Purpose
A component of manual dexterity as it specifically relates to lockpicking is tactile pin resolution, i.e. knowing which pin (if any) you are under, and having some feel for the range of motion of various key (bottom) pins. If you are having trouble with the MIT Guide's or digital_blue's exercises then these more basic exercise may help.
Note that this is a spatial orientation (space and depth) exercise not a pressure exercise.
A problem for the beginner when performing some of the MIT Guide and digital_blue's exercises is that there is no feedback to determine if you are doing the exercise correctly. digital_blue instructs, "With no tension applied, use your hook to lift one, then the other pin". If there are more than 3 pins installed it is not self-evident to the beginner which pin is being lifted and it is uncertain whether the head of the pick is positioned directly under the intended pin. Furthermore, there is no feedback. Without feedback there is little, slow or no learning. Using a vise mounted barrel exposes the pins providing the feedback the beginner needs.
What You Will Need
1 x cylinder plug/barrel (that matches your pick practice cylinder)
1 x small vise
1 x plug/barrel holder (optional, but pad your vise jaws if you're not going to use one)
1 x set of key (bottom) pins (that match those in your practice cylinder)
1 x small hook pick or Falle-style curved pick
You could do this exercise with a see-through or cutaway lock if you have one that matches your practice lock (i.e. the one you use when doing the MIT Guide and digital_blue's exercises). I provide this method because it is more accessible than any method that requires a cutaway or see-through. Also, simplification is a useful technique for learning. By using a "naked" barrel, without springs we eliminate one (large) element of complexity. This permits the beginner to focus just on pin spacing and depth.
I don't recommend doing this exercise with your intact practice cylinder because you won't get the required (visual) feedback.
Ebay is a good source for all of the above (except picks). Key (bottom) pins can be found as part of a "Pinning Kit", "Repinning Kit", or "Rekeying Kit". Small cylinder specific kits can be obtained cheaply (compared to there large universal counterparts).
What To Do
- Place the plug/barrel (or plug holder with plug) in the vise with keyway facing you and the barrell galleries (i.e. holes in plug) upright (my apologies for stating the obvious).
- Pin the plug as per your working practice cylinder. Pin the entire plug even if your practice cylinder is only partially pinned. Using the same plug and bitting/coding as your intact practice cylinder for this exercise will help you perform the exercises in the MIT Guide and those provided by digital_blue.
- Use your pick to push each pin to to the circumference of the barrel/plug. Don't push the pin higher than the top of the barrel, i.e. make the top of the pin "flush" with the outer surface of the barrel. Do this for each pin. This will give you an idea of how small the range of motion of a pin actually is. Try and raise each pin without disturbing the adjacent pins. This will be hard to do for the high numbered (backmost) pins. Nevertheless you should aim to raise the target pin, eg. pin 5, to the top of the barrel whilst keeping pins 1,2,3, 4 and 6 undisturbed or at least below what would represent the shearline. This exercise will also help your pick positioning technique. I prefer to rest the base of a hook pick shaft or the fulcrum of a curve pick on the top of the ward that has some clear distance between the bottoms of the key pins. A pitfall for beginners is to allow the pick to move around (laterally/x-axis) too much. This makes it hard to control and determine which pin you are under. Once you find "your groove" you should stay on it moving your pick only in and out (z-axis) and using the pick like a lever to push each pin. Do this forwards and backwards until you get tired and or bored (whichever comes sooner).
- Next, practice hitting individual pins in random sequence in one smooth motion i.e. without counting pins. With the pick out of the keyway decide to push a particular pin. Then insert the pick and aim directly for that pin and lift it as per the previous step. Doing this will give you a feel for how far the pick needs to go into the barrel and will help you determine which pin you are under when you actually picking. Attempt the exercise with the binding sequence of your practice cylinder.
If you do this exercise diligently it will help you visualise what is happening inside the barrel when you are picking and your practice cylnder won't feel like some unmapped abyss. This exercise is to a large extent cylinder specific (because of depth and spacing) so it is important to perform it with the barrel of each cylinder you are practising upon.
I hope this will be of use to beginners. If necessary I can provide an image or two to clarify things.
