Padlocks

[Solomon]

Thanks. I was watching a dvd on lock picking last night and i found out how and why my lock opened.

I managed to do the bypass which means my tweezers caught the latch and bypassed the pins and there for it opened the latch.

You definately need to work on your picking if you accidentally bypassed it! This is good though, since now we know you're putting the pick in way deeper than it should be and that you're also putting way more pressure than necessary on your pick... so now you know what you need to be working on!

Take your time and be gentle with it. Roll your pick over the pins gently with a very slight amount of force, so you can feel them spring up and down a tiny bit as you go over them. Try and get a feel for when the tip of the pick is on each pin, this way you'll get a feel for them and have a rough idea of how far they're spaced apart. After this you should practice pushing each one so you can really feel it, and feel the spring pressure increase as you push it further. Do this for each pinand practice maneuvering your pick around the warding on order to push them all the way down.

That's the hardest stuff to get the hang of... after that it's just a matter of figuring out how much tension you should be applying to the plug. This takes a bit of trial and error since every lock is different, but it shouldn't take long to get the right amount. And remember... LIGHT tension! And when we say light, we mean it. Put your fingertip onto one of the buttons on your keyboard, and push against it gently until it actually presses in. The amount it takes just to hold that key in and no more is actually too much. The only time you need more than this is if the lock is stiff.

Since you're working with padlocks though, you obviously need more than this to counter the spring return mechanism... think of it as neutralising the force of that spring, plus that normal amount of tension on top of it. Science! Padlocks with interchangeable cores have a freely rotating plug, but any standard padlock will have that spring countering your tension. You can put the key in the lock and put your tensioner through the hole in the key bow to figure out how much you need - just use your finger to push on the tensioner until the key starts to rotate a tiny bit. It's not good practice in your later stages, but it's definately a good little trick for when you're starting out. Just apply that amount of tension and pick the pins, increasing a tiny amount as each pin sets and presto, the lock should open for you.

[antaean3000]

Are this padlocks hard to open?



I brought it today from b&q it was £3.98 and was their own brand.
I tried the bypass using the tweezers and it failed.iv got a tension tool for it.

Just not sure what to use as a pick or what shape the pick would need to be.

[Solomon]

That lock is tiny, and since it's also very cheap it's no good as a practice lock. It's too small to feel what's going on in there and the manufacturing tolerances will be so low that it'll practically fall open the moment you even put a pick in there. You should be able to rake that open in 2 seconds flat... it won't even matter how much tension you use either. If you apply any kind of tension and just jiggle a straight piece of metal around in there it'll open very quickly, so you won't learn anything from this type of lock.

You're far better off practicing on the master style padlocks... you'll actually get feedback from the plug and feel individual pins setting with those, and they will pave your way towards picking more difficult locks and ones with security pins in them. Those little masters and their clones aren't hard to pick, they only have 4 standard pins and they give you plenty of room for error. You seem to be focusing a lot on bypass, which means you're thinking too much about getting the lock open and not enough about what's happening inside it. You want to learn to pick locks, not just open them.

[antaean3000]

I want to open this type of cheap lock and work my way up. Yes i got a master lock but i want to start on these small ones first. Just to say that i can do it.

I tried for 30 mins and could not open the small 3 inch lock

[Solomon]

I want to open this type of cheap lock and work my way up. Yes i got a master lock but i want to start on these small ones first. Just to say that i can do it.

I tried for 30 mins and could not open the small 3 inch lock

Can you take a pic of what you're using as a tensioner and pick? Something is very wrong if you can't open that thing.

[antaean3000]

Yeah i used this



Silly thing is it will pick the smaller lock that i have which is the same but smaller
and only cost 99p but it wont pick the b&q one.

I tried for two hours to get that b&q lock open.

The cheaper 99p one from the poundshop
opened like a charm i just brushed the first two pins and it turned without a tention tool.

But the one i brought today for £3.98 it wont budge.

[Solomon]

What is that thing you're using as a tension tool, and how wide is it? It looks like a piece of a bobby pin... if that's the case, it's nowhere near wide enough to use. It is possible to make a tensioner from a bobby pin, but bending it like isn't the way to do it. They're horrible to use anyway, so do yourself a favour and get something of a more reasonable size to use.

Here is a comparison of a couple of tension wrenches and a bobby pin... as you can see, the pin is far too small. The wrench on the left is the smallest you can realistically use. Find something wider! One of the best things you can use is a steel wiper blade insert; get your hands on a couple of those and snip/bend them into a few different styles of wrench. They're easy to get at the scrapyard or if you know someone who works at an auto parts store, they can give you some from old wipers they're throwing out.

[antaean3000]

What is that thing you're using as a tension tool, and how wide is it? It looks like a piece of a bobby pin... if that's the case, it's nowhere near wide enough to use. It is possible to make a tensioner from a bobby pin, but bending it like isn't the way to do it. They're horrible to use anyway, so do yourself a favour and get something of a more reasonable size to use.

Here is a comparison of a couple of tension wrenches and a bobby pin... as you can see, the pin is far too small. The wrench on the left is the smallest you can realistically use. Find something wider! One of the best things you can use is a steel wiper blade insert; get your hands on a couple of those and snip/bend them into a few different styles of wrench. They're easy to get at the scrapyard or if you know someone who works at an auto parts store, they can give you some from old wipers they're throwing out.

Its the end of some wide sunglasses with the end bent it fits in the lock nicely.

I will be buying some real lock picks at the weekend. I watched a good movie about how to lock picking last night and i learned a lot about how it works.

I would like to get some rake tools too.

[LocksmithArmy]

What is that thing you're using as a tension tool, and how wide is it? It looks like a piece of a bobby pin... if that's the case, it's nowhere near wide enough to use. It is possible to make a tensioner from a bobby pin, but bending it like isn't the way to do it. They're horrible to use anyway, so do yourself a favour and get something of a more reasonable size to use.

Here is a comparison of a couple of tension wrenches and a bobby pin... as you can see, the pin is far too small. The wrench on the left is the smallest you can realistically use. Find something wider! One of the best things you can use is a steel wiper blade insert; get your hands on a couple of those and snip/bend them into a few different styles of wrench. They're easy to get at the scrapyard or if you know someone who works at an auto parts store, they can give you some from old wipers they're throwing out.

Hey now dont be dissin the bobby pin bro

My favorite tensioners are bobby pins...
granted, I use the big ones but they work great.

all my top tensioners are bobby pins(all the ones I use anyway)

[Solomon]

Whatever spins your bucket, LSA.

They do the job if you're stuck for anything else, but they're definately not my first choice since they're so small & fiddly. The feedback is pretty lame, but yeah if there are bigger ones to hand they're a bit better.

[LocksmithArmy]

I can never get big ones to stay in top tension ... I do use wiper inserts for bottom tension

Spins my bucket lol
thats a new one on me