A noob and his Schlage: a comedy of errors

[theTastyCat]

Well, I can mow through an unspecified Master padlock in a few seconds, and most Kwiksets don't take me long now. However, I've never picked the Schlage deadbolt I bought at Lowe's last year.

Today, I took it apart, and I have redeemed at least a shred of my self-esteem.



FOUR of the five pins are spools! Heck of a first encounter with security pins. So I put just one back in to acquaint myself with one spool pin. Wow - not that easy. I'm getting better, but it's SO easy to push right past the shear line and overset the stack. Upon reassembly, I put the (part that includes the bible and that the cylinder fits inside) in backwards, and I think that caused the cylinder to bind funny as it spun. I may or may not have sorted that out correctly.

Also upon reassembly, I opted to leave out some parts which I assumed were extraneous - not so. That took a while.

Have you ever done this?



Yep, that's the cylinder stuck in the (whatever the other part is called) because my dumb self didn't finish putting the lock together before I played with it. Imagine my surprise when suddenly the driver pin fell out of the keyhole. Note to other noobs: when a vital part of the lock falls out through the keyhole, it's generally a pretty solid indication that something is amiss. Then the spring went into one of the holes, preventing the cylinder from moving or being removed. I had to poke at it for a while until I got the spring back up inside the bible and was able to remove the cylinder. Rinse, repeat - yep, I did the EXACT same thing again.

But that wasn't nearly as laughable as when I managed to do the same thing yet again, except that the spring got stuck inside one of the shallow holes just offset from vertical on the cylinder. There's no way to manipulate the spring there aside from taking apart the bible, so much to my chagrin, I finally just had to pull hard enough to break the spring. I figure in the time it takes for me to work up to a five-pin Schlage with four spools, I'll have another spring handy.

I continue to underestimate my ability to bugger things up the first time. But I do learn a lot! Such as: spool pins are hard. I want to use very light tension but it just won't do anything. Like all other things, practice makes perfect I'm sure.

Thanks for all the great advice and help on this forum, especially the noob walkthroughs. VERY helpful and appreciated.

Keep pickin'!

[edsmiley]

Wow, I have a Schlage that I cannot seem to pop either. Maybe I will open it up and see what I can find.

You are taking the right approach with putting only 1 spool back and trying to pick that way. Once you get the feel, you will have no problem.

This also shows others why you should never work on locks in use or that you depend on. Although it appears you are back on track now, others might not have been as lucky.

Keep at it!
Ed

[theTastyCat]

Thanks, Ed - just picked it a bit again.

I'm having a really weird issue with the cylinder sort of sticking/almost binding when I do finally pick it. I think this might be what Raimundo was warning against in another thread - perhaps the tension wrench is binding against the cylinder wall. OR, my cheap-@$$ plug follower comprised of a pen cap and electrical tape might have left sticky residue inside where the cylinder goes. The key works fine, though - scratching my head on this one.

The spool does seem much easier to pick from one direction, but it's still a bit too early to be sure.

Couldn't agree more about practicing on in-use locks - I wouldn't want to have to count on this Schlage until a locksmith looked over it!

[theTastyCat]

Well, I figured out what was causing the cylinder to "bind" - it was just what Raimundo clearly outlined in another thread. When I read it, I knew it had to be important, but didn't really understand it.

Turns out the tension wrench was getting hung on the outside wall of the cylinder, and it was dragging mightily. This seriously hampered my efforts to get the lock open. Using top tension with the back end of my tension wrenches which I've bent to be pretty short does MUCH better.

Now I've got two spools in the lock, and I'm learning slowly. The lock seems to pop open when I don't think I've even touched the second spool yet, and times when I do think I've set them both, nothing. Ah, the joy of learning. But it's really encouraging to be making progress. I'm also getting much better at disassembling the lock to add pins. The first time it was a grand production, but once you've got the right tools and know what to do, it's cake.

Out of curiosity, I tried the bobby-pin and paper clip handcuff picks that are so rampant on youtube and had zero luck with either, which doesn't have anything to do with a hill of beans.

[theTastyCat]

AND YET MORE learning occurs. I suddenly began having awful trouble picking it in one certain direction. Turns out the tension wrench at the top can be a pain sometimes. Fortunately, the keyway is such that that certain difficult direction allows the tension wrench to be placed towards the bottom of the keyway without touching the outside of the cylinder, unlike the opposite direction. More than one way to skin a cat!

[Oldfast]

TastyCat,
Ha! That's good stuff. Thanks for sharing your goof-ups. I'm sure that makes many of us not feel so bad. I know during my first few attempts there was a spring or two that suffered a grusome end
But, like you said, it's all part of the learning process. The only "bad" mistakes we make are the ones we learn nothing from
But there are many helpful guides that will walk you through the disassembley/ assembley process. I highly recommend taking a look at some of these before hand. Especially if you have limited funds to start with.