difficult keyway

[south town ninja]

I am having trouble with a difficult keyway. It makes a near 90 degree turn right before the area where the keypins are located. all of my picks get stuck. what to do?

[billdeserthills]

Oooh is that one of those old chrysler sidebar keys? I have only seen them on E-Bay and I'm not paying $8 just to get a close-up look at one

[MBI]

I am having trouble with a difficult keyway. It makes a near 90 degree turn right before the area where the keypins are located. all of my picks get stuck. what to do?

Could be Winkhaus, or Keymark or...

A picture is worth a thousand words.

[GWiens2001]

BEST 'H' keyway, first generation Lily Water padlock. Yeah, pictures help.

Gordon

[Robotnik]

I am having trouble with a difficult keyway. It makes a near 90 degree turn right before the area where the keypins are located. all of my picks get stuck. what to do?

As everyone else has said, pics help. As a firing-blind suggestion though, try a dimple pick if you have one.

[nite0wl]

Even some Yale keyways fit that description. Lacking a picture or explicit ID of the keyway, I would recommend using very thin picks (~0.018"-0.015") with slender shafts ("euro-style"). Alternately, a very thin tipped large hook may be able to fit into the end of the pin shaft but that is not a great method.

[south town ninja]

ok, i've taken pictures, but have no idea how to upload them. a lil help plz?

[Squelchtone]

ok, i've taken pictures, but have no idea how to upload them. a lil help plz?

upload pics to your favorite hosting site such as photobucket, http://imgur.com , http://tinypic.com, and the take the address imgur.com/yourphoto.jpg and Copy/Paste into your reply here.

[south town ninja]

http://s1119.photobucket.com/user/Harle ... t=3&page=1

[south town ninja]

I don't think i did that right, because a picture didn't show up on the post thread. anyways, iu think everyone can get to it by clicking on it. the lock, i have figured out, is a basic schlage. It's keyway looks like a backwards "z" with a vertical line extending from the top, which is the area where the keypins are (what do you call this area i wonder?). Anyways, i got a feeler gauge (.011 inches thick) and made a falle style pick out of it, y'know, the one with a deep curve, kinda like a reach tool. it touches the pins without interference from the keyway, like my thicker picks, but I cannot detect a binding pin. I don't know much about SPP and thought thios would force me to learn. Is this the problem then? is it a lack of having a developed enough sensitivity??? Plz help, because it drives me crazy when i feel like i should be able to pick something and i can't. thnx!

[jeffmoss26]

That is your basic Schlage C keyway.

[MBI]

You just need a tiny twist of the pick as you lift the pins.
Once you get used to it you probably won't even notice the slight curving motion you need to make when picking a Schlage C.

For a truly nasty 90 degree turn in the keyway, try picking some of the harsher Keymark keyways,


or BEST WB or WK keyway.


Get to where you can pick those and that Schlage will feel like a piece of cake.

[Robotnik]

Don't know what you're working with as far as picks go, but starting out I used a SouthOrd slim short hook on a Schlages. Worked well in my case for an inexperienced picker learning to maneuver around a restrictive keyway.

[south town ninja]

thanks you guys. I finally managed to pick it with a homebrew bogota twice, but not since then , grrrr. will try with some southords also. Again, you guys are great. THNX!

[nite0wl]

As has already been pointed out, that is a Schlage C keyway, it does take some getting used to if you are accustomed to Master and Kwikset keyways.
I would suggest two things:
1. Try a slightly thinner pick than standard (~0.025"-0.03" wide is standard, 0.015"-0.018" are available from some manufacturers). If you are making your own picks try finding some stock in the 0.015"-0.018" thickness and polish it up after you have ground out your pick. I sometimes find that I need to angle my picks a few degrees clockwise to reach around that ledge, thinner picks and euro-profile shafts help in this as well.
2. Experiment with your tension. Depending on your pick and technique preferences you may need extra room on one end of the keyway or another. If you are using a standard/edge-of-keyway tension tool, be careful that the tip isn't grabbing the body of the lock as well, that will usually transfer most of the tension you are applying to the body instead of the plug and won't bind the pins. If you haven't yet, try a top-of-keyway tension tool (like a Peterson Pry-Bar), this avoids the issue of the tool grabbing the body and provides more space to maneuver your tools under the pins.