Locking ERA Padlock With No Key

[loopy66]

Hi guys, hoping you can help.

I have an ERA 5 Lever padlock with no key and my lever padlock picking set recently arrived and in my eagerness to try it out I picked the lock open. This is the good part, it was a great feeling to pick my very first lever lock but, I am now a bit gutted I cannot do it again because I cannot lock it back up.

The pick set I have is this : https://uklockpickers.co.uk/uk-lockpick ... g-set.html and the ERA padlock is the same as shown in the picture for that product.

Without the key, how can I lock this padlock up again? I tried putting the tension tool and tensioning anti clockwise and trying to effectively pick it closed but, it's not working. Is this lock possible to lock with no key?

[loopy66]

Ah ok, I found a video from the LockPickingLawer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbEr4PjQLDI where he does pick it closed, which is what I am trying but it's just not working. I am keeping the shackle open so I can see the levers and the best I can get is lever 3 set, none of the others bind then I do lever 5 and then lever 3 drops. This just keeps happening.

[femurat]

I'm not familiar with that specific padlock, but maybe you should let the shackle close a bit? Keeping it fully open may prevent the bolt to turn enough to bind more than one lever.

Good luck

[loopy66]

I double checked the shackle and the hinge is on the outside of the body so it doesn't affect the bolt.

I think you are righr regards this being a tension thing though. Possibly my tension tool isn't quite perfect enough in that, it's ok when tensioning clockwise but anti clockwise it might not be able to apply enough.

I am going to take a gamble on some key blanks, on eBay they are less than £3 for five blanks. I will file one down and use that to tension and see if it gives a better result.

I will post back when I have tried it.

[loopy66]

My key blanks arrived and I made a custom tensioner based on the purchased set. The bit just needed to be about 1mm shorter and 1mm less wide, it tensioned just right and I can now pick it closed.

The purchased one is great for opening (clockwise tension) but doesn't tension right when closing (anti clockwise tension).

Anyway, all good and I have a bonus new size tensioer.

[femurat]

It's great when it finally works! Congratulations for keeping at it.

Cheers