pins not binding

[quami]

hey guys some help

i recently bought a 5 pinned practice lock from lockpickshop and am having problems picking it.

when i apply light tension to the plug pins seem not to bind.

when i feel each pin with my pick they still seem to be free moving

what am i doing wrong???

if its my application of force on the tension wrench how do i know how much to use???

any help would be greatly appreciated

cheers

quami

[Fackifiknow]

I too have a lock that i struggle with finding a binding pin.

[Rodfather23]

I just started picking as a hobby a few weeks ago, but to me it sounds like maybe you aren't using enough tension.....try bouncing the tension a little to see if they bind. You don't want the bottom pins to stick to the top of the lock if that is what you consider binding (like I did at 1st).




Rodfather

P.S. This is my 1st post in this forum......but I have done and intro in the faq forums where it says to introduce yourself. I'm not trying to hijack this thread. Just adding my 2 cents as a noob and saying hi.

[Kaellman]

One technique thats good is to apply more tension when your trying to find the binding pin and then use light tension to pick it. When trying to find the binder, take a hook for example and feel the lock pin by pin.

Best of luck

And welcome to the forums rodfather:)

[Eyes_Only]

What I do is slowly and gently probe each pin stack with the hook pick and feel for one that sticks the most. I know this sounds too simplistic but with experience you can get the feel for it. Some locks just repond like this due to it's pinning and tolerances. If you can, try re-pinning the lock or get another one so you can hopefully work with one that may be a bit easier.

[Shrub]

If its one of the clear locks then throw that away and get a real lock,

If pins dont bind the solution is simple, excert more tension,

If you cant get the point where theres only one pin binding on a simple lock then you just need to keep at it and practice, if its a decent lock then what you have to do is find the middle way where youve got a couple of pins setting and then work out which is the stiffest one thats binding,

That said if you have 2 pins binding then simply set both pins, moving both pins a bit at each time will be the same as setting one pin on its own,

Another alternative would be to intentionally over set the pins and work back from that, this works especially well with locks full of spool pins,