Schlage Door Lock

[gr00ve]

Hey guys, I'm at my home. Like my house house, not school. And I have an unused door lock with Schlage written on the side. Its a 5 pin lock and I'm having a lot of trouble getting it to open in one direction. I picked it twice to the left which locks the door, so I'll assume turning right opens. Now my problem is the ward (the shape of the keyhole, correct term?) Its shaped like an S or backwards Z. The problem is when I try to apply tension, my tension wrench moves or gets jammed in a weird position and I don't think its applying force because I NEVER hear pins resetting when I release. Any info on this lock? Or helpful hints! Its giving me a lot of trouble anyway I try to pick it, I have no clue which pins are setting, I'm just getting lucky I think

[LockDFTR]

Have you tried a different wrench, or a smaller one that fits in the top of the keyway? I can't say I've run into a problem tensioning on that schlage keyway. Are you having trouble getting the pick into the lock when you are applying tension to the right?

As far as the binding order....

with the tiny little discrepancies in machining the chambers on the plug, that is what makes picking the lock possible. So, if you have a good idea of what pin stack binds first when turning left, then it would make sense that it would be the last one to bind in the reverse direction, and so on. There is always the possibility that a lock has some variables, that will bungle the reverse order every now and then. But pay close attention when picking it to the direction you have been successful so far. Then apply what you've learned in the other direction.

[Dak]

I have similar problems with some locks using even my smallest tension wrench. I found the solution though and that solution is quite simply light tension. But here is a poorly made diagram to demonstrate what im talking about.


This is what you would normaly do (or at least I do)



Here is what you need to do.



I could be horribly horribly wrong, but this is what I do =/
Hope this helps

[gr00ve]

this is what my lock looks like ( i know this is a BAD pic lol )



when i put my TW into the red circled area, i cant get it in a good position, same with the top left portion. sometimes i can get it to hold on the left side but it slips sometimes because il push it down with my pick by accident.

yes i only have trouble doing it to the right, the left fits fine.

[Dak]

mmmm I would try a larger tension wrench actually and just cram it into the top and try that. Bad for the wrench and probably bad for the lock, but thats all I can think of. Sorry bro.

[gr00ve]

my bad, that picture wasnt accurate, heres another.





in the first picture, if i put the tension wrench on the right side of the keyhold pushing downwards, it slips into the bottom area and gets no tension

[gr00ve]

im sorry also in the first picture, that little red arrow shows where the TW goes when i apply force, once its up there its in the way of picking

[khelben]

insert the tw on the right side . and use a slightly larger tw to bind the slug

[gr00ve]

yea it definitely doesnt work on the right side, it gets in the weirdest spot and doesnt put tension. so its gotta be on the left

[Arcturus]

yea it definitely doesnt work on the right side, it gets in the weirdest spot and doesnt put tension. so its gotta be on the left

It sounds like you're picking a Schlage C keyway. I pick these with a 1/8" turning tool with the handle pointing to the right. How wide is the blade of your turning tool? Anything less than 1/8" is probably to small for that particular keyway.

Can you clarify what you mean by "weirdest spot"? Could you draw what happens when you insert the turning tool so the handle is pointing to the right?

[Trip Doctor]

What's happening is all your tension (because the position that the wrench locks into) is applied to the wall of the cylinder, rather than the plug. I had the saxct same thing happen when I tried my first Schalge. You can experiement with either getting/making wrenches of different sizes, or you can stick the wrench into the top of the keyway.

[datagram]

Tensioning on top of the Schlage keyway(s) really is the way to go. You'll get alot more room to work with picks, and you'll be getting guaranteed tension, not having to worry about slipping or poor tensioning from the bottom.

dg

[gr00ve]

ok thanks for the advice.

answering a previous question: my TW gets stuck at the bottom, standing nearly vertical jammed in between that notch on the left side and the bottom, pins dont set at all when its like that.

[op-sec]

Congratulations. You're about to increase your tension wrench inventory! Seriously... You've found a lock that doesn't like your tension wrench when picking clockwise. We've all run into this. You've gotten some very good advise thus far but one thing seems to be missing... Both from the advise and from your tool inventory.

Get yourself a plug spinner. You'll find that there are times where you are restrained from picking in the "correct" direction (I didn't want use the word right) because of space, tension issues, etc. That doesn't matter though. As long as you can pick the lock in one direction - with a plug spinner - you're all set.

Pick the lock in the direction you're able to pick in. Insert the plug spinner charged up to spin the plug in the direction you NEED the plug to rotate and let it fly. The plug will rotate past the sheer line too fast for the pins to engage and <poof!> you've now got the lock picked in the direction you wanted in the first place.

[gr00ve]

ahh ok, il see if i can get one of those