Manual Medeco Manipulation

[JK_the_CJer]

Hey Peoples,

So I'm a bit drunk and in the mood to talk about picking Medeco. I will not discuss my tool because I don't want to ruin the surprise. The topic is picking Medeco locks using normal picking tools. This is entirely possible and, in some cases, necessary. My weapons of choice for this type of picking are an LN21 flat tension wrench and a Peterson hook. The first thing to understand about Medeco is that there are two very distinct steps to their defeat: shearline picking and sidebar picking. It has been my experience that the pins bind to shear first. Once all of the pins have been picked to shear, the sidebar begins to bind and rotating the pins becomes necessary. This is in regard to picking with clockwise tension; counter-clockwise produces the opposite effect.

Shearline Picking

Medecos pick to shear just like any other lock. I compare them to Schlage diificulty in this respect. The mushrooms pins employed in most of their cylinders are not too tricky as long as you look out for them. They cause reverse-tension much like typical spool pins. The hard part is recognizing that the shearline has been picked and that its time to move on to the sidebar. This usually manifests itself as a large degree of plug rotation and a certain springyness on plug. The plug goes from behaving like a normal mortise cylinder, for example, to behaving something like a padlock (spring tension on the plug). You should end up with a little bit of "wiggle room" between full tension and keeping the pins picked. This range will later be utilized during sidebar picking.

Sidebar Picking

Now that you have picked the lock to shear, the hard part has come: the sidebar. The immediate question that everyone has is "how can I rotate those pins?". One solution to this problem is quite simple: use a hook. However, if you just poke around trying to rotate pins as they are, you won't likely find much success. There is a binding order to the sidebar! It's very similar to the concept of binding pins on a normal lock. Because of tolerance errors, only one or two of those sidebar teeth can really be digging into the side of the pins at one time. Your goal is to find that pin(s). One way to accomplish this is by lifting the pins one at a time. Yes, you heard right; lift them. Normally, the key pins of a shear-picked lock will be completely loose, but this is not a normal lock. The sidebar teeth will be pressing against the right side of some of these pins. This causes a binding-like effect (sticky pins). This little trick is also good way to determine false rotational sets from real ones.

Once you have located a pin that you think is rotationally-binding, its time to rotate it. The first step in this process is to determine what angle it is currently set at. Utilize your hook and feel along the chisel tip of the pin. Try to determine which way it is cocked and make a mental note. The next step is position your hook underneath the farside of the chisel tip while maintaining tension. Next, apply a pulling force toward the tip while carefully and slowly releasing tension (don't overdo it!). You are feeling for a "give", when this happens, stop and apply relatively heavy tension. If you did everything right, the key pin should now feel loose but locked rotationally in place. Most of the letting off of tension is a requirement for working the pin out of a false rotational set. If you can apply this method to all of the pins (you'll likely need to revisit a few), the sidebar will set and the lock will open.

Let me know if this makes sense to you folks and feel free to add your own personal techniques to this manual style of opening Medeco locks. My final bit of advice is to really try to visualize what is happening. Don't be afraid to begin with one or two pins and work up (ala digital_blue's beginner method); it really helps when you first start to attack these locks (and high-sec cylinders in general).

[Safety0ff]

while carefully and slowly releasing tension (don't overdo it!). You are feeling for a "give", when this happens, stop and apply relatively heavy tension.

I was missing this bit of information (not advanced member yet.) I'll have to try this out!

[MBI]

That sounds pretty similar to how I do it. I've tried picking them with Falle hooks, HPC hooks and SouthOrd hooks, but my favorite tool to use is an LN21 hook. The keyway is so wide that none of my tension wrenches would work well and I had to make a custom flat tension wrench for medeco locks, which I use for tensioning at the top of the keyway. The wrench tended to slip a lot at first so I serrated the tip to help keep it in place.

When it comes to setting the rotations and picking the sidebar, center cut pins are by far the easiest as they just seem to set their rotations on their own most of the time when I pick the shear line. For the ones that don't set themselves, I prefer to manually set the pin rotations by pulling on either side of the pin with the hook, but I've also tried setting the rotations by lightly raking with a Falle sweep after picking the shear line. I just alternate between tipping the pick a little to the right or left each time I rake it. Sometimes with this method I've been able to set all the rotations and open the lock with just two or three rakes, sometimes it's taken a good 30 or 40 seconds of raking, and sometimes it doesn't work at all.

I've found the M3 to be the easiest of the Medeco locks, then the Biaxial, and the hardest has been the Medeco Originals. The shape of the pin tips on the Originals makes rotating them a lot harder when using a hook. I've tried several different hook shapes including some custom ones I've modified with cup shaped tips. They definitely seem more effective than unmodified hooks on M3's and Biaxials, but when picking Originals I have better luck using my method of raking with a Falle sweep.

[cheesehead]

nice write up, JK. My pick of choice is a half diamond for medecos. you can easily work in either direction when trying to rotate the pins.

[Legion303]

I like a Peterson short hook and my homemade 2-prong wrench (pix one of these days).

-steve

[globallockytoo]

You spell very well for being a bit drunk!

Arguably, the way you describe it, why couldnt you use a pick gun to quickly pick to shear before attempting rotations?

[JK_the_CJer]

You spell very well for being a bit drunk!

Arguably, the way you describe it, why couldnt you use a pick gun to quickly pick to shear before attempting rotations?

I imagine that you certainly could...or a bump key. I don't possess nor fiddle with either, though. Somebody do it!

[jpb06080]

Thanks JK. Maybe I'll pick up trying to pick my medecos again. I couldn't get past 2 pins, and then I lost interest.

[serpih]

Once i have seen someone in youtube picking one biaxial by raking.


I'm locksmith in France and medeco are rare, but i have changed a deadbolt biaxial two weeks ago , i bring it home and i have tried to follow all you have said with out success, and i said to my self i will try raking to open it, we never know, one minute after the locks open.