Ice Lock (with pics) #1

Ideas and instructions how you can make your own bondage toys.
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Ice Lock (with pics) #1

Post by more_secure »

The missus was away for a few weeks for work, so I decided to take the opportunity to have another attempt at the 'holy grail' of SB DIY items - the ice lock! I actually made 6 different versions, all totally different designs and will hopefully post all or some of them on here.

Before converting the dining room into a bondage fetish workshop, I decided that I would design with a few principles in mind:
  1. The lock had to be safe (obviously!) and fail-safe too. There's loads of references to what 'fail-safe' means on here, so don't need to explain this one!
  2. The lock design could be as crude as possible and didn't have to look visually like any kind of final product, since I was trying to prototype some ideas
  3. The lock had to be constructed from every day items you find around the home, ideally
  4. The lock had to of course be strong enough to withstand a brute-force attack when frozen (in other words, I didn't want the lock to be breakable merely by just pulling on it using brute strength for e.g. 1 or 2 minutes)
  5. The lock had to be easy to freeze - this one is surprisingly tricky, especially if you want the ice to be frozen in a certain way or shape. Anyone who has tried, you will know what I mean
  6. The lock's thaw time had to be fairly predictable/controllable, i.e. always take the same time to melt, give or take 10 minutes, or some reasonable deviation like this.
So I set about pursuing an idea I had using a guitar slide as the container for the ice. (I put a photo of a previous attempt on here: http://forum.boundanna.net/board/viewto ... =12&t=9729 but the design was different and didn't work too well.)

The problem I had last time was not being able to freeze the ice inside the tube (guitar slide), which didn't have an end on and the water just escaped. I realised that I only need to be able to freeze e.g. 2 non-connected chains (or wire, cord etc...) inside a tube, which would be sufficient, plus any pulling apart, sheer forces on the chains would be pulling against the inside walls of the tube. Hence, the idea was born.

Now, down to business on the design. I had some links of chain (see photo 1) which I hoped to freeze inside the tube and on the ends of them some welded D-rings (Ok, so these were not 'lying around the house', I actually had these from another project...! Maybe more on that later... ;o) ) but in theory you could use any old metal rings, like a keyring, for instance. I used pliers to open and close the chain.

Having done some initial tests on freezing chains inside ice, I realised that this might be the way forward, in general, compared to something like a piece of wire or a metal bolt of some kind, since chains are strong they can offer some movement and when frozen and pulled only the melted links will start to pull on the rest of the chain, while the end part is still frozen solid.

I think I read somewhere on here that you don't need much water for an ice lock, especially if you can control the melting rate. This lead to the need for some kind of insulation on the metal tube. I used some bubble wrap, small plastic bags and finally gaffer tape. I gave the lock more than 10 hours in the freezer, but it was pretty solid after about 4 or 5.

I tested the lock out as a dry run with some small weight, just to get an idea of how long it would take to melt. It seemed to last a good 30-40 minutes. So I decided to give it a try for real. It was solid for about 5 minutes, but then failed miserably and in a way which wasn't 'linear' or predictable. Conclusion - back to the 'workshop'! It turns out that I would be needing a lock which would stay frozen for longer, in general, since I used it in a real SB session and after 20-30 minutes of 'getting ready' the ice had already started to thaw, so much so that the lock pretty much broke after a few minutes of being cuffed in it. A disappointment.

Despite the failure I thought I would share the design/idea anyway, as I did find out some useful things along the way, which have since inspired future designs.
  1. A surprisingly small amount of ice is very strong
  2. Metal in contact with ice seems to not be the best combination and heat can easily be conducted to the ice, melting it quicker. For this reason, one should wear, or be forced to wear ;o) gloves when using the lock
  3. I read somewhere if you mix in cotton wool into the freezing water, it magically hardens the ice. Don't know the physics, but I guess the water molecules have something to hold onto to keep in formation...or something? I was searching our bathroom for my gf's cotton pads she uses to take off makeup, which seemed like they'd do the job if shredded up, but couldn't find any, so couldn't test the theory this time.
  4. Having the two fixed points (e.g. the D-rings) at the same end of the tube might be better than at opposing ends of such a tube. For one reason, cuffed hands would be closer together and therefore more restrictive :twisted:
  5. A lock of this type could be used e.g. on the bed, where the ice was out of reach and therefore one wouldn't be able to make the ice melt any faster by touching it (as seems to be a classic 'problem'!)
And finally...one thing which is also difficult in SB - managing to easily (and safely) close the final lock. For the design above, I used a pair of modified handcuffs, where the cuffs had been unlinked and then I could simply padlock the cuffs to the D-rings on the ice lock in advance, so it was as easy as just putting on handcuffs.

Thoughts, feedback and ideas welcomed, but I'll be posting the other designs soon for your kinky entertainment!
Setup 1
Setup 1
Step 2 - the lock frozen
Step 2 - the lock frozen
Step 3 - the final lock
Step 3 - the final lock
MS
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Ice Lock (with pics) #2

Post by more_secure »

So I was hoping to post this sooner but real life stuff got in the way.

Here's ice lock design #2. This design is probably one of the simplest that I use/have used before and it works super well. There are various other designs like this but this is just a crude version (plus we all need to do something with those onion netted bags, don't we?)

Once again, I wanted to design with the following things in mind (I added 1 new point since the last post, which is item 1):
  1. The lock had to be cheap and easy to build!
  2. The lock had to be safe (obviously!) and fail-safe too. There's loads of references to what 'fail-safe' means on here, so don't need to explain this one!
  3. The lock design could be as crude as possible and didn't have to look visually like any kind of final product, since I was trying to prototype some ideas
  4. The lock had to be constructed from every day items you find around the home, ideally
  5. The lock had to of course be strong enough to withstand a brute-force attack when frozen (in other words, I didn't want the lock to be breakable merely by just pulling on it using brute strength for e.g. 1 or 2 minutes)
  6. The lock had to be easy to freeze - this one is surprisingly tricky, especially if you want the ice to be frozen in a certain way or shape. Anyone who has tried, you will know what I mean
  7. The lock's thaw time had to be fairly predictable, i.e. always take the same time to melt, give or take 10 minutes, or some reasonable deviation like this.

I tried this out a few times and here's my appraisal.
  1. One of the benefits of this is that you can scale it easily - you just add more ice cubes. Even 1 cube will usually do, especially if you're like me and you get restless and want to escape. There's a few factors to bear in mind, such as the size of the ice cubes and the size of the hole preventing them from being pulled through. I used a key ring, as you can see in the photo.
  2. The bag is reusable, provided you can get the knot out afterwards. This depends on how much you pull on it though whilst in bondage.
  3. You don't need to hide any suspicious looking contraptions in the freezer, it's just ice cubes! This might be the deal maker for this device actually. I don't share with random flatmates but when I used to I would hide all kinds of 'difficult to explain' things in our freezer!
  4. In a super emergency, such as the house is burning down, in addition to your primary emergency release method, you'd be able to probably gnaw or rip the mesh bag - probably fairly difficult, but it's a good piece of mind. If you want to feel totally helpless, though, it's probably not the release method for you.
  5. It's nearly impossible to avoid getting water everywhere. Not really an issue though if you just put a towel down.
  6. It's fairly easy to lock yourself into it.
  7. So far it's the best ice release method I've used yet. Simple, effective and does the job.
Again - comments, suggestions, improvements welcomed.
The ice in the bag
The ice in the bag
The bag tied
The bag tied
Example of how to use it
Example of how to use it
MS
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Ice Lock (with pics) #3

Post by more_secure »

For this one, I started with a totally un-assuming bottle, like the travel one's or those one's you get in hotel rooms with shampoo in. By the way, the peg in the photo is to keep the chain held vertically whilst the lock is in the freezer.

The second image is the lock ready to use. As you can see, I used 2 small black chains for extra strength. The idea is to lock the D-ring to a fixed point and then the frozen chain link to cuffs or the thing you want to be released. Or you can do it the other way round.

In principle this lock is fairly simple and different to the previous 2 locks I made. The force of resistance is de-coupled from the ice itself, since the keyring ring is pulling on the structure of the bottle and not the structure of the ice. This might be a revelation...who knows!

Having tried the release method, here's my initial thoughts:
  1. The amount of ice might be just the right amount. Possibly too much, depending on the length of time you require. In fact, with this lock, I was a bit intimidated as it definitely felt strong and inescapeable but in the end I managed to escape another way because I could uncuff my ankles instead (poor planning!).
  2. The surface area of ice -> air is very minimal especially if the bottle opening is narrow. You cannot for example melt the ice easily with your hands, nor can you chip away at the ice, so the lock is practically un-pickable. The only thing you can do is warm the bottle with your hands, which can obviously be remedied with gloves, insulation on the bottle or putting the lock out of reach (or all of the above!)
  3. Getting water everywhere wasn't really an issue as it doesn't really hold much water, but certainly enough to be frozen for long enough. I think the thaw time was over an hour. Also, the ice has to be practically all melted because it was holding tight right up until the last bit of frozen ice/chain.
  4. The concept of using a bottle inspired me since essentially you could drill out a circular hole section in a plank of wood the same diameter of the bottleneck, then insert the bottle underneath the wood from the bottom leaving an ice lock anchor point in the wood. This could be used on homemade stocks, for example, or a bed frame with similar holes in etc. Also, bottles are easy to 'explain' and look totally unsuspicious!
One idea I will try in future is to iterate on the idea of decoupling the ice from the tether fixing (as mentioned above). For example, if you are physically able to apply brute strength across ice or pull a chain out of ice then eventually it will give, so I hope to try a setup whereby the lock is attached to my collar, so the only thing to pull on the ice will be my neck/collar, bearing in mind that this has the benefit of being stimulating in an autoerotic asphyxiation way too!
slide-1.jpg
slide-2.jpg
The lock in use
The lock in use
MS
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Re: Ice Lock (with pics) #1

Post by Rogue-Kat »

WOW! These are all really cool and fascinating! I was really just thinking of putting two ends of a rope in some kind of thing filled with water and leaving it at that for a type of ice lock, these are much more advanced then my original thoughts.. going to have to think on this one a little more and see about trying out one of these sometimes! I am kind of fascinated with using ice as a timed lock sort of thing.
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Re: Ice Lock (with pics) #1

Post by lj »

the nylon mesh bag and ice-cube was my standard time-lock, guaranteed to work and fairly predicatble. I also used the links in an ice-filled container - the only problem there is that you can pull the metal links through ice, the pressure thaws the ice one the compressed side and re-freezes on the other, so you get a slow flow through the solid ice.

One idea I never tried, but is theoretically fine, is to use an ice cylinder as the hinge pin on a set of stocks. You may have come across a self-bondage site "andreabound" where this method was used. Andrea did a lot of experimenting with some pretty serious self-bondage and wrote in detail about her experiences. And then suddenly stopped writing/posting, the sad conclusion being that she didn't survive one of her scenarios.
be a switch, double the fun :-)
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Re: Ice Lock (with pics) #1

Post by Shannon SteelSlave »

With ice locks being as expensive as they are, I love to see other ways to make them. Keep up the good work!
Bondage is like a foreign film without subtitles. Only through sharing and practice can we hope to understand.
A Jedi uses bondage for knowledge and defense, never for attack.
I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T!....I, I mean S-M-A-R-T!
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Re: Ice Lock (with pics) #1

Post by more_secure »

Yeah I like the idea of a hinge pin on stocks, I had thought of that before and no, I haven't come across "andreabound" before although the name does sound familiar, and I am sorry to hear the sad conclusion. When I get time to do some more 'creating' I will probably be focussing on a few additional 'features' to safeguard oneself. For example, improving on the number of redundant release mechanisms in the bondage setup chain that can be "allowed to fail" - in other words, having multiple redundant release mechanisms. If anyone works in software, it would be akin to the different types of RAID, but for bondage!

The idea would be (and it's well documented on this forum..) to have perhaps 3 unique release mechanisms, all independently offering release in some nominally similar time, but all of which would function differently. For example:

1) An ice lock (relies on time/temperature)
2) Another ice lock but of a different design
3) A digital timelock (like those digital padlocks which open after some pre-defined time). One this note, I'd probably suggest 2 daisy-chained locks used as if they were just 1, because this would allow for a reasonable amount of redundancy in themselves
4) [Inject fantasy creation here] Some kind of device (such as a fairly easily breakable wire or a big red button...), which, when broken or pressed, triggers an irreversable event, but obviously allows safe release immediately (in the case of a fire etc...). E.g. the trigger event could be to confirm the transfer of a significant amount of money to a charity or something! Before the bondage session, you would first transfer this money into a holding account out of your control, which would send it back to you, say, 1 day later, provided the button/wire wasn't pressed/broken! I wonder what the value of this transaction would need to be to make it a non-desirable option €$ ?!

Of course, all the above being said, the premium would still be on ensuring that one is in a tight, inescapable bondage setup, while having access to such elaborate release mechanisms for maximum safety. So, back to the drawing board...

@lj - "the nylon mesh bag and ice-cube was my standard time-lock"

I'm curious to know what your release mechanism is now then :D
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Re: Ice Lock (with pics) #1

Post by Shannon SteelSlave »

You could talk to SOFTWARE about some kind of money management system like you describe. (Reminds me of that movie "The Box" 2009) It should be a charity/cause/campaign you hate, so there is no way you will see an upside to losing the game. Maybe have it all set to buy some bondage gear you hate to use, punishment gear, and you will then have to use it regularly. A little off topic, I know, but I think we're having fun and learning here.
Bondage is like a foreign film without subtitles. Only through sharing and practice can we hope to understand.
A Jedi uses bondage for knowledge and defense, never for attack.
I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T!....I, I mean S-M-A-R-T!
👠👠
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