Tension wrench design for IC cores?

[Peter Martin]

Many years ago I had Marc Tobias' book, and if I recall correctly there was a diagram of a special tension wrench for IC cores--which had little protrusions on the bottom (like a comb)--to match holes in the bottom of the cylinder.

1) does this tension wrench place torque on the cylinder specifically to remove the cylinder, or to pick it to open?

2) does the design have any validity?

I have picked my apartment door--a Best IC core--a number of times now., but only to the "remove" position, it has never yet been picked to the "open" position. I'm thinking perhaps the tension wrench might help.

Suggestions?

Pete

[stick]

The tension wrench has teeth in it so you can put tension on the control sleeve of the lock. This wrench will only allow you to pick to the control shear line, the "remove" position. It does work though, although the new Best SFIC locks have a control sleeve with an open bottom, rendering this wrench useless. It'll work on older Best locks along with most other SFICs (Yale, Falcon, Schlage, etc.)

[n2oah]

1) does this tension wrench place torque on the cylinder specifically to remove the cylinder, or to pick it to open?

2) does the design have any validity?

I have picked my apartment door--a Best IC core--a number of times now., but only to the "remove" position, it has never yet been picked to the "open" position. I'm thinking perhaps the tension wrench might help.

Scroll about halfway down to see the IC tensors.
http://peterson-international.com/i-CORE.htm

Yes, the design only engages the control sleeve, making the core come out, but not unlock.
Validity? maybe. The picture below: See the sleeve on the right? That is an older sleeve that the IC tensors can be used on. (the tensor fits into the holes at the bottom) The sleeve on the left is a newer sleeve-- the IC tensor has nothing to grab onto if this design is used and makes the locks very hard to pick.



About your door: I am almost sure the lock on your door is a LFIC. If it was an SFIC you'd have about a 1/64 chance of picking the lock without a SFIC torque tool. LFIC doesn't use a control sleeve, but it does use a "control pin". The "control pin" is usually the last pin in the lock (or first, depending which way you look at it)

[vector40]

You understand that if you manage to remove the core, you can open the mechanism just by reaching in with pliers or something and turning the... er... thinguh.

[Peter Martin]

Oh yes, opening the door after the core came out was easy... but after a number of attempts to pick it to the "open" position--and failing--I was trying to see if there was a different solution. For some reason it doesn't want to pick at all in the opposite direction. Then I remembered the "comb" tension wrench--sad to see that it may not work on newer models, but I'll make one anyway and give it a try.

...Or better yet, I'll save myself some time, pick the core, remove and take an otoscope to see if it'll work!

Why is this so addicting?!?!!! Aaaaarrgh!

[Peter Martin]

Thanks n2oah... good link to Peterson's tools. The tension tool is exactly as I remember it from Tobias' book--although he seems to credit other people for the design (Finch). Seems simple enough to replicate this tension tool using depth and space keys as a guide to make the notches.

[raimundo]

when you see the two pins in the lock body, you can turn them, there are even special tools to do this with but any flat blade that can be put between the two will work, I reccommend this be made so that it can be put in all the way to the bottom of the pins and have less chance of bending a pin if the lock is installed with the weight of the door on the bolt or other such hard turning problems.
The tool the puts the tension specifically on the removal sleeve, may help if you are haveing difficulty, since there are two shear lines very close to eachother and this may be one of the difficulties haveing some pins set on one of these while other pins are setting on the other.

[stick]

but I'll make one anyway and give it a try.

Excuse me if I misunderstood you, but the tension tool will force you to pick the control shear line, you won't be able to pick the operating shear line while using it. So it doesn't really help you with that goal.

[Peter Martin]

Yup--I read the info about what the tension wrench is supposed to do incorrectly. It does what I've already done--bloody hell.

[Peter Martin]

I see certain "bad" words are automatically deleted... probably a very good thing!