Introduction: Suprisingly Effective Bic Pen Grappling Hook
the title is pretty self explanatory
assembly time: 30 min
Step 1: Supplies
the things you need to do this project are, a simple pen with a barrel and plug, a soldering iron, a low melting point solder, a guitar string, and some twine (at least 10 feet.)
Step 2: Attaching the Plug
For starters take out the ink and writing part, now take a lighter and hold it under the plug of the pen until it catches on fire, after blowing it out quickly push it against something flat and stiff. ir should look the fourth picture on the bottom
Step 3: Inserting the Metal Barbs
now this is where the guitar string comes into play, no pun intended, take a wire cutter and cut off a section of the string. then use the lighter to get it red hot. then quickly put into the barrel of the pen at about a 30 degree angle. it does matter how many you use, but the more the better.
Step 4: Weighting It Down and Putting It on a Line
the next step is putting the solder into the barrel of the pen, so what you do is hold the soldering iron with the solder about 1 and a half to 2 inches above the barrel. Then you slowly let the solder drip off the iron, and into the barrel. Once you have gotten to a point where you feel it weighs enough, you loop another section of the guitar string and pinch it so that it fits down into the barrel. Then you put the solder aroung the string. If it does feel sturdy in there then put a hole in the side, and fill it with solder.
Step 5: Final Assembly
to finish up, just make another loop on the other end of the guitar string, and tie the twine to that. congrats, you have just made a bic pen grappling hook.
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20 Comments
15 years ago on Introduction
HEY!! Drinking is cool!
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction
HEY!! IF YOUR TALKING ABOUT DRINKING YOUR NOT COOL
13 years ago on Step 3
Sorry mom... i didn't mean to take charlies eye i swear i just tried to take his hat i swear!
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
for the win
14 years ago on Introduction
wow !
14 years ago on Introduction
Interesting design, but to what kinds of things will it stick for purposes of either grappling or retrieval?
14 years ago on Introduction
I think that staples would probably work better than a guitar string, at least for the actual hook parts, and I bet that more people would have a stapler than a guitar string
16 years ago
grapling hooks are for scaling building well me when i was drunk threw it ontop of a bulding and tried to climb it well its so week i fell of and rearly hurt myself =(
Reply 15 years ago on Introduction
The keywords there are WHEN I WAS DRUNK
15 years ago on Introduction
instead of using a soldering iron i filled it all the way up with solder using a blowtorch and i think you would be a lot better off with barbs of steel at least 3mm wide, which is what i used and it works amazingly, and as for the rope i used a 1cm thick nylon cord which is perfect for me as im 14 years old and weigh like 98lbs (non-anerexic!!!)
16 years ago
nice instructable in the sense of directions and clearification. i would rate the instructable a solid 9-9.5/10 ...but... it does seem that you could youse something a bit strudier (but if you are like me you dont like to go out and shop, you want to use what you have....which in your case could have been guitar string..and there is nothing wrong with that) i dont doubt the sturdiness of the solder in the bic pen, but to hold an adults weigh...or a childs weight...you might have considered something like a steel hook and not necesarily just barbs...however, barbs make it easier to grip to most surfaces, hooks dont unfortunately. to improve overall sturdiness something that might work is entwined spider fishing line...that will hold anything. If you entwine multiple lines together using a braid and a knot, it will be like a strong rope (i would suggest using thick...and i mean really thick, leather gloves when you start to climp using the spider fishing line because once you start to climb it will most likely slice through your hands like a cheese cutter through butter...not pleaseant). nice instructable, ryan
Reply 16 years ago on Introduction
I'm assuming he used the low E string on a guitar, which is usually a nylon core with bronze wire tightly coiled around it. short lengths of it are very very stiff, I'm not sure what it's intended to attach to. I noticed i'm always more likely to try an instructable that has a video of someone enjoying the final product.
16 years ago
so how does the gutar string grapple anything, im still confused on step 2 & 3
Reply 16 years ago
u use stiff guitar string
Reply 16 years ago
the barbs are used for hooking onto things, does that answer your question, or is it how you put them into the pen?
16 years ago
What would you use this to grapple? How about setting your hooks in a mould, before casting lead around then?
16 years ago on Step 5
? still don't know what I'm gonna be grappling with this
Reply 16 years ago on Step 5
if u use it right and you are strong enough, u can use it as an actual grappling hook
16 years ago
If used correctly u can actually use it like a grapplinjg hook, but u might want a wider gause of string so that it is easier
16 years ago
what does the public think?