Chubb 1k150wr padlock woes

[Olson Burry]

A few weeks ago I decided to embark on a new challenge as I'm finding my current lock collection a little too easy to open.

I hope this doesn't turn in to a rant - I just feel like expounding on my difficulties if anyone cares

I bought a lock similar to this one from a local shop because it was quite expensive and just look at the shiny shiny:

It is a marine grade (salt water tested) padlock. This particular model has steel pins to withstand the salt weathering - apparently. (unlike the one in the link)



I like shiny things





Its got a pretty knarly key way:


And the bitting on the key is pretty horrendous in my opinion: (bad pics alert) the first and last pins need to be lifted virtually all the way up and the 3 middle ones are quite low.





Can i pick it? Noooooooo I watched Jaws 1 & 2 yesterday whilst playing with this thing and have spent many hours trying over the last 3 weeks. Put simply - the furthest I get with it, is a good 2 degree turn of the plug after picking pins 2 & 3, then I can get the rest of the pins feeling set. When i shake it I can hear the bottom pins rattle and can just feel them as I glide the pick in and out so i don't think they're false set high.

Clearly there is a false set somewhere but I just cannot crack it, even with the key in front of me trying to replicate the bitting!

I've also been thinking because it had been salt water tested it may have a higher tolerance built in to account for salt residue build up in there - therefore accounting for a large plug movement after pins 2 & 3 are moved up.. just a theory and certainly not one I can prove as it still remains unpicked.

I will keep trying, of course. It feels strange not to be able to get it open after so much time thats all - will try during Jaws 3 & 4 tonight - bad taste, no life, I know.

If it does have steel pins - how would that affect the elastic deformation? my guess is it would need more tension to produce effective results, which I'm reticent to apply because I favour a lighter touch.

If i dont get this thing open in the next month I'm going to cut it up (I have no need for padlocks other than picking). Should be noisy and interesting, not to mention expensive - it cost me £13.

Happy daze - keep on pickin'

OB

[Engineer]

The Steel pins should affect the picking, remember you are pushing against the resistance of the springs, so the metal of the pins shouldn't affect the "feel" of the lock very much.

That's a pig of a keyway alright. For some reason over here in Europe, highly-obstructed keyways have been common for devades, but not in the US apparently, where they are still relatively new. Always struck me as odd that a big company would issue such different locks for different countries.