Who's Made Their Own Pick?

After reading an artical in GG&T mag recently I decided to give it a go. Aquired a plough disc from a mate and got a piece of 30mm pipe fron a scrap metal yard all I needed to buy was a wooden handle from Bunnings.

Cheers Kev

Pretty flash Kev 12 per disc! crikey's, nice layed back biso in the maken!

shot bud nice

put me down for one

Nice job done there Kev

I didn't make my own but i do have one exactly the same made from a new plough disc with a strong handle.
Never needed to sharpen it in yrs and smashes the gold out real easy cause its got some weight behind it.

Pete

Making 2 more today, will make them wider and put heavy hard wood handles on them to give extra weight. One of them has your name on it Tom, will have to make a date for next month somewhere close to home if your interested.
Yeah Pete the pick head is'nt very heavy untill you add a nice heavy handle then she feels like she could do some real damage. Will put one to the test next time I go hunting.


Cheers Kev

Nice work Kev.
I made a few years ago out of Holden 1 tonner leaf springs. Still going strong and a fair wack of weight in the head for busting into Slatey ground.
The only problem is the scraping end is abit narrow and can be a pain in the ass with deep holes.

yeah i made mine too....but i used gal plate for the bottom and steel pipe for the handle.......i've had it for years so my welding is ok ..hahahahhahahahahaha...and im too cheap to pay finders keepers for one of their overpriced picks....

By sheer coincidence i made 3 about 3 weeks ago & on one i welded 2 bits of plow disc together to make one a little heavier
Cheers Rod

Hey Rod awesome picks they look like Walco Picks, just as good I bet. Top job Rod, where did you get the handles from and what kind of wood are they???

Cheers Kev

Hello Kev,
Far as i know they are made from Blue Gum & i got them from our local markets for $14. I also have seen them at out local Mitre 10 hardware store.They have a slight oval end but you hammer the bit of pipe to flatten into a slight oval & it fits like a dream.
Cheers Rod
PS But i Had the advantage of using my Brother inlaws Plasma Cutter to cut the disc.

Have been making mine the same as Wotif`s for about 8 years. The only addition is a 22m spade bit hole in the end of the handle and 22m dia. x 20m long rare earth magnet glued into the end of the handle.

Great picks...wear well.

Driller

This is top stuff guys but the question I gotta ask is, how much can ya sell them for ?

Maybe I should have said, what price for custom made picks. I'd like something with a wider heavier digging/scooping blade but mid length handle.

Very nice picks! Congrats.
I have found a simple thing to help a bit...
I hunt with gloves and find myself putting a lot of effort into "holding" the pick as im digging.
I put some 80 grit sandpaper on the handle and it really cuts down on the fatigue of gripping it.
Hope this helps.
Tom H.

Great articles everyone.Biggest Kev I would be interested to know the dimensions of the picks if possible.I just cut one from a disc with the widest edge at 100mm but once cut it looks a tad small.

Hi All,

My two bobs worth would be to have a skinnier pointy end, what I do as shown to me by Mr Notting in the cue caravan park is to cut off the pointy end just above the handle and cut and weld a longer and shinnier pointed end on .

This allows easier entry into the ground when digging, also use the curved discs instead of the flat disc that I made mine out of, a curved blade cuts into the ground better

I have tried putting wings onto the sides but they get hooked up to easily, best to make as wide as you are comfortable in carrying with a bit wider top end on the other side of the handle

Allow extra length on the pointy end bit to allow for the overlap for welding on the opposite side that the handle goes

Cheers, Ron, Sherri and Yoda

driller wrote:Have been making mine the same as Wotif`s for about 8 years. The only addition is a 22m spade bit hole in the end of the handle and 22m dia. x 20m long rare earth magnet glued  into the end of the handle.

Great picks...wear well.

Driller

Driller I looked at putting a magnet on the end of the handle but I thought it might cause a problem. I usually hang the pick from my waist and that puts the end of the handle wobbling around down towards the ground. Is it likely to cause false signals from the detector?

Phil

Most of our digging is shallow ground so we carry our picks on our chest, super magnet now imbedded in end of handle.




Made this one for my little lady, it has a gold magnet attached considering what she finds.


Have a large version on the back of the truck if we come across a deep one.

Some great advice.Thanks guys.
I am going to go with two pieces cut from a plough disc and welded in the middle.
This will test my welding skills to the max.
I will post a pic as it nears completion.

I run my magnet on the base of the pick, when i give it a good swing in hard stuff it causes the magnet to slide which is hard to get back in position. If I drop a small tack of weld on the magnet to the pick, will I bugger things up?

Mingo wrote:I run my magnet on the base of the pick, when i give it a good swing in hard stuff it causes the magnet to slide which is hard to get back in position. If I drop a small tack of weld on the magnet to the pick, will I bugger things up?

The magnets are really brittle. I think the weld will break out as soon as it cools. I was considering cutting a steel surround for it, like a washer, and welding that to the spot where I want it to stay. Both of our picks with magnets are with the bus in QLD so I've just ordered a new one for the muster but its floating about in the post at the moment.