Newbie struggling... Would you like to be my "mentor&qu

[Chucklz]

Learning tension is the hardest part of beginning. Try to see how light ypu can go before you can no longer set a pin. Then concentrating on picking just a bit firmer than that. Your goal is to be able to feel with your pick when your tension is too light or too heavy.

[geonap]

Learning tension is the hardest part of beginning. Try to see how light ypu can go before you can no longer set a pin. Then concentrating on picking just a bit firmer than that. Your goal is to be able to feel with your pick when your tension is too light or too heavy.

Very cool! I have actually (amazingly) tried something along those lines... this is how I figured out how much tension I needed. I would release the tension until I felt the pins fall back down and then "increase" the pressure just slightly, which seems to be working.

I just need to get a kwikset lock and start practicing one pin at a time. Will this Kwikset rekeying kit I bought help me do that? It seems like it will...

[geonap]

Ok... I just picked my house Kwikset lock (5 pins I think) three times in a row in a total of about 5 or 10 minutes... I think I'm learning! Funny thing is, I went to pick the lock a 4th time and struggled... I finally stopped. Slowly but surely I am learning some sort of technique I guess.

[geonap]

Need a bit of advice here... I bought the Kiwkset lock as several of you suggested. I have a Kiwikset rekeying kit... I have struggled along trying to figure out the dissassembly on this.

I managed to get the spindle to come out (that was real treat to figure out), but now I can't get the cylinder to "pop out" which it's apparently supposed to jump out of there. I did some searching on here and noticed this seems to be somewhat of a common problem, yet I still can't find a solution.

I have the forked end of the cylinder removing tool down the half circular portion like it shows. No amount of force, manipulating the key, tugging, etc is making the cylinder fall loose.

Help? Thanks in advance...

[geonap]

Wow... got it... not sure how... I think I was rocking it back and forth and pushing forward on it? Not sure if that did or manipulating it with the key.