*Video Tutorial* Loading top pins and springs

[cool-arrow]

If you do a lot of re-keys for new and old houses you might want to by the HPC master pin remover plug follower. It removes all of the contractor or developer master pins in one motion. It looks like a regular plug follower bit it has a little ramp that traps the master pins. Not a bad investment, but sometimes you still need to dump the chambers because some top pins vary in length, sometimes.

[Gelmar]

This is a great video, really helps. Thanks a bunch!

[Safety0ff]

That's a great addition to the site, thank you. Especially useful for people that might be removing pins to practice. You made that look effortless!

[Archive555]

Excellent Vid.
I know it helped me alot.
I used to do it so slowly, and so dodgily.
The healing can now begin.

[zeke79]

Glad to hear that the video is helping some of the beginners out. It can be a hassle if you do not know what you are doing but once you do a few thousand it gets easier .

[bldiener]

The video is great you can read almost everything but the video really hepl they say a picture is worth a 1000 words a video imo is worth a million

[sugurfoot]

That was very informative, Are there more video of short cuts or other ways of doing things. When you re pin a lock do you change top pins also? and why the different size of top pins say in kwikset?

[zeke79]

You can find alot of video by clicking the link to my site www.locksportarchives.com and simply register.

Now to answer your other question, yes you should install different sized top pins according to the bottom pin installed. A simple way to put it is if you have a short bottom pin you want a long top pin. If you have a long bottom pin you need to use the according short top pin to balance your pin stacks. This does several things such as prevents smashed springs from a long bottom pin and a long top pin. It prevents weakly sprung stacks that would occur if you used a short bottom pin with a short top pin. The final outcome should also prevent the spring, top pin, and bottom pin from all being shoved into the shell (or bible whatever you want to call it) and creating a new shear line because there is nothing left in the plug to prevent it from rotating. This is called comb picking and can be done in some cases when proper pin stack balancing has not been done. This also comes into play when master keying as you may have a shear line at a two cut on a kwikset and also a shear line at a six cut for the master system which results in the same thing as a long bottom pin so you would have to again balance it out with a short top pin. So the final answer to your question is yes I change top pins when I rekey a lock.

[sugurfoot]

Zeke, you are the information source, guru of locks....no kidding I thank you for your shareing your knowledge.

[zeke79]

Glad I could help .

[Jeckel]

Can you only change the bottom pins, as long as the shear line is clearing, or will there be spacing issues?

[zeke79]

Yes, you can as in most cases the mid sized top pin is used in all chambers. Again, it is not the best method of repinning but you can repin without changing out the top pins properly.

[thelockoutguys]

NICE video Zeke..Professional quality video..Look forward to seeing more!

[maintenanceguy]

how on earth can you make un-tangle-able springs?

Tangle resistant springs are made by LAB. They're like regular springs except for a zone in the very middle of the spring and right at each end with a very tight wind. In these three spots, the turns of the spring are so close together that they touch for just a couple of turns so there's no gap for springs to slip together. Most of the spring has the same loop spacing as other springs.

[pjzstones]

i made a cut-away schlage this week. i have not done much re-pinning and holly crap did i pay for not using a plug follower. i was gonna try and make one but there was a grove at the end of the plug that i had no idea how to compensate for. the pins kept getting caught up on it and popping out and everything else you could imagine. geese talk about a head ache. none the less i got it done with some improvised shims, another plug, and what not. but hey if nothing else it was a learning experience at the least.