Here's another one of my old tutorials that I'm moving to Brian's new tips section. I'll leave most of the wording intact...
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I was minding my own business the other day when a kid who was with one of my grandkids came by. He was playing with what looked like a small toy. I asked him what it was and he said he didn't know. He won it in a drawing at school. He let me look at it and I discovered that it was a little pin art contraption.That wasn't too impressive but what I saw though the plastic face cover surely was. There looking back at me though the glass were about 1000 very strong looking pins. They were longer and thicker than any pins I had ever seen. To make a long story short I asked the kid if he would sell it to me. He was delighted at the prospect and soon parted with five one dollar bills in his fist. (I did check with his mother before completing the transaction. She said. "Sure. He'll just break it anyway.) Here is what I bought. (The tape is for illustrative purposes.)
Don't recognize it? Here is what the thing does in its native configuration. I put the tape under the box and you can see that the pins take on the shape of the tape. I had some fun with the thing before I filleted it, including making a pin-picture of my fingers, my knife, and my zonker nose. (No picture of that.)
With that fit of childishness out of the way I proceeded to dismantle the thing and here is what I got.
Here are all the pins nicely put away in plastic containers.
Here is a comparison shot. The pins on the right are regular #17 sewing pins. The ones in the middle are the #20 dressmaker pins typically used on brass bead head jigs. And to the left of those are my new super pins. Wow!
I wasn't sure how they would work for jig tying so I quickly ran to the vise and cranked out two rabbit fur jigs. The pins worked pretty well. The extra thickness took a little getting used to but once I adjusted, it was fine.
Believe me, these babies are the item. They are S-T-R-O-N-G!
OK. So can my sly purchase be duplicated? Can you acquire some of these super pins for yourself? After an extensive web search that even Mrs. zonker got into, we finally came up with a place to buy Pin Art boxes on the web. Here is the URL for your enjoyment:
www.officeplayground.com/opg/pinart.html If you're looking to tie some beadheads and want a strong pin, this is your item.
Bobber down!
zonker
