ZiRo wrote:p1ckf1sh, It was a general "What might come in handy?" question. But cutting a lock in half to aid repinning may be handy. What kind of equipment will that require? It'd be touch and go hacking that in half with just a dremel?
I'd even say if you are quick on the hacksaw, the Dremel will lose that competition. I was surprised as well when I did it the first time, have never really worked with metal before. But we are talking about brass here. And this stuff really cuts well with a hacksaw.
Position your hacksaw over the threaded hole in the middle, where the mounting screw goes in. Cut until you open the "hole" and then you can usually twist and wiggle the rest of the little metal bridge. The coupling (the black cam-like thing) will come lose as it has no support, but if you are in it for picking you can safely put those things aside for the time being.
Well, and regarding your more general question regarding tooling... I have picked up picking as a recreative hobby in February/March and I like to try stuff and tinker with things, so I was buying tools regularly. Stuff that might come in handy:
Hacksaw and blades
Small screwdrivers, i.e. for prying off rings etc.
A small propane torch (these pen-like things that run on regular lighter butane/propane)
Dremel (cutting discs, sanding wheels and barrels, polishing buffs, cone shaped grinding bit (other shapes OK, but I like that one best), some diamond tipped tips, a diamond disc, maybe a tungsten carbide bit (sold for tiling, but rips through metal like nothing), etc. etc.
Caliper, preferably a cheap digital one, they run at 15 to 20$
Files (bought a set of 6 dirt-cheap, certainly low quality, but many different shapes, then bought some of better quality of those shapes I used most often)
Tweezers
Small containers, like contact lens containers for storing small stuff like spare pins etc.
Some paint thinner or acetone or kerosene, whatever you can get, good for cleaning old locks
Grinder
Sanding paper of various grains
I also love the Micro-Maglite for repinning. I use it as a dowel when repinning a cylinder that is acessible from the rear (i.e. cut euro cyl). The thing I love is that it almost exactly fits the plug bore and you can turn it on and see exactly where the chamber is and what you are doing.
I have certainly forgotten a lot here. Some of the stuff is for modifying locks, some is for making picksand other tools, etc. Buy what you need item after item, according to the projects you having underway at the moment...
