Starting to mess with spools

[craptaincash]

I have the Sparrows cutaway lock along with their reload set, and I've thrown 2 spools in the mix at pin 1 and 3. On my particular cutaway lock, pin stack 3 tends to bind early on, and pin stack 1 tends to bind last. I'm fairly consistently getting a false set on pin one when all other four pins are set, which is to be expected.

I find I can either release a little tension (and lose some of the other set pins, which I then go re-pick and it's open), or I can "force" the first pin up just a smidge and the lock pops open. What I'm not feeling is the counter-rotation that I'd expect. When I release a little tension, pin 5 unsets before pin 1 moves even a tiny bit.

Any tips from the wizards out there?

[Squelchtone]

Hi and welcome to the forum,

Cutaway locks and clear locks will have a different feel to them, so don't expect to suddenly get counter rotation on yours. if it isnt happening already, then it's most likely not going to on that specific lock.

Clear and cutaway locks are great for "getting" how a lock works, but for practice, and especially practice with spool pins, I'd recommend practicing on a non cutway lock, and I dont mean transparent acrylic either. a real metal lock cylinder.

Happy picking,
Squelchtone

[AngryHatter]

The Sparrows cutaway locks are solid metal locks with a window cut in one side to allow you to view the driver pins.

I have a couple.

One of them has regular pins the other has the chess set. The chess pins don't act similar to regular pins in that you don't get as much feedback from them.
But the one with regular drivers does it all. False sets as they bind. You can over set two of the stacks easily and you get counter rotation that is easily felt.

What I have noticed is the locks have no threading inside so spools or serrated pins have less to grab. And the channels cut for viewing the stacks vary quite a lot. They can be rough.

What type of wrench are you using?

[craptaincash]

I have a handful of tension tools that I swap between; I started with the Spirit set from Sparrows which comes with a good selection, then added their flat bar set, so sometimes I'll go with one with a twist, sometimes I'll use a z-shaped one, and sometimes a flat bar for TOK work.

I've just loaded the cutaway with a combo of spools, mushrooms, and serrated pins (5 pins total at the moment) and I've found that I may have been a little too light on the tension to notice the counter-rotation. The tricky parts seem to be

A) noticing that a pin is false set when the key pin moves up and down without resistance -- it feels like a real set
B) increasing the tension enough and forcing the pin in question enough to get counterrotation without overdoing it
C) backing off the tension JUST enough to let that specific pin "pop"
D) going back and repicking the pin stacks that unset when I backed off tension.

I'm not sure I'm doing myself a massive favor with this particular combo of security pins because it's so likely to have something unset when I back off tension enough to let pin stack 1 (a spool) set for real. At least it's challenging.

It's even hard to pick when WATCHING the pin stacks, but I've been able to open it a handful of times without looking at as well. Fun times.

[AngryHatter]

I was going to suggest ToK, which I find you can apply more tension.

[AngryHatter]

I have a handful of tension tools that I swap between; I started with the Spirit set from Sparrows which comes with a good selection, then added their flat bar set, so sometimes I'll go with one with a twist, sometimes I'll use a z-shaped one, and sometimes a flat bar for TOK work.

I've just loaded the cutaway with a combo of spools, mushrooms, and serrated pins (5 pins total at the moment) and I've found that I may have been a little too light on the tension to notice the counter-rotation. The tricky parts seem to be

A) noticing that a pin is false set when the key pin moves up and down without resistance -- it feels like a real set
B) increasing the tension enough and forcing the pin in question enough to get counterrotation without overdoing it
C) backing off the tension JUST enough to let that specific pin "pop"
D) going back and repicking the pin stacks that unset when I backed off tension.

I'm not sure I'm doing myself a massive favor with this particular combo of security pins because it's so likely to have something unset when I back off tension enough to let pin stack 1 (a spool) set for real. At least it's challenging.

It's even hard to pick when WATCHING the pin stacks, but I've been able to open it a handful of times without looking at as well. Fun times.

What you're describing is more like over set than a false set. When you over set a stack the key pin is also at the sheer line so you have to drop it back down to continue.
A false set is when the wrench is moving but you have not yet opened the lock - as you bind each stack it is technically another false set until the wrench turns completely.

[AngryHatter]

One of the best things about the cutaways is that you can see an overset condition and learn how much tension to let off to release the overset stack without dropping all the stacks.