Making handcuffs

I'm hoping that this is the correct place to ask such a question.

Is it possible to construct your own design of handcuff? If so what would be needed.

Thank you all for your time.

Ian, this one is for you.

I'm hoping that this is the correct place to ask such a question.

Is it possible to construct your own design of handcuff? If so what would be needed.

Thank you all for your time.

It depends a lot on what you want to make, and what your skills are.

Ian McColl is famous for his exquisite low production reproductions of unobtainable historic cuffs.

Martin’s Rigid Handcuff Company, which bills itself as “The World’s Smallest Handcuff Company,” manufacture and market some very nice and expensive rigid restraints, mainly to the BDSM trade.

On the other hand, the “Slave Plantation Cuffs” widely sold on E-Bay appear to come from modern blacksmiths in India. Crude and not so crude manacles and the like are manufactured for the BDSM trade in small shops domestically.

You might start by buying a set of off the shelf S&Ws or Hiatts, drilling out the rivets, and seeing what’s inside. Do you, right now, know how you would build those parts? If not, then you should probably get the requisite education in machine shop practice. A community college (presuming you’re in the US) would be a place to start. Using basic machining and gunsmithing skill, you can certainly reproduce a modern pair of handcuffs using basic shop tools, not much more elaborate than saws, files and a drill press.. It will be slow, but you can do it. 19C stuff would be more difficult, because they would require higher quality machining or more skill in hand fitting.

I don’t mean to be patronizing, there, but from experience, it can be very frustrating to answer the “how do I build a (whatever) “ question from someone who doesn’t know which end of a hammer to pick up, and wants to bang out heirloom quality stuff. I’m not saying you’re there, but you’ve given us no basis to believe otherwise.

This is a subject kinda near and dear to my flinty little heart, as I’m considering doing the same sort of thing, but using blacksmith techniques and possibly pocket foundry techniques to make medieval and 17C type work. I’m not there yet. Ask me next year, if all I’ve done is burned my fingers off and made an expensive fool out of myself. <grin>

So I guess the ball’s back to you. What do you want to make. I’m sure there’s someone here who can give you some hints based on experience.

I'm hoping that this is the correct place to ask such a question.

Is it possible to construct your own design of handcuff? If so what would be needed.

Thank you all for your time.

Hi,

As many here are no doubt already aware, I have both produced my own original designs of handcuffs and have also taken existing pairs and made modifications to them to heighten existing security features.

With many of my modifications to existing designs, all I have needed was scrap steel for parts, rivets, hand tools, and larger power tools such as a drill press, drop saw, etc.

And of course welders and very rarely cutting torches.

With all of my totally original designs I have enlisted companies that do laser cutting of steel to manufacture the parts true to my design which I would later hand assemble.

This route can be expensive depending on what a laser cutting company is going to charge you and the quantity you are going to make.

Prior to taking designs to the laser cutting folks, I often made working models to scale out of plastic parts.

These parts were in turn measured and used as templates for the laser's computer program.

Depending on what you are planning to make, and how handy you are with tools and creative you are with your designs, creating your own handcuffs can either be a labourious and drawn out task of very little cost for a protoype or it can turn into a goodly outlay of cash if you plan an actual production run and then enlist another firm to help you with some of the manufacture.

There are of course other ways to make handcuffs besides welding, laser cutting, hand forging, etc.

Certainly there is casting of which I think Ian has by far the most experience here.

He could help you out should you be interested in that manufacturing methodology.

Good luck and have fun! Steve Santini

I'm hoping that this is the correct place to ask such a question.

Is it possible to construct your own design of handcuff? If so what would be needed.

Thank you all for your time.

Thank you both for your responces. As a working locksmith I'm use to dealing with lots of small parts and have been performing escapology for many years.

Only recently though, have I decided to 'get handy' with my tools and start to create my own handcuffs and escape equipment. I have a workshop here in the UK, so making some of the components is'nt a problem.

I have thought about giving my handcuff designs to a company to make, although I like the hands on aproach and I have time on my hands.

Any further advice once again would be well appriciated.

I'm hoping that this is the correct place to ask such a question.

Is it possible to construct your own design of handcuff? If so what would be needed.

Thank you all for your time.

>>As a working locksmith

You should have no problems. As a prototyping effort, I'd think that making your parts out of plastic, then mild steel, would be well within your capabilities. Modern cuffs are mostly made from stampings. For prototype level work, you can saw and file thoose out of flat stock. Something older, like, say, an old set of Towers, would take some real machining skills.

I'm hoping that this is the correct place to ask such a question.

Is it possible to construct your own design of handcuff? If so what would be needed.

Thank you all for your time.

Hi Harry, the biggest tool you have available for making cuffs is your imagination and everyone else's brain that has gone before you.

The manufacturing method is dependant on the design. If the design of the cuff uses flat section, laminated together, then you can use sheet metal, a drill and rivets.
The sheet can be cut with both modern lasers or water cutters or the old fashion way, hack saw and files. To save time, you can "lace drill" the outside of the line of your cuff. mark and punch, then drill holes very close to each other ( swiss cheeese style) hacksaw between holes and snap off unwanted metal, then file or grind the shape to your marked line.

For more complex shapes, casting is the way to go. sand casting for a rough shape which has be machines or hand worked after. Patterns for casting can be simple wooden version of the shape you want but need to have taper to the inside and outside so they can be pulled from the mould.

Lost wax casting for more intricate shapes and it's best to hand make a fully working part the right size and shape. Little hand finshing is required.

For laser cutting, some companies need a drawing with measurements, others, a line drawing only. One I use here, will do all of that or I can simply give them a piece I have made to exact size in tin sheet ( all hand worked and finished) and they can scan it and the computer automatically works out the measurements.

The longest thing you work on is the first one, do it good and do it well and if you never get it copied, you have a piece that will work and be proud of.

For working out mechanical function, rough sketch your design, then think hard about it and each part action and reaction to the parts around it. Fine turn your design and be aware of the thickness or width of each part needed. once you think you have something that will work. Draw you lock case on paper and draw and cut out each single piece on seperate paper. Lay them out on your main drawing and use a pin were a pivot point would be. then you can turn and lever each piece and see how it all works. Then built it in metal.

Have fun,

Ian McColl
PS, I have heaps of things that never worked, a lot is trial and error but heck, what a way to learn! You cannot buy that in a book.

I'm hoping that this is the correct place to ask such a question.

Is it possible to construct your own design of handcuff? If so what would be needed.

Thank you all for your time.

Great information there Ian, thank you. I've already drawn a few cuffs that I'd like to make. One makes use of a combination wheel located on the actual cuff.

Time to get serious and make some metal templates.

Thank you all very much for your comments and advice.

Harry

I'm hoping that this is the correct place to ask such a question.

Is it possible to construct your own design of handcuff? If so what would be needed.

Thank you all for your time.

Hi

You can see Production Process on KUB Site www.kubind.com
it can help you to shape your own handcuff design........

I'm hoping that this is the correct place to ask such a question.

Is it possible to construct your own design of handcuff? If so what would be needed.

Thank you all for your time.

Hi

You can see Production Process on KUB Site www.kubind.com
it can help you to shape your own handcuff design........

I'm hoping that this is the correct place to ask such a question.

Is it possible to construct your own design of handcuff? If so what would be needed.

Thank you all for your time.

Hi

You can see Production Process on KUB Site www.kubind.com
it can help you to shape your own handcuff design........

I'm hoping that this is the correct place to ask such a question.

Is it possible to construct your own design of handcuff? If so what would be needed.

Thank you all for your time.

> For laser cutting, some companies need a drawing with measurements,
> others, a line drawing only. One I use here, will do all of that or I can
> simply give them a piece I have made to exact size in tin sheet ( all hand
> worked and finished) and they can scan it and the computer automatically
> works out the measurements.

That will work for water jet cutting, plasma cutting, and just about any other CNC cutting process, provided the shop has a scanner. Some do, some don't. My fabricator told me he can work from a scanned paper or scanned flat 3-D original (e.g. a steel plate) but that it is less accurate than working from a drawing. For him, scanning is accurate to a tenth of an inch or so, while a digital image is accurate to thousandths. But this guy is a strctural steel fabber, not a machine tool manufacturer. Most fabs appear to like to work from an AutoCad drawing, many being able to go straight from the drawing to the CNC code to run the machine.

The bottom line, here, is to talk with your fabricator.

There is a trade show that travels around the country, visiting many regional areas. It's the Job Shop Manufacturing show, or something like that. It's easy enough to get a free admission to the exhibitor floor. There, you can see a lot of nifty machining and fabricating processes. The people who exhibit there specialize in short runs.

I'm hoping that this is the correct place to ask such a question.

Is it possible to construct your own design of handcuff? If so what would be needed.

Thank you all for your time.

Hi to all,

have a look at my sites - items marked as "Vlastni vyroba" are my homemade pieces from my childhood, from the time when I started with amateur constructing. It´s not easy to make functional handcuffs, much from the theory and technics is necessary to know.

Josef
Czech Republic

http://cz-pouta.wz.cz