Years back there was a wallet fumble at the ATM. Things fell down between the car seat and the console. Retrieval was a real annoyance. Back in the shop I picked up a floor scrap, cut a short nub off the end and glued it on. The original was rounded with a hand plane and a little sand paper. The stick ended up being 18-1/2” long, ¼” wide and 3/8” high. It worked great. We kept it down between the seat and the console. When needed it was easily found. It turns out this thing gets used about once a month for some trivial little thing that falls down in that canyon. Others that have seen it wanted one so I made a batch to hand out.
I didn’t want to hand plane a bunch of sticks so I used my 1/8” round over router table. It turns out that ¼” thickness was bad strategy for this because the bearing edge is above 1/8” so I had to round the ¼” width pieces on their edge. I had a stick of 5/16” thick stock so I used that also. This is a better thickness for the round over router table.
These are great little gifts for people that didn’t know they needed one.
A custom made push stick for thin stock. It works great and keeps the fingers away from the blade.
The basic parts. the original prototype is at the top of the photo. Nothing complicated.
detail of the original hook. The grabbing surface was left flat.
Glue-up. The hook studs were used as spacers where glue wasn't used.
A quick round over on the disc sander.
5/16" thick stock fit on the round over quite well
1/4" stock had to be rounded this way.
My little router table expressly made for the 1/8" round over bit. This thing is handy for small parts.
Close up of the hook ends. Nothing fancy.
The finished batch with the original shown at the bottom.
I didn’t want to hand plane a bunch of sticks so I used my 1/8” round over router table. It turns out that ¼” thickness was bad strategy for this because the bearing edge is above 1/8” so I had to round the ¼” width pieces on their edge. I had a stick of 5/16” thick stock so I used that also. This is a better thickness for the round over router table.
These are great little gifts for people that didn’t know they needed one.
A custom made push stick for thin stock. It works great and keeps the fingers away from the blade.
The basic parts. the original prototype is at the top of the photo. Nothing complicated.
detail of the original hook. The grabbing surface was left flat.
Glue-up. The hook studs were used as spacers where glue wasn't used.
A quick round over on the disc sander.
5/16" thick stock fit on the round over quite well
1/4" stock had to be rounded this way.
My little router table expressly made for the 1/8" round over bit. This thing is handy for small parts.
Close up of the hook ends. Nothing fancy.
The finished batch with the original shown at the bottom.
