What did you pick today?

[Pickels]

Hi!

I've picked a Abus C83...or kind of...

I took a part, or gutted the lock, one side of the lock, and of course I screwed it up.

My thought was to make it a two pin lock and that was really not a problem but when I had put every thing together and I shoult try the lock, the lock worked fine, and when i should take the key out of the plug, the plug went out a bit and the security pins fell down in the wrong pin holes, and it was stucked.

Hadn't scecured the plug wiht a c-clip or something on the back of the lock.

Managed to get the plug out but a spring was damaged.
I think I can use the spring again, just cut of the damage part.



However, I put the lock together again with a serrated pin and a spool pin and picked it. One of the key pins was also serrated.

When I was picking that I learn alot of that with tension the lock and how it feels with serrated and spool pins, it was really educational.



You must have some patience with my English, really don't know all the technical terms yet and english isn't my native language.

Have a nice weekend

Regards from Sweden

[GWiens2001]

Jaguar 8 disc Tibbe lock, with my new toy.





Gordon

[petemoss]

Picked three more today.

A brass Wilson Bohemian.

A zinc, I think, Yale with no markings. This one was my first attempt at a wafer lock. It threw me off for a while, but I'm doing better with it now.

A Fulton trailer hitch lock.



-Petemoss

[femurat]

Congrats everyone for all the nice locks picked!

Pickels, we've all screwed a lock one time (two times, three times...). That's how we learn: by making mistakes.

Petemoss, I like you're labelling your locks. That's what a good lock collector does.

Cheers

[jeffmoss26]

[petemoss]

One more picked for today. It is a small brass Sargent lock.



-Petemoss

[GWiens2001]

zipping right along! Keep it up!

Gordon

[petemoss]

Thanks Gordon. Here are today's.

* A Yale & Townie 3209 (I think) small brass lock.
* A TB medium sized brass lock. This one can with a key blank. I'll have to try and learn something to do with that some time.



-Petemoss

[petemoss]

Two from yesterday:

* A small zinc Yale. I keep saying zinc. I actually have no idea if that is right or not.
* A medium brass Pioneer.



-Petemoss

[petemoss]

One from today. This one caused me some problems. I actually started working on it last night. I couldn't get any pins to bind or set. So I cleaned and lubed it. Still nothing. That is when it dawned on me that maybe this thing turns counter-clockwise. Tried it that direction. Bingo. Gettin some pin clicks.

So, now I'm getting some clicks, but I can't get into the thing. Over and over I try this thing, all the time getting cramps in my tensioning thumb. I have no idea how to tension this backwards spinning thing. I just know it hurts. So I give up for the night.

Today I start trying again. Same thing, I'm getting pins set but the thing never opens. After about 10 attempts I realize that I really did have the lock open, I just didn't push the wrench on around with my thumb to actually pop the shackle open. I'm a moron.



-Petemoss

[GWiens2001]

After about 10 attempts I realize that I really did have the lock open, I just didn't push the wrench on around with my thumb to actually pop the shackle open. I'm a moron.



-Petemoss

Have done that more times than I can count.

You are also learning some valuable lessons. Be sure of picking direction. Some only turn one direction, some turn the other direction, and some turn both directions.

When you start trying to make keys, flip your half diamond pick over to keep the straight side against the pins with the pick fully in the keyway. Press it against the pins until the pick is flat against the edge the pins come from and slowly pull it out. Listen to the clicks so you can get a count of how many pin stacks there are in the lock. Don’t assume you know the number of pins!

One time I was trying to impression a key for a Master lock with a Yale keyway. After hours of attempting and 15 or 20 ruined blanks when they did not work, I decided to pick it open and make a key from the disassembled lock. I used the flat edge of the pick to count the pins - uh oh! It was not a Y1 (5 pin) blank. It was a Y2 (6 pin) blank. OK, decided to try impressioning with the correct blank. Inked the edge of the blank, stuck it in the lock and tried to tension the key to get some marks and Click!!! The lock was zero bitted. (An uncut key blank will open the lock). All the hours and wasted blanks because I didn’t check how many pins were in the lock.

The same problem can occur when you are trying to pick the lock. And you might catch problems in the lock that would prevent the lock from being pickable. Stuck pins that won’t move and key pins that stick above the shear line are just two problems the upside down pick trick can help you out.

Start paying attention to what the pins are doing, keeping a mental picture of the state of the pins in the lock. You will find you can use security pins to actually make picking the lock easier because they tell you more about what the lock is doing.

Best of luck!

Gordon

[petemoss]

When you start trying to make keys, flip your half diamond pick over to keep the straight side against the pins with the pick fully in the keyway. Press it against the pins until the pick is flat against the edge the pins come from and slowly pull it out. Listen to the clicks so you can get a count of how many pin stacks there are in the lock. Don’t assume you know the number of pins!

Thanks Gordon. This is a great hint. I have already struggled with trying to figure out exactly what I have going on inside there. This should help a lot.

One time I was trying to impression a key for a Master lock with a Yale keyway. After hours of attempting and 15 or 20 ruined blanks when they did not work, I decided to pick it open and make a key from the disassembled lock. I used the flat edge of the pick to count the pins - uh oh! It was not a Y1 (5 pin) blank. It was a Y2 (6 pin) blank. OK, decided to try impressioning with the correct blank. Inked the edge of the blank, stuck it in the lock and tried to tension the key to get some marks and Click!!! The lock was zero bitted. (An uncut key blank will open the lock). All the hours and wasted blanks because I didn’t check how many pins were in the lock.

That sounds super frustrating, though I'm sure you just have to laugh in disgust when that zero bitted key worked. Hahaha.
I'm intrigued by the impressioning stuff, but I have not read much on it yet. I'm going to spend some time in the impressioning forum.

Thanks again,
Petemoss

[petemoss]

Here are a few more for the day.

The small ones were pretty easy. The bigger one was a wafer lock that threw me off for a bit.



-Petemoss

[petemoss]

Master 15. 5 pin lock gave me a lot of trouble. I was able to SPP it twice, but so far no luck on the third time. I was also totally unable to rake it open.

[petemoss]

There were a lot of warded locks in the package that I received. I decided to purchase the Sparrows warded key set. I was able to open the ones below without much trouble. There are a couple of others that I have not been able to open as yet. In fact one of them captured my key in such a way that I thought I was going to have to abandon the key. It took about 10 minutes to finally free it from the lock.