What did you pick today?

[knowspicker537]

BEST 6pin tension was hard to dial in but this one felt good

[sheerluck]

A Master safety lockout padlock. Six pins! My first six pinner!

By the way, what's the logic here? Six pins including some spools, paracentric keyway (albeit a wide comfy one), ball bearings... in a plastic body. Wut?!

Is there electrical code or liability stuff behind this, or something?

[teamstarlet]

A Master safety lockout padlock. Six pins! My first six pinner!

By the way, what's the logic here? Six pins including some spools, paracentric keyway (albeit a wide comfy one), ball bearings... in a plastic body. Wut?!

Is there electrical code or liability stuff behind this, or something?

I wondered this once too but I can't seem to find the info I found. I know that it makes them lighter so that you can carry a stack of them. Possibly also easier to smash open in an emergency?

I do know that they are primary used for indicated something it locked out and preventing normal operation, as opposed to ensuring that no one ever can get it open.

[GWiens2001]

They want it to be very obvious if someone is trying to use the equipment that is secured. Force it. And the lock body breaks.

It is not intended to be a serious deterrent, just something that says "leave this alone, it is not safe to use". Also, the keyway is somewhat complex by Master lock standards, and they try to restrict who can get the blanks. That way, people don't go down to the hardware store and get the key copied.

Gordon

[jeffmoss26]

plastic body = nonconductive.

[Jacob Morgan]

These locks are issued by the handful to industrial electricians and mechanics. They use them when shutting down equipment to work on it. Each electrical disconnect, valve, etc., is deactivated and every worker puts on a lock. The idea is that every single worker has to confirm, buy using their personal key(s) that the are out of harms way when the machine is restarted. Thirteen years ago the day before I started work at a plant there some work going on there and a valve was supposed to be shut but it was not. A contractor was drilling a hole in a pipe on the other side of the valve and when the drill bit broke through he was sprayed with kerosene that was in that pipe and he then caught on fire and he died in the medivac helicopter. The procedure should have included locking out that valve and draining the line. If he had a padlock on that valve he would still be alive. In that case it was a failure of the company to establish complete procedures, it was not due to the failure of a lock, but it illustrates how important the locks are.

The problem used to be that the safety department would pass out a box full of normal pad locks, and then half of them would be gone a month later. They walk out the door and end up on lockers, tool boxes, storage units, etc. The reason for the cheap plastic case is to reduce the temptation to take some home. No reason to put it on a storage unit if a kid with a rock can bust it open in ten seconds. It keeps the locks in the plant, and it keeps them off of tool boxes and lockers as the bright red case stands out.

I think the reason for the six pins and better than usual quality for a Master Lock is that during a major outage between plant maintenance and outside contractors there could be hundreds of locks in use, maybe pushing a thousand. The probability of cross-keying would be high with typical 4-pin padlocks and again, if people are taking off locks at the end of a project the possibility of accidentally taking off someone else's' lock could end tragically.

[sheerluck]

Jacob: thanks for the thorough explanation! Plastic body to keep them from being re-appropriated definitely makes sense.

[sheerluck]

Got my first two opens on this Abus 55/40. Now for the third so I know it wasn't sheer luck...

[Protec2]

Got my first two opens on this Abus 55/40. Now for the third so I know it wasn't sheer luck...

Got some highs hidden behind the front low, that's good stuff.

[GWiens2001]

Two screw locks



Gordon

[Thanshin]

This has just become my Moby Dick. Finally beaten after an epic 1h20 battle while watching "In the Heart of the Sea".

[Squelchtone]

This has just become my Moby Dick. Finally beaten after an epic 1h20 battle while watching "In the Heart of the Sea".

Good job Thanshin! I'm glad you were able to get some locks to practice on and it seems you're already busy opening them!

Which type of pick did you use? and raking or Single Pin Picking?

Squelchtone

[Jacob Morgan]

Found this lock in a box in the garage the other day, I think it came off a (non-USPS) mailbox from an apartment building years ago. The key-way was a little tough to get a pick into and the pins did not start for a good distance from the face of the plug, ended up using a long skinny pick I had made from a bandsaw blade.

[Thanshin]

Good job Thanshin! I'm glad you were able to get some locks to practice on and it seems you're already busy opening them!

Which type of pick did you use? and raking or Single Pin Picking?

I used a tiny flag (rightmost in this set) to set the pins from the outer side instead of the center. So, tension on far right, pick on far left.

I've already opened 10/33 locks in the first lot. soon after opening them all I'll have to find a way of trading them while I buy more.

[FoxMacLeod2501]

Yesssss!

If you don't know what this is, they stopped calling it "MX8" pretty quickly, and now it is known as "Cormax."

Now to find that pesky control line...

P. S.: I'm posting from my phone, so I honestly have no idea if this image is too big. Let me know if it is. Happy picking!