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Well I'm feeling a little less like I'm going to die tonight. Pretty sure I had the H1N1 that's been going around. I finally got that Yale deadbolt picked that was giving me trouble. I was going to gut it and have a look why it was so problematic. If it's security pins I'll make a key for it. If it's totally worn out I'll junk it. But I don't have a pinning mat! So I figured I'd make the CHEAPEST PINNING MAT EVER!

I started with stick backed kiddies craft foam, about $5 for 12 pieces - 2 pcs. = $0.84


Gabbed my trusty exacto knife and cutting matt:


Traced out a basic pattern with some pockets and strips and started cutting:


Removed the sticky backing and stuck the 2 pcs together and voila! Cheapest pinning mat ever!


So there you go! that was my project for tonight - cheapos of the world unite!

ShadowCamo

HAHA! thats great! nice idea!

Awesome idea!

Very nice man.... really! It looks great! And glad to hear your feeling better.

Makes me think - this hobby can get quite expensive.... IF you let it, lol. But at the same time,
there's really an enormous amount of enjoyment that can be had for a fairly minimal cost if
you use some self restraint, pace yourself and, as you've done here, get resourceful.

Only now that I've been at this for a while have I decided to spend a little more money on
this and that. But over the course of several years, I've enjoyed a LOT of things with a fairly
modest amount of money overall. You can't say that for every hobby out there.

p.s. Cheapest pinning mats I've found is the free ones found by peeling apart cardboard.



This is TRULY the 'poor mans pinning mat' lol.

But I must say, for an additional .84 cents you've upgraded ten fold! LOL. I like your's better.

Great idea!

Nicely done. I like the idea of using the grey matter instead of the folding stuff. (money)

I haven't paid for anything yet. Cardboard pinning mat as mentioned, Picks from old hacksaw blades, and tension wrenches from old wiper inserts. Even got my locks for free from the shed and a brother who is a builder and had some locks he removed from a job.

You say cheap.... I say resourceful. And learning from all the experiences of others on this forum.

Cheapskates unite indeed.. Hoo rah.

Old fast.....
the cardboard from lightbulb packaging works best for me, I do not put pins in adjacent grooves, I found out years ago that you can reach accross this pinning mat and the cuff of your longsleeve shirt will drag some pins out of the groove and deposit them in the next groove to make you have to figure it all out again.

If you put pins in one groove leave two grooves empty and put the second collum of pins in that, I use two grooves for space between the collumns
then when the shirt cuffs drag one out of position, its easier to extrapolate where to put it back.

and thats only when one pin gets out of sequence, sometimes the number of accidentally displaced pins more than one pin.

a corregated carboard matt could be improved by gluing on another piece of cardboard on the bottom to stiffen it and make it a bit heavier,

Ohh I love this project! Great idea, thank you for sharing.