hda7 wrote:On this, my second day actually picking locks, I picked my first lock with spool pins: a Master padlock. I'm not sure what model it is, but is small with a solid brass body in a black plastic sleeve. I used a DIY pick (half-diamond) and torsion wrench (a rod from a mouse trap that I flattened the end on; not great, but it worked). The lock went into a false set, and I found and reset three spool pins. To my delight, it popped open! I guess I got it so quickly because I had already read a lot about picking spool pins. Next: Schlage?
Yeah, I just did a Schlage deadbolt. It used to be on my front door. I just bought a new deadbolt with some security pins, just because I figured it was easier to get a deadbolt that already had the spools in it than to order the spools and have to wait for them to be delivered. Kinda made me made because it took me about ten seconds to rake all five pins on the first try. It surprising how much easier this gets when you realize that your using way to much tension while trying to pick the lock. I was trying to put about half as much pressure as I would to turn a key. Yeah, that was way too much. I barely have to even touch the tension wrench it seems like. As a tip for the other new people on here, one suggestion I saw to learn how much tension is needed is to take and put a regular tubular lock and hang it on your tension wrench while picking the lock. That is how much tension you use. Another thing I read, but haven't tried yet is to take a push pin and a rubber band and put the pin in the door about three inches from the lock and hook the band to the pin and wrench. But either way, very very light pressure on the tension wrench. For the most part it seems that if you have been trying to pick it for ten minutes and you let off tension and hear more than five pins drop... or how ever many are in your lock you're using to much pressure. I swear for a while I was hearing ten pins drop.
