luhas419 wrote:I have a vintage Toy n Joy gumball machine that I have lost the key for. I have never picked any locks before so any suggestions you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
If you've never picked before, you won't be picking that lock, the learning curve is not worth your time. Locksmith is your best bet, AND the locksmith can make you a working key, or drill it and install a new lock. I know this is probably not what you're hoping to hear, but there just isn't some secret 5 minute james bond trick we can tell you to get that open, it would require pages of instruction and an understanding of how locks work, so if you have a couple weeks to hang out here and learn, then stick around, but if this is just to open the machine and not really interested in learning how locks work, then it's probably not worth your time and effort.
I have read here and there that your machine was made by Silver King (which may or may not be accurate) and that you can buy a replacement lock and key here: scroll down to LK027
http://www.crowriver.com/cs/cs003.htm
Your lock is what is commonly called a double sided wafer lock, you could try youtube.com to find videos of people picking them, that would probably give you more insight than reading pages of instructions
Hope that helps,
Squelchtone
