What prevents the key pins from falling into the keyway?

[LeeNo]

This is the one piece that is baffling to me. In every diagram of a pin/tumbler lock system I have seen, I always see the key pins being pressed down by the driver pins but magically remaining suspended above the keyway.

What is holding the key pins in place?

Please forgive my obvious question - I am a total newbie at this.

[vrocco]

I am not sure if I understand your question, but if you mean what keeps the driver pins from pushing the key pins all the way to the bottom of the plug, that would be the warding of the keyway.

Sorry if I misunderstood.

[LeeNo]

I am not sure if I understand your question, but if you mean what keeps the driver pins from pushing the key pins all the way to the bottom of the plug, that would be the warding of the keyway.

I just went back and restudied my pictures and diagrams, etc. and yes, it was an obvious question - thank you for pointing me in the right direction and being respectful

I don't know why I didn't realize that. In my mind, I was imagining some larger cavern inside the lock and totally forgot about the keyway itself being too narrow for the pins to fall through.

I think it is because some diagrams show the pins as being perfect cylinders instead of having bevelled/tapered edges.

I still don't have lockpicks. I have been reading like crazy though. I really want to be successfull on my fist attempt.

Thanks again!

[fuzz]

well good luck for that attempt

[vrocco]

I have found you can read and read, but the only way to get better is jump in and start picking.

Download db's beginner exercise is the Pick-Fu section and start with that.

Good luck!

[MacGyver101]

Related to your question is an important point to keep in mind: the bottom of the keyway is often wide enough to allow the pins to fall in. Once you have picked the lock, you have to be careful when rotating the cylinder... before the cylinder rotates 180° (i.e., before it is "upside down") you will often need to insert a pick all the way into the lock, in order to prevent the driver pins from pushing into the keyway. (This is of particular concern with a master-keyed cylinder: some of the master pins can be quite small, and can twist and jam if they are allowed to fall into the bottom of the keyway!)

[josh0094]

Related to your question is an important point to keep in mind: the bottom of the keyway is often wide enough to allow the pins to fall in. Once you have picked the lock, you have to be careful when rotating the cylinder... before the cylinder rotates 180° (i.e., before it is "upside down") you will often need to insert a pick all the way into the lock, in order to prevent the driver pins from pushing into the keyway. (This is of particular concern with a master-keyed cylinder: some of the master pins can be quite small, and can twist and jam if they are allowed to fall into the bottom of the keyway!)

thanks for the awsome warning bro! good thing to know 4 sure

[LeeNo]

I have found you can read and read, but the only way to get better is jump in and start picking.

Download db's beginner exercise is the Pick-Fu section and start with that.

Good luck!

I downloaded that last week
I do really well by studying things for a long time. When the studying finally makes its way into dreams then I will be able to do it in real life.

That is how I learned how to do backside airs on my half-pipe. I thought about it like crazy, read about it in Thrasher Magazine and experimented with it dreams and the next day I was blasting 3 feet high backside airs.

I also learned to make bank shots in billiards by doing this.

[Trip Doctor]

That is how I learned how to do backside airs on my half-pipe. I thought about it like crazy, read about it in Thrasher Magazine and experimented with it dreams and the next day I was blasting 3 feet high backside airs.

Vert skater eh?

[LeeNo]

That is how I learned how to do backside airs on my half-pipe. I thought about it like crazy, read about it in Thrasher Magazine and experimented with it dreams and the next day I was blasting 3 feet high backside airs.

Vert skater eh?

Yep - pools, half-pipes, drainage ditches, loading docks, etc.
San Jose, CA.

I wouldn't try it now on a million dollar dare though Too much weight put on since leaving the Army

[MBI]

I really have to second vrocco's advice to follow the Beginner's Lockpicking Exercise.
http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?t=10677

Maybe I'm just a clod but despite LOTS of reading and practice, I had very little success picking locks back when I was first learning. I mean, I did occasionally manage to open a lock by raking it, but those were pretty much just lucky accidents. It wasn't until I took apart a lock that I made any real progress.

Even back then I had read many times that a good way to learn lockpicking is to take apart a lock and put it back together with only one pin and practice picking it, then move up to two pins, and so on. To be honest though, I was just a kid and I had been intimidated at the idea of taking one apart and dealing with all those tiny parts. I had great fear of losing a piece or not being able to put it back together and getting in BIG trouble with mom & dad.

Once I finally bit the bullet though, and took apart a lock and went though the practice drills adding one pin at a time, I was up to picking a 5 pin lock by the end of one evening. I wasn't lightning fast and didn't get it every time, but I was doing it.

[josh0094]

That is how I learned how to do backside airs on my half-pipe. I thought about it like crazy, read about it in Thrasher Magazine and experimented with it dreams and the next day I was blasting 3 feet high backside airs.

I wouldn't try it now on a million dollar dare though Too much weight put on since leaving the Army

army *hooah* i wanna be airforce somday. im not a skate boarder but i get what you mean im a urban freerider (bmx on a mountain bike) and thats pretty much how it goes with all of us.

sry for the offtopic post.

[NKT]

josh, you really are getting to be a bit of a spammer on the boards.

Kindly keep it on topic and useful!

[josh0094]

josh, you really are getting to be a bit of a spammer on the boards.

Kindly keep it on topic and useful!

i think it is rude not to thank sombody for serving, it is a incredible commitment! and i was simply replying to what he had said before, thats it... not spam...

[NKT]

Then send him a PM.

This is, after all, a lockpicking forum with thousands of posts a day. If you want to thank him for serving, send a PM. If you want to thank him for serving AND come back on topic and talk about the lock questions he has asked, then that is different.