security pin?

[me2cyclops]

I am working with a lock originaly installed in an exit alarm,
there is no manufacture name only a "j56" stamped on the side.

I have picked this lock many times it is a 5 pin
it binds in order 4,5,3,2,1 but will not open at that I've found by playing with it if I release tension slightly the #3 pin will drop back down and lifting it again slighly will open the lock.
I have repeated this order several times and it's always the same.

is this a sign of a type of spool or mushroom?
I haven't pulled the plug to look becouse I'm unsure of my ability to reassemble it into a functioning lock again

[Shrub]

Yes if the plug turns and can be felt like its setting when you set that pin.

Sounds like youve got a good grasp of it

[Dent]

actually no... that sounds like a serrated and not spool.


With spool, when you push on that pin after you think its set, the plug should turn backwards..

Also spools dont usually have the quality of falling back down with light tension, usually another pin would fall first....

Though with serrated you would get the false set, yet it would still fall with light enough tension before the others.

I could be wrong, but that has been my experiance with spools...

[me2cyclops]

cool thanks
I really wasn't expecting anything like that in a lock facing Inside a building
not really a high security type device


......back to pushing pins

[SFGOON]

Security pins aren't much more expensive than the regular kind, it's stupid not to randonly throw them into a lock. I wonder why they're not all like that.

[digital_blue]

If I may jump in... it actually doesn't sound like a security pin to me at all. Sounds more like you're oversetting the pin in the course of picking, then correcting the problem.

I have a cheap laminated padlock (might be master... don't remember atm) that I worked on in the very early days of my practice that was *exactly* as you described. I eventually learned to do just what you've done, and it worked every time. There are no security pins in this lock of mine. It is simply that I consistently overset a deep cut pin and had to "reverse pick" the pin (so to speak) to correct the problem. To this day, every time I pick up the lock, I repeat this process because I know it works and requires much less attention that to try and avoid oversetting the pin in the first place.

Hope this helps! Happy reverse picking!

db