First Pick A Success?

[Wizer]

First lock I picked was the door into my house from the garage. Had 2 paperclips, and about 15 min in, it suddenly opened. So surprised I thought I'd broken it somehow.

Maybe not the best lock to start with, You should not pick locks in use:
Check this:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=42970

[tberro]

Well my first 3 picks went great and easy once I learned a gentle touch was better than trying to really torque the lock. I started with 1 pin and have gotten up to 3 pins. I installed the 4th but it seams the hook pick I am using is to tall to hit the 4th pin while the torsion (yes I know tension wrench is the name but, torsion is the true action) wrench is in. I don't have a full pick set yet but will try again when I get one unless there is a trick I am missing in order to hit the last 2 pins

[OWNERMAN]

Whoopee! i picked a wafer tumbler with a pen clip/ tension wrench, using my finger for tension, because i couldnt fing my hardend paperclip picks.:)

[CharlieCroker]

My first lock was a mate's lock box he had bolted inside of a wardrobe. With 2 paperclips and had it open it about 15 minutes. I understood the theory of what I was supposed to do, but had never done anything like this before so most of the time was spent in trial and error making the "tension wrench" clip. Plus the way he had it bolted in made for a very awkward and poorly lit position.

Now, it takes only a few seconds to get that lock open.

[CylinderHead]

Well, I can't seem to log a vote, but my first pick took about 10 minutes with a homemade set of what I suppose would be called a medium hook and torsion wrench. Saw a video on Youtube about how to make your own picks, and tried my hand at it. The first five minutes were spent goofing around with what would probably best be called a ridiculously long hook, which when later shortened substantially actually did the trick.

[Gozzo]

i had been studying locks and how they worked for years, first lock was a 5pin deadlock by "benchworks) chinese. got it in less than 30 secs but these days it takes longer.
Gozzo

[drkoh]

my first was cheap chinese padlock. It takes about 15 min frst time. Great feeling!

[just_chris]

Well yesterday my first tools arrived, and of course I had to try them out! I have a nice looking little Master padlock (nice clean appearance, solid chunk of brass...), which I'm not using at the moment. I got stuck into it straight away with torsion wrench and half-diamond. With the wrench in place with a little torque, I inserted the pick and *click* it opened without any effort. What a crappy lock! I've been playing around with it since then, trying different picks, but I know I'm only opening it by a combination of luck and poor build quality. To be honest I don't even know for sure how many pins it has (I think it's 4, but I don't have any sensitivity for this yet).

Next step - buy a decent lock to play with... :)

[Baby Bert]

i was trained on kwikset on a house that my boss picked about a million times and after you pick them over so much it gets extremely harder. sometimes i cant even pick them! lol Schlage is easier then these kwiksets most of the time other then the lever sets. Ive been picking for over a year and half now and love the skill but as they all say you cant grandmaster this skill. Ive picked over primus's with a cut down primus to the side bar.

Has anyone ever tried to pick a primus like that? pretty interesting..

[thriller]

5 pin deadbolt thing. Took me around ten minutes to get open.

Kinda lucky though, since I couldn't get it open again in the week before moving house hahah.

[Maric]

Well haven't been on for awhile. While I picked locks before I never actually done it in a real environment.

I was at school, in my manufacturing class, with nothing to do. All work was done and everyone was kind of just sitting around talking. My teacher had a problem with one of his locks on his drawer. He lost the key and was thinking of drilling out the lock. Me, wanting to have a chance to try out my skills in a real environment, offered to open it for him. He agreed and I went at it.

Now I was pretty confident in my abilities but I knew I had problems with wafer locks. Pins weren't bad, I enjoyed them but the two practice wafer locks I have I could never open.

So I checked out this lock. It was a wafer lock. At this point I probably would have just looked at it, turned around and think "Darn it, hate these things, I ain't ready for them." however I was really bored. Really, really, really bored. So bored I got down on my knee put in a half diamond and counted how many wafers.

Four wafers. That surprised me, both of the ones I have have five wafers in them. So I started out just pushing each wafer up without torque and just thinking that at even if I don't succeed being frustrated might be better then being bored. I played with the wafers for around 5-6 minutes and then put in my torque wrench.

I went straight to the back and started from there. My first few attempts failed but then I went super light on the wrench thinking I might be applying to much pressure. I tried again and the plug turned but then stopped. I was at first amazed so I tried turning the plug. Nothing happened. Made something was binding inside? That was my first thought.

So I reset (turned the plug back till I heard the wafers click down) and tried again. It turned again! But it stopped at the same spot. I did this like six times before calling over someone I knew. Guy knew I was interested in lock picking and he started designing locks because he was bored I guess (some of his idea are freaking great, shocks me to no end).

I reset the lock, showed him how it turned and stopped and asked him if he saw it. He confirmed that he saw it so I was convinced I was no longer insane. Took my tools out and left it in that semi-turned state. He suggested turning the plug with something stronger (my torque wrench is pretty bad compared to my actual picks, can't seem to find the right piece to use to make a good wrench). He got a flat head screw driver, put the tip in and turned the plug.

Apparently it was just sticking for some unknown reason. The plug turned, and I celebrated after letting the fact I actually managed to pick the stupid thing multiple times and just needed something less flimsy then my torque wrench.

Boy did I feel good that day.

There was also nothing in the drawer, why he needed it open is beyond me.

[Necrosis1994]

The first lock I picked was a padlock that I'd lost the key to. It took me 2 hours I think to pick it since all I had were 2 bobby pins. Now I can pick the same lock with the same bobby pins in about 5-10 seconds. And I just ordered a real set so I won't have to use these bobby pins at all anymore!

[BigRob40]

Until I actually started to think about what I was doing when I first started picking locks it took me some time. My first pick took about 20 minutes, but thereafter the time varied. I had some prior experience with locks and with some practice, I can now open a variety of locks. My favorite is a Best 7 pin.

[greg adams]

1 minute and some change,a b.o. rail road padlock with a revlon nail file and a paperclip.

[RoyalRow]

The Schlage 5 pin on my front door took me about 30 seconds the first few times around, now it takes me longer for some reason... I've opened it many, many times, but it's extremely hard now. Must have messed it up... oh well, I'll be putting up some better locks soon.