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Have you (anyone) tried making these from weld rod? I think weld rod will be easier for me to get, and it seems like it would work - but I'm not really sure which type would be best...

I haven't tried weld rod but the general advice I can offer in regards to material selection is that:
(a) it must be "springy", i.e. the material must let you create a coil with an inner diameter between 1/4 and 1/2-inch and the resulting needle arm should be able to deliver a force that is comparable to a pick gun; and
(b) it must be capable of taking a thinning and remaining strong, i.e. you will be thinning the needle arm so that it is about the same thickness as a pick blade and you don't want it to break or deform as a result of delivering the snap.

If weld rod meets these criteria then it may be suitable.

Josh,
I have made loop handle hook picks from bits of left over stainless welding wire and found that its perfectly acceptable,
You are the man with access to the welding rod, so its up to you to try it.
relevant considerations are the thickness of the stainless rod, and perhaps the temper,
look for rod comparable to bike spoke, spoke comes in several diameters but all within a certain range, its not a really precise thing, you use what you have that you think will succeed
I would say that if your rod is thick you should definately use a thumb spinner because strong springy ness needs the thumb protection. and the thing is a real improvement in the swift letoff over the 'meat' trigger
if your thinned out needle starts to bend under normal use, either its too thin, or the spring is too strong,
or the temper of the metal is wrong.
all of these have possible fixes, but think about them when the problem occurs. dont fix it until its broke.

I didn't have much luck with plastic ball-point pen tubes -- they kept on splitting with repeated use. I tried wall plugs (the kind that you insert into concrete and masonry that hold screws) and they work well. The longitudinal ridges aid the grip and the plastic is extremely tough.

The dry wall anchor is a great idea. Will have to try that! My only issue with the spinner for your thumb is seems to move around when snapping multiple times. Any unique ideas on keeping it in place? I have use a ball point pen spring stretched out so that it rests against the spinner and the spring on the snapper. That works fairly well but, I was curious if you had any other ideas. On the whole these have been extremely effective against numerous types of locks.... great design!

Some of the dry wall plugs (the red ones) have a tighter fit than the pen tubes. They will still spin but they don't slide around (at least not the ones I have tried).

The other way to restrict the movement is to curve the trap arm as per Rai's modification. If the peak of the arc is just after the spinner it will tend to keep the spinner in place. I still have trouble producing graceful curves but I will keep trying.

Try the tiny picktip to feel the depth in keyway, or last pin too. I think its helpful.
the thin thumb spinners have a way of sudden letoff as you slip your thumb sideways. I have used some metal tubes from ball point pens for that sometimes, and there are plastics that are not brittle. bic biro has non brittle plastic.

My thanks to both of you for this tutorial. Have made one bike spoke snapper based on Rai's plan, but forgot the spinner. I did no want to unbend the snapper, so thank you, Rai, for the idea of using a spring! And Piotr, for letting me know that my needle is too long.

Gordon

Has anyone seen a video or done a video of this style of snapper working on a lock?

So far I have not gotten mine to work yet and thought I might pick up some ideas as to technique.

No, I'm still refining my technique otherwise I'd make one.



I've opened several locks but many still resist my efforts. From my trial-and-error I can offer you the following advice:

(a) depth: needle is inserted deep enough to cover all pins but not so deep that its strikes the end of the plug;
(b) angle: needle is perpendicular to pin stacks;
(c) clearance: needle is free to strike keypins rather than warding.

Observing these guidelines greatly improved my technique but I think I still have much to learn. I'm guessing that strike force is also a critical variable and this is difficult to vary with any given snapper (but possible to control through material selection).

In some keyways, you may have to angle the tool slightly left or right depending on the curves of the keyway, aim for the bottom of the pins, it only has to impart kinetic energy, and is not necessary to have it follow the pins up

Snappers are at full force when pressed all the way down, and you can let it off at halfway down to mitigate any really strong force.

Ed Smiley got his to work, he may have some advice if hes still following the thread.

Using these appears to be an actual skill, I once made a few for a guy who had told me that he had too many things to do and while learning to pick would be good, he just didn't have the time for it.
After I gave him some snappers to test for me, he actually got scary good with it.

Be careful not to insert the needle too deeply in the lock, if the force strikes some immoveable part at the back of a lock like a tail piece or other such thing, this means that none of the force reaches the pins.

Most importantly use light tension unless the key in the lock reveals that it has a counter rotating spring

Angle the tool slightly if the needle cannot go under the pins without lifting them by its mere presence, so you can strike from deeper in the keyway and hit the bottoms of the pins. mitigate the tension a bit after three consecutive trys with full force.

For some reason some locks seem to respond to strikes in quick succession without resetting the tension.

great write up and thanks for the pictures. i want to have a go at one of these.

ive got some weld rods about, not sure if they are quite long enough the ones i have. but i will have a go if they are and let u know the result

im planning to use some piano wire which i have loads of

Added photos of Rai's trap narrowing technique.

Just a word of warning. These can be powerful enough to knock out the plugs on the top of the bible of the lock. While playing with one I launched the plug out the top of the bible. I thought that I saw something out of the corner of my eye but, hit it again this time the spring was clearly visible flying out of the lock. I know that someplace in this discussion of snapper picks Rai made the comment that it may not be best to have the strongest strike. I agreed with him when he said it and as the parts were flying I did laugh a bit. It is useful to consider that this may be a problem in the field and the cause of a malfunctioning lock if this technique is used. I found references to this happening to other folks over at lp101.