Padlocks are easy, Doors.. Not so much

[Bula6000]

Hi I was wondering if anyone had some tips for me regarding opening locks on doors. I can do masterlock padlocks easy, usually one rake is all it takes. I was inspired by being able to work the masterlocks, but when I tried to use my skills on an actual door, I had a lot of trouble with it? I'm using the rake technique mostly. Any tips?

[Legion303]

Any tips?

Yes. Don't try to pick locks that are in use.

Other than that, you can mount locks to a slab of wood if you want to practice opening them vertically.

-steve

[cjames73]

Yes. Don't try to pick locks that are in use.

+1

lockpicing is not just about raking, learn to SPP also.

[freakparade3]

As stated piccking locks in use is a really bad idea. As for picking mounted locks, alot of members here discovered that holding a lock in your hand and picking it may be easy. Now take that same lock and mount it on a board, it's alot harder to pick.

[josh0094]

i still have problems with door locks that (are not in use).

if you try to rake it use a large half diamond. only thing i can think of.

[Beyond]

Padlocks usually can handle more tension from your tension wrench so it's very tough to gauge a "good" amount of tension that will work on a lot of locks.

With that in mind, try backing off some tension on the actual door and see if you have better results.

[Dragunov-21]

Not just that, but they *require* more tension... That used to give me a lot of trouble, still does, sometimes.

[Eyes_Only]

If you started picking by opening padlocks in your hand then trying to pick a lock mounted on a door will throw you off because a lot of times you gotta stand or kneel in an akward position for some period of time.

I usually pick my practice locks mounted on a small hobby vise and even then I still feel a little uncomfortable picking locks on doors when I get sent out on home lockout jobs.

Same thing can be true of padlocks too a little bit if it is in use holding a gate and a bunch of chains together.