My front door lock.

[Dr. Bint]

I'm at the end of my tether with this kind of lock. I've tried time and time again, but I just can't get them open.
I've heard that locks with the pins mounted at the bottom are harder to pick, so if anyone has experience with these and has any tips, please let me know.

I've taken a picture to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

[mbell]

Euro profile cylinders.
You've just got to get used to picking them 'upside down'. Takes a bit of adapting after only picking rim cylinders, padlocks and the like. I use a vice on my bench/desk to clamp these in as it's always easier than on the door.

Can't tell the quality of your particular lock just from the photos but I suspect it is a relatively low quality lock. You might want to try removing it from the door (screw at the side of the door, in the centre) and put it in a vice/hold it the other way up and see how easy/difficult you find it then.

[Dr. Bint]

I would take it apart, but I'd be severely reprimanded for it... I don't own the house.

[randmguy]

Flush it...Clean it...Then flush it and clean it again. Every cylinder that I've encountered with the pins on the bottom has collected an immense amount of dirt. I find that cleaning it makes a big difference in how freely the pins move. This is very important in locks with pins on the bottom since the springs are working against gravity all the time and seem to weaken more quickly as a result.

[Dr. Bint]

Excuse the n00bish question, but how would I go about doing that?