Am I overpicking the pins?

[Strychnine]

Hi all,

Just sorta got into lockpicking after discovering bump keys.

I purchased a set of Southord picks, 5 piece set (PXS-05) and started fooling around with the crappy locks on the house I rent. Now I know that most people say to start with attempting to pick one pin, then two etc. however I'm ALWAYS up for a challenge.

All of these locks are 5 pin locks. So I used the "feeler" pick and found each pin, tested it for resistance and then went to town.

So here's the real deal: A couple of the locks are super easy to pick, as I said, they're crap. Some of the others give me some trouble. I go through and find each one, then when I put torque on the cylinder I run into trouble (Brinks Padlock and and unbranded deadbolt). On both locks after attempting to pick them, SLOWLY releasing the tension results in 4 clicks (I assume this means if successfully picked 4 of the 5 pins?). On the padlock I am ALMOST certain that I can't get the furthest back pin. It's like the tension bar is preventing me from getting the right angle.I can feel it move like 1/2 of the distance I feel it needs to.

On the deadbolt it's the closest pin to me. I can see it. I can pick it first but it won't stay picked and if I pick the other 4 first (cylinder turns 20 degrees) then I can't move the first pin... attempting to pick in a different order only results in it sliding back down to "lock" position or I can't pick pin 3...

My understanding is that I should be testing each pin and if the lock cylinder moves I should keep light pressure on it to prevent the pin from dropping back to "lock".

So my question is if I am overpicking the lock to the point the pins are sticking up above the sheer plane? If so, how would I know? Also, how can I correct this?

Thanks!

[Strychnine]

Oh, and also after an hour or so of working on this the edges of the picks start to hurt my hands... wearing gloves seems like it will dull my feeling of what I am doing. Is something like Plasti-Dip something I should consider putting the the handles of my picks or will that have basically the same effect?

[raimundo]

you should use some sandpaper on those picks, making your hands hurt, imagine how it makes the pins feel, all scratched and no longer sliding as freely in the collumns with burrs hanging out of the scratches and brass filings filling the pin space.

[toolish]

I just found some clear plastic tubing and squeezed it over the pick handles.
Worked well and if i put the tubing in a vice first to make the tube thinner it made inserting the picks easy as.
Sorry dont have any tips on the picking for you, other then some times the pin is actually picked but the inside pin might drop back down into the plug due to gravity. I see it a fair bit on padlocks when you spin them upside down. although if it was picked you would not have the problem i guess

[Squelchtone]

We like your enthusiasm, I too will go on picking benders for hours at a time, but we do stress that when a place is rented, even if we are given the keys to lock and unlock the place, picking the lock was never on the menu and therefore is not really a nice thing to be doing without the express permission of the landlord. In other words, don't practice on your house locks, dorm locks, office locks. Most of us have nice little collections of practice locks we keep on the work bench, coffee table, back pack or shoe box. It's crazy addicting picking new locks, and having a little box of different locks offers more variety than picking the same apartment door over and over.

Happy Picking,
Squelchtone

[atticRR]

To advance you need to really know whats happening in these locks (that are not in use) that you're picking. Check out the MIT guide to lock picking, the 7 habits of highly effective lock pickers, understand fully why a lock can be picked. Hearing the pins dropping back down is a sign all right- but not necessarily that it was picked properly. the more you know the better you'll get.

[SeanGallagher]

To advance you need to really know whats happening in these locks (that are not in use) that you're picking. Check out the MIT guide to lock picking, the 7 habits of highly effective lock pickers, understand fully why a lock can be picked. Hearing the pins dropping back down is a sign all right- but not necessarily that it was picked properly. the more you know the better you'll get.

x2