My homemade curtain pick

[jimmythelock]

Hi all. Just wanted to share my latest lock pick. It is for a curtain lever lock. You can find some photos here, the photo is a little blurred , but the ruler is in cm on top and inches below.
the parts
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v441/jimmythelock/Curtainpick1.jpg
Constructed
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v441/jimmythelock/Curtainpick2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v441/jimmythelock/Curtainpick3.jpgIN In action
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v441/jimmythelock/Curtainpick4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v441/jimmythelock/Curtainpick5.jpg

It is basically made from two 10cm steel nails for the main shaft and torque handle, with a piece of modelling steel for the lever lifter(from a model railway shop, 1mm diameter). I have used a spring cut in two to keep the lifter in some grooves I have cut down the length of the nail to allow for a smooth turning motion. There are also grooves cut in the head of the nail to hold the lifter more tightly.

I have had some great success on my era viscount (yes I know this is a basic 5-lever but I need to start off slowly). From the photos you can see I have cut a small window to see what the levers are doing. I will be moving on to other locks after a few modifications. They are:

1. I made the lifter thin enough to lift just one lever, that was bad. I turns out that the slant on all the levers give such a large contact area with the stump that it takes soooooo long to get the stump to move anywhere. So I have made a lifter that will lift several adjacent levers to speed things up a bit.
2. The stump that I have is an old toughened steel drill bit. It bends quite alot in spite of its strength. I want to modify the pick so I can interchange them allowing for breakages, bending and different keyhole sizes.

Well there we are. Hope this inspires some DIY.
Any comments and suggestions for improvement would be greatfully received. Also if anyone else has made there own I'd love to hear and see about it.

Thanks. Jimmy

[mbell]

Nice pick!

I've tried to make a curtain pick a couple of times but I never quite got it right, at least enough to bypass the curtain on some Legge/Era locks.

Some interesting pointers in your post.

[RangerF150]

Yeah thanks for that , i never saw a "curtain" pick before
But to ask a silly qusetion ! I have a 3 lever lock , i ain't picked it yet cos i did not know what type to use ( well that excuse is gone ! ) .
But i opened it and from what i can see , if you get one lever *right* the *bar* don't slide any , not like in a pin and tumbler .
It seems to me that it don't catch like a pin , so i figure you have to have all the levers alinged at the same time?

Of course im missin somethin big here


Anyway nice pick , i have somethin to go on now .
Many thanks

[jimmythelock]

RangerF150 wrote

Yeah thanks for that , i never saw a "curtain" pick before Sad
But to ask a silly qusetion ! I have a 3 lever lock , i ain't picked it yet cos i did not know what type to use ( well that excuse is gone ! ) .
But i opened it and from what i can see , if you get one lever *right* the *bar* don't slide any , not like in a pin and tumbler .
It seems to me that it don't catch like a pin , so i figure you have to have all the levers alinged at the same time?

I found that if you individually lift one lever at a time the bar/stump moves very little, almost not at all. So if you lift a few, not necessarely all, the stump moves a lot more and eventually all the levers will become aligned to open the lock.

I have made a different lifter to help me lift more levers. I shall post some pics soon.

Jimmy

[RangerF150]

Many thanks for tha bit of info dude . i look forward to seeing your all new improved !0% extra free pick