Ah, I see now why you warned me.

[nativeofsandiego]

Well, I see now why I was advised not to practice on the locks I rely on.

I live in an apartment complex, so naturally I decided my first lock to pick was to do the patio door. None of our keys work in it anyway. Picked it a few times, no problem. So then I thought, hmmm the front door. So took me a few minutes but finally got it and then reset it and "what is that little piece of metal doing in there?" Well its a Master Keyed lock, and apparently part of the pin fell down in the key chamber. Luckily I knew which pin it was and super glued some plastic onto my key to get that certain pin at the same height to turn the lock.

No worries though, as the apartment attendant just came and replaced it. They didn't seem to care much, or ask any questions. Your lock is broken? Okay we will fix it. No problems, but I learned a lesson that you guys tryed to warn me about. Thanks for the attempt at warning me anyway...

My new project is to build my own stand to mount locks on and practice that way. I just can't see me paying over 100 dollars for one of those things...

[TMIB]

My new project is to build my own stand to mount locks on and practice that way. I just can't see me paying over 100 dollars for one of those things...

Yeah, don't. A couple hunks of 2x4, screws, a hole saw set & drill will be enough: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=40297

[op-sec]

Some of us just seem to have to learn the hard way.

I killed the deadbolt lock on my garage door (side door to enter the garage) back at the beginning of the year.

I was picking the lock and the plug rotated. Problem was... the key pin, driver pin and part of one of the springs was in the plug on one of the pin positions. I now know why Medeco uses different sizes of driver pins to assure that all pin-stacks are the same height - no matter the size of the key pin. (At least ONE of the reasons)

Anyway, back to me breaking that lock - when the plug rotated, the spring got caught between the plug and the cylinder. Suddenly, the thing turned VERY hard. I eventually figured out what happened but, it was too late. This problem wouldn't happen with a key - ANY key inserted in the lock as they would have driven the driver pin back up into the bible. I'm glad it wasn't an important lock.

Oh - I never had a key to the lock to begin with so, no real loss. The lock was never really "in use" other than to be a filler for the hole in the door. It still works for that.

[Squelchtone]

My new project is to build my own stand to mount locks on and practice that way. I just can't see me paying over 100 dollars for one of those things...

Yeah, don't. A couple hunks of 2x4, screws, a hole saw set & drill will be enough: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=40297

meh.. Get some red oak from home depot for $16, a can of stain for $6 and some sanding and routering the edges..

and you get this for your lockpicking practice:



that board with its Medeco cylinders found a good home in Germany. Perhaps I'll build more soon if there is a demand.
Squelchtone

p.s. the view from the back: http://nynex.s5.com/ebay/medeco-board-1/Medeco-board-done-back-sm.jpg

[MacGnG1]

oooh squelchy thats sexy!

[datagram]

If there was ever a good place to start the DON'T PICK LOCKS YOU RELY ON sticky, this is it

dg

[nativeofsandiego]

Man that thing looks great. Gonna have to get me one of those...

[ridinplugspinnaz]

Wow squelchtone, that thing is a beauty. Would a board like that work for mounting different makes of cylinders, or just the Medeco ones like in that instance? I smell a howto in the making...

[Safety0ff]

If there was ever a good place to start the DON'T PICK LOCKS YOU RELY ON sticky, this is it

If you look through lp101 there's tons of posts like this one, heck, maybe someone should condense all of them into one document or something.

Wow squelchtone, that thing is a beauty. Would a board like that work for mounting different makes of cylinders, or just the Medeco ones like in that instance? I smell a howto in the making...

Different makes yes, different types (depends on how you make the mounting points.) The board shown is specificaly for mortise cylinders (screw in).

There's threads that contain information on how to make a similar boards. What makes this one stand out so much is the type of wood, and the attention to detail for the finish ( he sanded and applied a healthy polyurethane finish on it IIRC.)

[nativeofsandiego]

Are the master keyed style locks more proned to breakage?

[ridinplugspinnaz]

Are the master keyed style locks more proned to breakage?

Yes, and for exactly the reason you talked about in your first post -- it's very easy to lose some of the mastering wafers out of that type of lock. Conversely though, the added wafers also make the lock somewhat less secure, as they increase the possible number of shear lines available to anyone picking the cylinder.

[op-sec]

That is the best looking pick board I've ever seen! Very well done!

I can afford the wood... 6 screw-in biaxials on the other hand... That gets a bit more expensive.

[n2oah]

Are the master keyed style locks more proned to breakage?

Yes, and for exactly the reason you talked about in your first post -- it's very easy to lose some of the mastering wafers out of that type of lock. Conversely though, the added wafers also make the lock somewhat less secure, as they increase the possible number of shear lines available to anyone picking the cylinder.

A lock that is masterkeyed correctly will usually not fail in the way that is described in this thread. However, some people don't know any better and they throw the thinnest master wafers possible in the lock. This leads to the failure of the lock.

Hey squelchtone, how are those locks held in the wood? Are they screwed into the wood or do they have a nut on the back that is holding them in?

[ridinplugspinnaz]

Are the master keyed style locks more proned to breakage?

Yes, and for exactly the reason you talked about in your first post -- it's very easy to lose some of the mastering wafers out of that type of lock. Conversely though, the added wafers also make the lock somewhat less secure, as they increase the possible number of shear lines available to anyone picking the cylinder.

A lock that is masterkeyed correctly will usually not fail in the way that is described in this thread. However, some people don't know any better and they throw the thinnest master wafers possible in the lock. This leads to the failure of the lock.

I beg to differ. Define "masterkeyed correctly"? If the lock is part of a large system containing several submaster levels, there comes a point where it's likely rather difficult to avoid putting in a smaller pin in at least one pin stack, while still maintaining a low number of phantom differs. At least in my experience, I have seen exactly this scenario happen with locks that are mastered to 3-4 different levels of access. At some point, a 10-position bitting just isn't enough to sufficiently separate some master systems without creating large swaths of phantom keys unless you resort to smaller master wafers in certain pin stacks.

[Squelchtone]

Hey squelchtone, how are those locks held in the wood? Are they screwed into the wood or do they have a nut on the back that is holding them in?

I'll be putting up a how to make your own board sometime soon, but here is a pic that should answer your question.



Squelchtone