After reading an old Kerry Thalmann article on self-timers, I grabbed me one of these Autoknips on ebay. Unfortunately it doesnt seem to work with modern plastic cable releases, the slot in the extendable arm isnt large enough to fit over the cable release behind the activation button. I now suspect these only work on cloth releases, can anyone confirm that? I think I threw out my last cloth release just last week.
I have about four Autoknips'es, and they're all different. Two of them srew directly into the cable release, two are the "plunger pusher" type you have. I haven't had any problems with any of my cable releases with either of them, but I suspect that could be because I use a different type of cable release? My most used one is a steel-would HAMA...
I now have my answer. I bought a cloth covered cable release from Calumet and now my timer fits fine. They simply wont work with plastic covered cables.
I actually bought this to use as a delayed shutter release, and I'm not sure they were ever intended for that use. They seem to be primarily for time exposures. BUt I have been able to get it to work as a delayed shutter release also, though not with 100% effectiveness. The instructions tell you how to set the timer, but not much else.