Beginner lock advice

[cheerIO]

Thanks For the tip cheerIO. I found a few locks at the Re-Store! one is a Yale rim cylinder type lock that the picks I have don't fit well. I am going to make a pair of the Bogota pics today!!

Awesome, glad it worked out for you. Keep going back. Most stores have really good traffic and a high turn over.

Question on the lubricant what is better way to go? Liquid or graphite?

In my experience, graphite would be good to maintain a lock that is indoors and clean and has never had anything else added to it. But when working with a lock that has been used outdoors and/or badly corroded, you are going to need something like WD-40 to dissolve the corrosion. Of course, I then disassemble the lock, wipe everything down, clean the plug and bible with a pipe cleaner, and reassemble with no added lubrication.

[billdeserthills]

Question on the lubricant what is better way to go? Liquid or graphite? I use graphite powder almost exclusively when I can but I got that advise from a man who got his lock smith cert in the 80's and never used it as a profession. I can see that liquid is more likely to penetrate and got up into the lock as opposed to more gravity driven graphite powder.

While a liquid does penetrate more easily it is also a dust & dirt magnet. One exception is a dry type teflon lubricant which uses alcohol as a carrier for the teflon. The alcohol evaporates off leaving just the dry lube and does not attract dust. I like to use graphite most of the time, except on some tight keyway medeco locks, which I use dry teflon on. Now when I'm picking a lock I just spray some wet lubricant and be done with it...