Belisarius wrote:I'm having a couple of problems. First, the lock is pretty small compared to what I've practiced on. Second, it's extremely hard to tell when the picks set, because the very weak springs in the lock mean that any torque causes the pins to bind, rather than spring back if they didn't set. Advice?
1. That's a standard sized wafer cam lock, there is nothing size-wise to complain about. Even if it
was small, smaller lock means smaller components means worse tolerances means less concentration and precision required. What's the problem?
2. "When the picks set"? Freudian slip, I know. But that lock has wafers, not pins.
3. Weak springs are not the cause of multiple wafers binding at once. That doesn't even make sense. And even if the non-binding wafers weren't springing back into place under normal tension, it wouldn't make it unpickable. It'd just take a bit more care to avoid oversetting, that's all. That said, being a single sided wafer lock, the bittings are always very even so oversetting is practically impossible.
I've never come across a wafer lock that behaved like that, and I'm having a really hard time picturing what might be going on. All I can think of is that you're doing something embarrassingly silly. Like picking the wrong side.
If you aren't making some ridiculous mistake like that, using too much tension could be the cause... but you'd need to be REALLY piling it on, cos you can get away with anything from feather light to mad heavy with these and still open them easily. That's why they have such a bad reputation, along with the easy bittings and the fact that it's impossible to overset anything unless you actually do it on purpose (ie. for reverse picking). I have no idea what on earth could be wrong with it; I really doubt it's the lock itself but I guess you never know.
Keysman makes a good point, so I'm not gonna say any more than that. We shouldn't have to explain step by step in detail how to pick something like this anyway, it's just silly. For future reference though... if you're struggling with a lock, you need to explain exactly what you're doing and what tools you've chosen cos it'll save everyone a lot of time. I wouldn't be ranting like this, for example.
