Yes, anothrer newbie.

[Nightrat]

So, first of. Since this week i am new to lockpicking. I read much and saw numerous videos. But, as you can guess...

FAIL.

Yesterday i started serious with a (cheap) work-it padlock. I actually managed to open it twice (two different, 3 in box). Wow, i thought. Its working. But now today. I can pick what i want, read the whole internet again. BUT NOT 1 fn single time i get to open a lock. And what pisses me of the most is im seeing guys on youtube do it in less then 10 seconds. This makes me (exagerated ok) feel like a complete moron and is making me start thinking of stabbing myself with the pliers i cut the paperclips and what not with. This is some vent, but i could really use some powerfull trail and error mistakes. Im using folded paperclip for wrench and a iron ringy (key holder bend straight) for picking.

Problems;

I dont know when the pin is set. I try to do 1 at a time. Rattling doesnt work at all. I start from the back and then push a pin down. Then many times it doesnt come up again. But the the front allways keeps comin up. Then i feel like i got somethin, but never the front (1 or 2). You should here a rattle i read in the guide. But i i allways here a rattle. Set pins or not.

Im really frustrated that i managed to open it yesterday and now im busy all day and not opening it 1 time. Please take away my frusti. Tx

[Squelchtone]

So, first of. Since this week i am new to lockpicking. I read much and saw numerous videos. But, as you can guess...

FAIL.

Yesterday i started serious with a (cheap) work-it padlock. I actually managed to open it twice (two different, 3 in box). Wow, i thought. Its working. But now today. I can pick what i want, read the whole internet again. BUT NOT 1 fn single time i get to open a lock. And what pisses me of the most is im seeing guys on youtube do it in less then 10 seconds. This makes me (exagerated ok) feel like a complete moron and is making me start thinking of stabbing myself with the pliers i cut the paperclips and what not with. This is some vent, but i could really use some powerfull trail and error mistakes. Im using folded paperclip for wrench and a iron ringy (key holder bend straight) for picking.

Problems;

I dont know when the pin is set. I try to do 1 at a time. Rattling doesnt work at all. I start from the back and then push a pin down. Then many times it doesnt come up again. But the the front allways keeps comin up. Then i feel like i got somethin, but never the front (1 or 2). You should here a rattle i read in the guide. But i i allways here a rattle. Set pins or not.

Im really frustrated that i managed to open it yesterday and now im busy all day and not opening it 1 time. Please take away my frusti. Tx

throw away those junk tools and spend $20 on a real pick set. Even a $5.95 pick set from DealExtreme.com is better than what your using, and you'll never learn real form or feedback with paperclips. The time you opened it.. that was luck. Also, forget the total no name brand locks you buy at CVS or the grovery store. Go to Home Depot and get a blue Master Lock No.3 padlock, the lamintated kind and start there.

Squelchtone

[Nightrat]

Thought about buying some better stuff. But i dont have a credit card and other stuff is pretty expensive. Why is it that on youtube guys CAN pick locks with my tools in 10 seconds or less?

[Squelchtone]

Thought about buying some better stuff. But i dont have a credit card and other stuff is pretty expensive. Why is it that on youtube guys CAN pick locks with my tools in 10 seconds or less?

Every lock is different, their pins might be a different combination, they've learned the pins inside the lock so they know ho to rock the paperclip in and out or up and down and impress all their youtube buddies by popping locks open in 10 seconds, but I bet you if I were to mail them another padlock just like theirs, they probably wouldn't be opening it in 10 seconds, at least not until they learned the combination of pins by doing lots of repetitive practice.

Don't feel discouraged, try another lock, sometimes I'll pick up a Master padlock and I cant pick it, but I'll pick it up tomorrow and it pops open in 5 seconds. locks are funny like that.

keep at it,
Squelchtone

[Nightrat]

the combination of pins sounds interesting. I read somethin about that, but dont quite understand. Somethin with the most or less bind (what exactly does that mean? im from netherlands, so dont allways exactly know what the words mean). But what is exactly the best pin to begin with? I remember yesterday i pushed 1 pin and then in no time it opened like itself. I beleive i put quite some pressure with the wrench and had a great feel like "ok, now im gonna open this sucka" and it did. Not anymore lol.

I also have no clue whatsoever when a pin is set. Somtetimes im like "ok, they are all set" except the front 1 and if i push that 1 nothin happens lol.

[EmCee]

It sounds as though you are using too much tension 'force' and are setting the pins in the wrong order. If the back pin 'stays down' but then the other pins just spring back, it means the back pin is not the first one to set. Read the help files on this site to be sure you understand how a lock works so that you know what you are doing. Lockpicking is all about being able to picture in your mind what is happening in the lock (since you can't see inside it) and what you are trying to achieve.

There is no magic order in which pins are set - you don't just start with pin 1 or with pin 4 and press them in sequence. There will be a specific order to set the pins in a particular lock, but you won't know that order until you've played with that lock and learnt the order. And the order in which the pins set in that lock (for example, 3,2,1,4 for a four pin lock) is very unlikely to be the order in which pins on a another lock will set, even if the other lock is exactly the same type.

You need light tension and it is difficult to explain how light 'light' is.

Start with no tension at all - don't put the tension wrench in the lock. Just use the pick (and do buy or make a 'proper' pick rather than using a paper clip, as Squelchtone said) and feel all the pins from front to back or back to front. Press each one gently with the end of the pick so you know how they feel - how 'springy' they are - when there is no tension.

Then put the tension wrench in the keyway and use just enough pressure to stop the wrench from slipping out of the keyway - that means just very lightly resting your finger on it, not pushing it at all. Try all the pins again and see if any of them feel a bit different to the others - a bit more resistance when you push it. If they all feel the same as before, put a LITTLE bit more pressure on the tension wrench and feel all the pins again.

At some point you should feel one pin has a bit more resistance (that is what 'binding' means). Push that up until it 'clicks'. Don't change the tension. Once it's clicked, feel all the other pins. If none of them has any resistance, use a bit more pressure on the wrench until the next pin 'binds'...and so on.

To explain 'binding' is difficult. Imagine you have two cardboard tubes, like the inside of a toilet roll. Put them on a table with the length running left to right. Place them end to end but with a gap of 50mm between the ends. Now put a pencil inside so that one end of the pencil is in one tube and the other end is in the other tube. Now keep the tubes straight and 50mm apart but slide one of them up or down on the table. You would see the pencil start to 'angle' between them and at some point the ends of the pencil will jam against the sides of the tubes and you won't be able to move the tube any more, without turning or breaking it. That could be said to have reached 'binding' point.

Now imagine the same thing, but cut the pencil in half. Push it so that one half is between the two tubes. Move one of the tubes again, and at some point the pencil will 'bind' again. Now imagine that you push the pencil until the gap between the two halves matches the gap between the two rolls. Now you can move the roll up or down without the pencil 'binding'. That is what is happening in the lock.

Good luck.

Cheers...

[Nightrat]

Tx, i hope this helps. At least i understand better now. U say no magic order, but still there is a order... thats magic enough for me. i will also tell the reason why i want to pick (padlocks) and its probably illegal. Im not a burglar at all, but recently they locked the local store dumpster, lol. Allways free, good food there. Not even dated. Ill think twice before opening that dumpster lockpicking, but if i can i will probably do that once in a while. Im not a penny licker or somethin, but i train a lot, so i want much free time as possible to get better. Im really upset they locked it. It saves me at least $2000 a year. Plus its plain fun to get free groceries out of a dumpster.

[Squelchtone]

Tx, i hope this helps. At least i understand better now. U say no magic order, but still there is a order... thats magic enough for me. i will also tell the reason why i want to pick (padlocks) and its probably illegal. Im not a burglar at all, but recently they locked the local store dumpster, lol. Allways free, good food there. Not even dated. Ill think twice before opening that dumpster lockpicking, but if i can i will probably do that once in a while. Im not a penny licker or somethin, but i train a lot, so i want much free time as possible to get better. Im really upset they locked it. It saves me at least $2000 a year. Plus its plain fun to get free groceries out of a dumpster.

I'm all for dumpster diving at the phone company at 3 in the morning for equipment and stuff, but diving for food is where any reasonable person should draw the line.

If you can afford high speed internet to be on this forum, you can afford to go buy groceries like everyone else. I'm afraid you wont find many friends here who will help you break into a locked dumpster to get product.

Hope your socioeconomic situation improves...
Squelchtone

[Nightrat]

well, its just food wich is out of the fridge in the store and then dumped the same night. And bread doesnt need to be cooled. Its like at 20:00 its in store and 20:30 its in the dump. Nothing wrong with it. Never got sick. Even eat more healthy.

[Nightrat]

I can afford to buy. BUt when i see what is wasted. Im like "whut?" Its like an offer altar or somethin. I cant not take it if u know what is thrown away. Its like against my ehtical perceptions. I also give away what is to much to eat. And their happy with it.

[Squelchtone]

I can afford to buy. BUt when i see what is wasted. Im like "whut?" Its like an offer altar or somethin. I cant not take it if u know what is thrown away. Its like against my ehtical perceptions. I also give away what is to much to eat. And their happy with it.

It might be better to approach the manager of the store or make a friend with a stock boy to have them leave it in a box on the dock or by the back door, no matter how you may want to justify it based on your personal beliefs, breaking into a dumpster by picking the padlock is illegal and that's not what this site is all about, we're not here to teach people how to do bad things.

I consider the topic closed,
Squelchtone

[EmCee]

Such scavenging or foraging for food is a growing trend (at least in the UK). It's done by homeless people and 'travellers' but also by those who protest the unnecessary waste of food. There's even a name for them...'Freegans'. They trawl bins of food shops and restaurants to find food that is perfectly good but which has been thrown out because it has passed the 'best before' date or is approaching its 'sell by' date.

That said, if the owner of something - whether a dumpster bin, the padlock on the cold food freezer, the front door of the store or the store manager's Ferrari - has a lock on it, then that locks means they don't want you to have entry and it would be illegal to gain entry without their permission. In the case of the food dumpster, I imagine that the store a) don't want any passing person to go onto their site at all hours picking through bins; b) don't want to clear up the mess when some of those who might forage leave all the stuff they don't want all around the bin rather than putting it back; c) don't want a health & safely lawsuit if someone rummaging through a bin slips and hurts themselves; and d) want to avoid any possibility of risk that food in the bin might be spoiled and make someone ill or kill them (a loaf of bread might be in the bin because it's passed its 'use by' date and is a bit stale - or it might be in the bin because there was an accident and chicken blood leaked into it and might have infected it with salmonella).

Academic anyway. You don't own the lock and you don't have the owner's permission. You don't break into people's property in order to 'practice your skills'. If you get caught, you get arrested. Don't do it.

Cheers...

[Nightrat]

I will doubt i actually break in to their dumpster lol. I allready found another place wich i believe is actually better. If they dont want me there (i kept it a bit of a secret, cause im a responsible/more "profi" person and my friends not so. So i go alone. i tell friends its from work) ill have to respect that. And that came in mind first when i saw the lock. But then came lockpicking in mind. I dont like to give up so easily you know. But its probably not worth it. Cause then i am indeed entering a criminal approach wich i dont want to be related to or to be such thing. I was just fn mad. You know how good it feels to find perfectly good food. And loads of it. Its great. About the salmonella or something. They all have different trash. But they seperate it (in bags) wich most of the time are closed. So you have bread bags, meat bags (yes still in wrappers and plastic), cake/pie bags, or just random food but allways (almost) intact. Except for fruit. But the shell itself protects enough mostly. And all kinds pineapple, melons, peaches, mango's. The best fruit for FREE. And you dont have to ripe m, cause their just perfect. LOL. I never bought these foods, cause i find it waste of money. For vitamins i bought banana's or oranges mostly wich is cheaper. With common sense u know whats good or not; smell good? Looks good? Tastes good? Its eatable. Its much about the "day fresh" products wich the store wants to have fresh every day or 3 days or somethin. And they dont sell everything. But they stay good at least 3 more days. And its not like they throw poison over it cause then u can actually sew m i believe.

With all the cons from the supermarket view: they are basicly all bs. Cause they have to obey the law and dont want anybody to touch that cause it can mean less money for m. Like anybody would sew their asses for food out of a dumpster. Like... no.

[Nightrat]

And about applying relations to the owner. Tought about it. But its not half the fun and its basicly begging wich i am against.

[camelgd]

Dear Mr. Nightrat,
When you feel like it is your choice to decide what is right and wrong, you forfeit your right to ask for information involving security as far as I'm concerned. No, I'm not a prude, but in order to have any place in the security industry, even as a hobbiest, a person must have a solid moral compass that is not swayed by emotional argument. If it is not your intention to follow the law, you may be taking your picking lessions from other cons in the graybar hotel. Please, don't go that route- it is a slippery slope that I have seen even seasoned locksmiths fall on.
camelgd