Do European picks works on...

[Tutrigo]

It seems that brazilian locks are like US locks.
But I'll get Euro picks anyway.
By the way, do anyone here know someone who got scammed by www.southord.com or www.lockpickshop.com? Just to check

[Tutrigo]

Well...
I'm not going to buy picks anymore. I'll do as Olson and make my owns.
I'm just concered about the Tension Wrench, I saw the tutorial but seems to be so hard.
I'm going to try to do a straight line and then curve with a plier or will it break?
Can you give me some real size picks drawings?

[Olson Burry]

Trust me, spend a few $ and buy some picks. It will be a worthwhile investment as at least you'll know what professionally made tools look and feel like. Then you can make changes and create your own bespoke tools.

There is no way I could have made picks to the right standard without first having a go with professional tools. It is a whole bunch of fun making things and to get the most out of it, I needed something to base them on.

southord actually manufacture their picks and lockpickshop are fine, you won't have any difficulty with them.

There are templates available for picks that you can print out, but you dont even know how they are supposed to feel yet, so just order a few and give a review on how the experience of buying, receiving and using the tools for the first time was.

You wont regret spending $10-$20 on a few professional picks and a tension wrench or two. It will show how this stuff should look and feel.

All the best.

[lokpikr999]

Yes they will,sometimes even better that standard picks.Though you should have a combination of both,I recommend you get the MPXS-60 by Southord.

You can get it at the best price here:

http://www.selfdefenseproducts.com/69-P ... 16153.html



Hope this helps .Best of luck.

Regards,

Alex

[lokpikr999]

It seems that brazilian locks are like US locks.
But I'll get Euro picks anyway.
By the way, do anyone here know someone who got scammed by http://www.southord.com or http://www.lockpickshop.com? Just to check

Oh no my friend These are extremely reputable companies and I would recommend them to anybody!


Regards,

Alex.

[Olson Burry]

Why on earth would he choose to spend $140 on a 69 piece set? Which is the MPXS-62 btw.

Can you give an example of when you needed to use a regular single ball rake over a euro one? Or a euro saw, mountain or snake rake over a regular one?

The guy wants 3, decent picks, a couple of wrenches and doesn't want to waste money, which is very prudent and understandable. I have about 60 picks from SO and I basically use 3 so I think this approach is best, especially for a beginner.

[lokpikr999]

Guess your right,I just feel that with that set,you get a great selection of picks(especially the slim line rakes and hooks)wrenches and your equipped to deal with any lock,no matter how tight the keyway is.To tell you the truth I just carry on me A short hook,small diamond,large diamond,snake rake,C rake,W rake,ball,half ball,a slim line snake rake and these four tension wrenches:

http://www.southord.com/Lock-Picking-To ... TW-01.html

http://www.southord.com/Lock-Picking-To ... TW-02.html

http://www.southord.com/Lock-Picking-To ... TW-11.html

http://www.southord.com/Lock-Picking-To ... TW-22.html

[Olson Burry]

That is some great advice. I'm impressed as it must have taken some time and effort to cut and paste those links in. All of the wrenches there would be great purchases. I own them and am always finding locks that one won't fit but another does.

You can never have enough wrenches

Tutrigo. Buy the four wrenches mentioned by lokpikr999, and your choice of a few picks. All you really need if you choose to concentrate on SPP is a couple of hooks and a small half diamond.

I'll say it again, you can never have enough tension wrenches, the lock simply wont open without them no matter how much you spend on the picks.

Thanks again to lokpikr999, I didn't know how to get those wrenches individually.

Happy daze

[Tutrigo]

Actually... I'm having problems with CC.
And I have a grinder!
I'll see what will happens, these blades are cheap.
I'll trade to make a pick to fit extremely well in my door lock

@Olson
How much is this http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff16 ... sculpy.jpg ? (the orange thing you used to make the handle)

@PS
Yesterday I tried to pick my lock with 2 bobby pins, was such weird...
I could put down (pins in Brazil are upside down) but when I put the second down the first jumps, and then I put the first down and the second jumps! o.o
What's this?

[femurat]

Oops - I like to keep the images as large as possible so details can be clearly seen. In the past I've made small images with links for the larger ones if anyone wants them, but in this case it's really not needed and I see what you mean about it needing scrolling now, when it didn't before...

So I've fixed the photo and now it's only 640 pixels wide, so hopefully it won't be causing any problems for anyone now - Sorry!

As Zeke79 said, 800x600 are the max dimensions for pictures, so every size under this is ok.
Personally I prefer making them 800x600 and include them directly in the post: reading is easier if you don't need to go back after viewing every image.

Cheers

[Engineer]

If you do go ahead with trying to make picks as you said, then all the templates you could want are in this thread:

http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17326&start=90

On the last page is even the templates for my own micro picks that I added some time ago.

If you meant designs for tension wrenches, then basic strips of metal just bent into "L" shapes like Allen keys/wrenches are good designs to start with. You will nee to vary the widths of the strips though, say from about 1.5mm to 4mm in 0.5mm steps (that is, make the ends 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, 3.5mm and 4mm wide).

Once you get the hang of them, you can then start doing all the fancy variations on them, such as twisted shafts, flat wrenches, etc. Even the really "ornate" one with lots of curves in; made for picking the "tulip" door knobs with the locks in the middle.

[raimundo]

tulip, or inset cylinder,
the concept that tensors need to be bent to 90 degrees is just wrong, that would make the handle too close to the surface of the wood or whatever that the lock is mounted in.

a more oblique angle, perhaps one hundred degrees is more ergonomic and will do tulip types as well as any wrench.

I prefer wrenches with a twist about an inch to an inch and a half from the bend, this distance establishes the stiffeness of the wrench, and after the twist, you have a flat handle that is not cutting into your fingers because you are not holding it by the edges.

Tensor for the bottom of the keyway need to be various widths, due to the variety of keyways shape and size.
some tensors are tapered or stepped, in an attempt to make one tensor more versatile in more locks,

tensors should be designed to not cut into the cylinder wall, meaning that the part that hits the cylinder wall should have no sharp edges, but should be sanded smooth.

tensors become stuck, sometimes, but tapered tensors will easily unstick since they become less wide as they are moved outward, Probably all tensors should be at least slightly tapered.

Very good tensors are made from sweeper bristle, wiper stiffener, and bladed bicycle spokes. the bike spokes come in various sizes and crosssections, these can be filed to fit special keyways,

bike spokes also make good top tensioners, just look for femurats recent posts on this, he has a drawing and a phototo show what can be made.

large split tensors as used on auto locks, can be made from ground down kitchen tongs, made of flat steel folded over. do not make this long handled, though, the shorter the better for the stiffeness of the bend.

There is another kind of tensor that is two prong without the springyness, you can make these very quickly and easily by filing a groove into the end of a piece of metal that is as wide as the keyway, this is just a U groove in the end of the metal strip, and the ends of the U are bent down to make the tips that hold the cylinder in tension. These are very easy to make, and you can put a different size keyway tensor on each end.
there are weighted tensors, such as hpc is now selling, and there are ways to make a weight on a rubber band bounce making the tension intermittent which will help to release any bound pins.
There is a lot more that can be done with tensors and everyone whos really into picking should be making their own tensors, because its easy and its so key to the picking process,

[Engineer]

I have to agree 100% with you there Raimundo - I often find my hand resting on the door while picking. This limits how the fine motor movements of the hand and means your wrench hand is less sensitive.

I tried an angle of more like 135 degrees and it was a disaster - I ended up spending more of my concentration holding the tensor in place, than on concentrating on what was being send back to me through them. It just kept wanting to twist out of the lock as you tried to apply tension ("cam-out").

So I abandoned my idea of anything other than 90 degree bendsfor perhaps three years - I needed to pick a lock that was slightly recessed and needed tension applying a little deeper down. My wrench was almost on the door, without enough room to get my fingers behind it at all, so in frustration, I bent that wrench, so it was a little more "away" from the door, expecting it to cam out - But it didn't!

I have done that a few times since then to give myself a little more room. I tthink it would have been around 95 degrees that one, but I think your figure of 100 degrees would probably be about the best angle for trade-off of camming out and room for your fingers.

Perhaps beginners might still be working on 90 degrees as you need to learn to have "independant hands" (horse-riding instructors will know that!). In horse-riding, it means you need to "hold" your hands in the air really and NOT be hanging them from the reins - With picking, it means to try and think of your tensor hand "floating" in the air, so you get as much sensitivity as you can from it. It does actually take some time to learn and requires a more delicate touch (at least from me anyway...)!