Noob question

[tedwasright]

Ive been raking and have pretty decent results. I've now started to single pin pick. I bought a master 5 and the way the key was cut made it insanely easy. I bought another on and have little luck. My biggest problem with this lock is pin 3. When I apply pressure pin 3 Binds mire than any other. When I push that pin up I think I set it but then no other pin binds. Suggestions? Thanks in advance for your help.

[Solomon]

You've overset a pin. Be more careful when setting pin 3, if you can't avoid it then release tension to drop the overset pin. It might catch and set on its way back or, it might just reset. Just be careful not to let off too much and drop em both. If you drop that pin and it has a tiny bit of give to it when you push on it, then leave it alone because it actually caught on the shear line as you dropped it and it'll be set. If it binds normally, then it reset, so you can just set it as normal and move on.

[OrangePick]

One thing I do when I have to ease up on tension is try to provide "counter force" on the plug either by a light twist on the pick or another tension wrench in the opposite direction. The reason is that many plugs will bind in the cylinder a bit, making it impossible to release incremental tension -- it's hard to go backwards without dropping them all.

So I'll keep nominal tension with my main tensor and then apply force AGAINST myself using either the pick (if it's a strong one) or another tensor. Obviously you don't want to do a lot of twisting with picks since they're not designed for that and can bend/break.

I've also found that if your variety of tensors is limited to just 1 or 2, you may be faced with a situation where the main tensor itself slips under a ward and binds the free turning of the plug. Counter tension helps overcome that binding.

[Gapper402]

you may be faced with a situation where the main tensor itself slips under a ward and binds the free turning of the plug.

= the death of me. Happens a lot and kills my momentum To the OP - Tension is definitely the trick here, if you keep trying that lock and having issues try another lock. You can always come back to it. I have master locks that give me problems for no good reason so I leave them be and come back when I feel confident. Then my wrench slips under a ward and I freak out, lol.

[chriswingate]

Master locks, as easy as they generally are, can sometimes be tricky. Not that they are great locks, but the tolerances are so loose, and there is so much slop or turning in the plug while it is locked, make for it to be difficult sometimes to set pins or feel what is going on inside the lock. It's all practice, like Gapper said, put it down and take a break from it occasionally.

As far as what Gapper said about the tension wrench slipping and getting caught under a ward, you can always try switching to top of the key way tension. It can help by having the rotation of the plug being more centered, if there is a lot of wiggling in the plug to begin with. Give it a shot, see what you think, if you don't have a tension wrench with a small tip, you may need to trim one of your current tension wrenches, so it fits in the top of the key way, and doesn't slip and fall out easily.

Hope some of this helps a bit.