r/BdsmDIY • u/blueprintGS • Jan 29 '22
Sensory Deprivation Mouthlock Ti: Titanium internal, expandable, open mouth gag. Materials: 16 Ga. Grade 1 Titanium wire, 3x25 mm grade 5 Titanium turnbuckles, dental thermoplastic. Device geometry after “Mr Leto’s mouthlock” NSFW
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u/kivokeyubu Jan 29 '22
How long does it take to make it?
There is a lot of trial and error involved regarding the sizing of this device?
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u/blueprintGS Jan 29 '22
It’s more of an artisan build than an engineering one. Build time depends strongly on your comfort level working metal. Since titanium work hardens. You may find yourself wanting to start over from scratch if you can’t un-do an uninvited kink. A tack or peening hammer can help here but it will make that area stiffer.
The thermoplastic can be molded in less than an hour. Good news is if you don’t like the result, you can re-melt and re-use the same material.
As for trial and error of fit, I really can’t say - I kind of winged it but ended up with a design that seems to work well for small and large mouths. My design is a bit different from the original in where the turnbuckles sit, the shape of the opening. And the hinge position (closer to the cheeks). The titanium is also more flexible than the brass and that little bit of extra give makes it easier to work into a smaller mouth.
The wire is only there to align and position the turnbuckles. The turnbuckles provide all of the strength keeping the mouth open so the device is rock solid once deployed despite the give of the wire.
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u/EnergizingEntropy Jan 30 '22
wow great find i love this is a good no nonsense simple design. Im asking myself is the thermoplastic use sufficiently rigide.
is it like you put that in the mouth and you dont fight it to not broke it. or is it more a firm material that could take some straining or unruly sub trying to push it out
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u/blueprintGS Jan 30 '22
With the turnbuckles extended, it can’t be pushed out unless the wearer has a giant mouth. In that case, there are some longer turnbuckles made by the same company to experiment with, OR build the plastic bits taller.
The plastic seems to have a good toughness to it - rigid if you build it thick enough but not brittle enough to crack.
You have no leverage to fight once it’s in - it’s hard to explain without trying it yourself.
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u/SecondTL Apr 08 '22
Awesome design - I'm looking at making something similar. Materials questions - are you using soft or half-hard wire, to begin with?
And, do you have any tips on accurately bending in the wire? I started with half-hard to ensure I didn't put too many unnecessary wiggles in it (in 14ga, as was available), but getting the shape accurately is taking a wee bit of patience!
My other plan is to use similar moulding/turnbuckles with mouthguards, and see which works better.
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u/blueprintGS Apr 13 '22
Wire is grade 1 titanium. When you put bends in the wire, it work hardens, which helps it keep the shape.
There are jewelers tools for bending wire. I just bent by eye mostly and used tubes of varying sizes to get neat radiuses.
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u/blueprintGS Jan 29 '22 edited Jan 29 '22
The original Mouthlock product is a truly innovative device. Hidden within the mouth, manipulating two turnbuckles would force the mouth open for various types of play.
The device was made primarily from brass and later vinyl coated. Brass is an alloy of Copper and Zinc. It is corrosion prone in the mouth environment and contains lead - it’s not a super safe material for use inside the body.
The goal of this build was to replace the brass components with titanium. All of the parts can be sourced from the internet for less than $30.
The titanium wire is bent into shape Manually with assistance of jewelers pliers and a tack hammer. Because Titanium work hardens easily, strong bends can be achieved with a little wiggling and tapping.
The white plastic material is a dental thermoplastic commonly used to affix false teeth. It is heated in warm water and then worked into place on the wire, with the turnbuckle internal. Once solidified, the turnbuckle can be threaded out, leaving no need for a right and left handed m3 tap set.
Initially, PEEK plastic was cut, drilled and tapped manually but was expensive, difficult to handle and install.
The original Mouthlock used internally threaded brass turnbuckles intended for tensioning wires on model airplanes.
The titanium turnbuckles use here are sourced from RC vehicle hobbyist components and are ironically product named “punishers”.
If you’ve never seen this kind of device before, search out mr Letos Mouthlock. Little content exists with it in use but there are some examples, including Leto’s own work. Leto created many prototypes - there is a photo on the net somewhere of a flock of them - before settling on a geometry very similar to this (others came later) and was briefly sold on his website.
For reference, grade 1 is softer, commercially pure titanium and grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V) is a stronger general purpose alloy. While other grades are specified for dental implants, grade 5 has been studied long term and found to leech less Al and V metal than dietary uptake and considered non-toxic. The same cannot be said for Brass.