it between your knees if you're daring

Added my newest set of picks, older images were shrunk and moved to the bottom. I highly recommend these handles to anybody making picks that doesn't have the tools for the better ones like Ratyokes. Link at the top for the how-to vid by Wiz.

Looks good.
How many layers of tube did you have to use to build them up like that? I checked some out the last time I was at home depot, but the selection was limited and pricy ,been meaning to check ebay for some deals an maybe some color selection.

I used 2 layers of tubing and 2 extra pieces of WW insert to sandwich it. The under layer is actually pink by the way, it was a dollar cheaper. Unfortunately there are only a few usable pieces in each package, you can see on the top pick a line where I used two pieces of scrap as an under layer. I am wondering how it would look to use little pieces underneath on purpose, cut and spread evenly for a ridged handle. I spent around eight bucks on tubing and it looks like I'm going to get three maybe four if I'm lucky out of it. Not terrible when you consider how much custom picks go for.

Added a half diamond I made today, did this one with a Dremel to rough out the basic shape. Knocked a lot of time off the process, this one took a little over an hour. I plan on making a few more but I'm out of shrink tubing and I bought out the parts store. Either going to need to hit up another store or I might just buy some from Amazon or something and wait for delivery.

New image added to the top, bogota sans handle at the moment.

Found a neat trick for sanding. I can only ever find the dremel sanding drums in 120 grit or something like that, but you can superglue strips of 400 or 100 or whatever you want to an old drum. Saves a ton of time, just make sure the overlap is facing the right way or bad things happen.

Looks really good on the finishing! Keep it up.

Do you have larger pictures?

Uploaded using file attachment, free version of Imgur kind of sucks. Not enough options.