Another random hobby of mine is lockpicking. I love it because it goes hand in hand with hacking. Your just hacking the real world, lol.
So if you want to make your own lockpicks, I find it easiest if you already have a set that you can use as a model or template for your new and improved ones. I already have the Credit Card Lock Pick kit that you can find here. It's pretty much the best thing ever and you can take it wherever you go!
Now, you are going to need a rotary tool of some type (Dremel tool), vice grips, safety glasses, a street sweeper bristle to make the pick out of, and you can optionally have a bench grinder as well.
Now, I'll let the photo's do the instruction. It's pretty simple, you just need to be careful not to grind away at the original picks.
I like to use both sides of the bristle since they can be hard to come by sometimes.
Then, polish it up, and you've got yourself a new shiny lockpick!
Now for the tension wrench, it's pretty simple. You can do it one of two ways.
I like to heat it up at the bending point (street sweeper bristle can be brittle sometimes, so this keeps it from breaking on you when you bend it at 90 degrees).
Did I mention that I like fire?
Make your bends, and then yours will look like one of these two designs.
These are both pretty rudimentary, but will work fine. You can make the blades to your preference, I like to have the option of one long and one short.
And there you have it! If you would like to learn how to lock pick, check out this article: MIT Guide to Lockpicking. (PDF format)
