The right amount of tension

[lifesbreath]

I would like your advice on the amount of tension. On a scale what would you pick.

1)A4 sheet of paper
2)1 cd or dvd
3)the keys the lock came with
4)or more

Any addons to this if needed.

Thanks

[freakparade3]

The old adage tought here is the weight of 2 buterflies.

[Afisch]

A member here surgested hanging a key from you wrench. It has to be right for each lock though, there is no once force fits all situation.

[StabbyJoe]

Different techniques require different amounts of tension... I'd suggest for SPP (although not entirely necessary) putting force on the wrench until you feel the pins stop it from rotating the plug, and no more. Weight of a feather.
If you can get good at that I hear it can make security pins a bit easier. Although, for getting better feedback, you'd want a bit more tension than that... the feather weight thing is just to get good at keeping that tension for security pins and so you can get used to picking with less feedback... Some locks don't give as much feedback or cannot be opened or are hard to open with high tension.

I'd say that if you held your arm up, placed one finger on the wrench and then completely relaxed the finger, that's a good tension.

[JackNco]

I have been told

" the amount pf presure to press downa key on a keyboard"

AND

"the amount of presure you use to take out contact lences"

I have also been told that a master locksmith is so well trained that he can pick up 2 identical zippos that he can tell you which one has petrol in it.


But whenit comes down ti it its experience. you get to know locks and judge how much tension they need. they are all good rules of thumb but an American 1105 will need way less tension than a Yale or a tricircle.

John

[Legion303]

The right amount of tension is the amount needed to open the lock. :P

-steve

[freakparade3]

I have also been told that a master locksmith is so well trained that he can pick up 2 identical zippos that he can tell you which one has petrol in it.

John

As someone who used Zippo lighters for almost 20 years when i was a smoker I can saw that is not a difficult task at all.

[JackNco]

well you are a locksmith

[freakparade3]

well you are a locksmith

Good point. I'm not even close to being the best picker here though. Mabye I was just really good with Lucky Strikes.

[JackNco]

fags?

[Jaakko]

fags?

Yes John, fags

[freakparade3]

Refering to cigarettes as fags never caught on in the US, but yes, you are correct.

[Archive555]

Wow, that really got off track quickly

[vmikulich]

In a class I took, the instructor stated that an average house lock like Schlage or Kwikset required approximately an 8 gram weight on the end of a 2.5 inch tension bar to open the lock. He stated the weight could vary as much as 3 grams in either direction, but found the 8 gram was the average on the 150 locks he tested. How scientific his tests were and what the conditions of the experiment were actually I do not know, but that is what he told us.

If anyone else has done an experiment with picking locks and actually attaching a weight to the tension bar can they chime in?

thanks,

[cryptocat]

a quarter and a house-key taped to the end of a wrench seems to offer just about enough torque for my practice cores. aside from that, i haven't got a set of precision weights to try precisely calibrating the required torque. you might get some useful results if you try putting a rubber band or a spring on the end, assuming you have a good estimate of their spring constant.