lukeman3000 wrote:I thought it might be profitable to be able to verify my feelings with a visual aid.. that way I could realize what I was feeling was correct much sooner than if I was just feeling around inside the lock blindly.
I found myself agreeing with ElAbogado a little, but what you say here is also true. It will speed up your learning, providing you don't spend too much time with the cutaway and end up relying on the visual aid. You should work with the cutaway until you can tell what's going on in there and pick it easily without looking... once you can do that, put it away and get some real locks. By all means keep the cutaway for demonstration purposes, as you never know when someone will want to learn from you, but once you're done with it you should leave it alone. They can definately develop bad habits.
As for buying one, you can tell if a lock is a cheap knockoff just by looking at it... if you want a Schlage or whatever brand you're aiming for, make sure it has the logo on it. Simple enough, but in all honesty as long as you get nice feedback from the lock and it operates smoothly, there isn't really any issue with it. It's a learning tool after all, so as long as it's not complete rubbish it'll serve its purpose. With regards to repinning, any rim cylinder is easy to repin, so you needn't worry about that.
Good luck, and keep us posted!
