Newbie with a question about padlock deterioration & repair

[Whizdumb81]

Hello all,

I'm proud to say that I'm a newbie to LP101. I have not posted on the site before and have run into a situation that I rarely ever thought about. Here's the background. I came across a MasterLock No.5 Padlock (rustoleum series) a few days ago from an unknown origin. On the outside, it does not look like it's in bad shape. However, when i went to try and pick it, I noticed very minimal plug rotation and was unable to maintain picked pins across the shear line. I had never tried a Master No.5 before and I thought that maybe the tolerances where much higher than that of the No.3 which I have come to master (Gimme a break I'm a Newb, at least im not claiming to have picked a medeco biaxial with a tooth brush or something).

I took it a step further and started to think about the small almost non-existent plug rotation when tension is applied and noticed a ring of rust around the shackle where it goes into the body of the padlock. The Shackle also had no play in it at all. I tapped (not smashed) the top of the shackle with a hammer a few times to try and losen it up. To my surprise, small rust shavings and dust particles began to come out of the keyway with every hit. I got veryvery slight play outta the shackle and decided to try and pick it again. Under more tension than I have ever cared to apply to a lock, there was no binding pin ( all of the pins, no mattter how much tension i put on the plug , retained their spring-feel) and I could not get any of the pins to stick on the shear line.

My question is this... What could be internally wrong with the lock that is causing the seized plug and loss of play in the shackle? If you think rust is to blame, is there any lubricant or penetrating solvent that you could recommend as far as saving this lock? If you have run into a problem like this, what was your solution? and did it work?

BTW... Because I know that some of you will ask what I'm using to pick my locks, I figured I would let you know that I have a jackknife pickset from lockpicktools.com (I know its nothing to write home about but it has served me well in honing my skills uptill now) and I prefer to use my offset half diamond pick to single pin pick my padlock cylinders. After repeated failure with the offset half diamond, I did try to rake the cylinder open with a standard snake rake, However that did not prove effective either. Although I still consider myself a newbie to lockpicking, I have been picking padlocks rather consistently for over two years now.. I have however gotten much more interested in the subject lately rather than just causal skill and have a set of euro slimline southord picks arriving in a few days, as well as a rekeyable practice cylinder to start off with. Thanks for your time and please help me save this practice lock to add to my collection.

[FarmerFreak]

I'm pretty sure it is the same key cylinder as a number 3 (not 100% positive though). So it should have 4 moving pins in it. I would look inside the lock and make sure that all of the pins are moving. It is always possible that the first pin to bind has been lifted all the way up, and not coming back down. This could explain why you can't get any pins to bind.

I think you can turn the key either direction on these. You could try the other direction to see if a pin or two will bind. If one of the pins isn't moving you still won't be able to open it. Just another way of diagnosing the problem.

You should probably fill it up with WD-40, as WD-40 has a pretty good reputation of bringing a rusty lock back to life. But it isn't a great lubricant.

[Gozzo]

Hi, hope you still have that lock,
I have a No5 without key that a friend of mine found at a dump and had very much the same problem except this one was open. I blew it out with a compressor because the whole thing was full of dried clay. Initially all the pins were simply stuck they wouldn't budge. so like your self, I gave the lock some percussion therapy ( lightly hit it with a small hammer ). and more rubbish came out. i didn't want to put any wd40 or similar because i figured that would just create a paste. So using a large southord half diamond i gently raked the pins until they started to move then i put an old wrench in it and wiggled back and forth and that's when i discovered the barrel was rusted to the body a bit more tension than usual and the barrel moved a bit which was enough to overcome the rust. inside the lock are two flat levers that slide inwards, when the key/wrench is turned, these not only hold the shackle, they also stop you shimming the lock. i picked the lock with a southord hook because i couldn't get enough lifting pressure with the diamond and the key-way turned enough to indicate that i had picked the lock, but the top of the key-way was only at about 1 o'clock, which was not enough to draw the levers in. On my lock the lever that was exposed had rust on it and wouldn't move, this is what was stopping the cylinder from turning. a gentle push from a screwdriver and more tension on the wrench than i was comfortable with, and the barrel turned i had to turn it to almost 3 o'clock for the mechanism to operate. I believe it would be one or both of those levers that is stopping you. and now my question is, whats best to lubricate it with wd40, graphite or silicone i noticed there are a lot of different opinions here, ill probably just put a dash of graphite in the key way and a little on the lever. hope this isn't to late to be of help.
Gozzo
sorry for the long post but just wanted to explain fully.

[Squelchtone]

I say don't bother. Trying to rehabilitate a rusty, gummed up $10 dollar padlock in order to use it for lock picking practice? I wouldn't let my Peterson or HPC pick tools near that thing.

Go to the hardware store and buy a new one, you'll be very happy you did.

Squelchtone