Little Intro....not so little

[Asher]

Well i've been reading this forum for a while now and registered not to long ago, i have made a few post now but i am stumped on something. I got my first set about 2 weeks ago, i have been practicing on padlocks and have been able to do the master 140 (thanks to a tip someone posted earlier) master No.5 and a few other no brand padlocks. I just received my tubular picks a couple days ago and have had some sucess with thoes, i purchased a kryptonite which i got the hang of after a while, i also got the hang of the tubular practice lock from Southord which i purchased with my tubular set, i can do thoes consistantly now with no prob's. LOL sorry to drag you all through this now here is my problem.

a friend of mine works in a vending machine distribution place, he got me a few locks from machines that are no longer in use and also gave me the keys to the lock's well take a wild guess what kind it is? Yup you got it, its what seems to be a ACE II i say seems to be cause the II isn't to clear on it and around the ring it says PAA17 im guessing thats a certain batch they brought out? Well the pins are offset? the first pin to the right of the notch is right next to it as the one on my kryptonite padlock is a bit after making both pins on each side of the notch have a even distance apart from the notch now this one has a pin right next to it to the right then the last pin as you follow thoes counting clockwise ends some time before the notch. I read a post on here that said with a 8 pin tubular pick you can do 7 pin offsets? i removed one pin and i seem to be able to catch all the pins now after removing the one right to the left of the notch, and i have had no sucess playing with the tension still nothing. i didnt realize how long i made this post i bet it just repeats it self over and over, im sorry guys this is just something that has my fullest attention now!

last question, i promise!(atleast in this post)

my 8 pin tubular pick from southord (not the old cheap models, the new one with the rubber handle) well the rubber handle seems to spin freely, sometimes when im trying to turn on the lock the handle spins instead of the pick (and no im not putting to much force) as for my 7 pin the handle wont spin not even with excess force on it, is this normal?

[plot]

i thought i read somewhere on here that the new southord 8 pin picks couldn't do 7 pins, but the old ones could.

then again, i could be wrong...

[Quin]

The new 8's can do the 7's but they need modifying to do so. The "how to" is on other posts about it (Not that easy from what I've read).

As for Asher's post the rubber handle shouldn't be moving about at all. I have a few here that have been put through their paces and its never happened to me and I haven't heard it happening to anyone else either.

It could be faulty or it could be you've been using too much force trying to open the locks.

[Chucklz]

As a generalization, 8 pin tubular picks will do 7 pin OFFSET locks. No modification necessary. For your rubber handle problem, a drop of cyanoacrylate glue will fix you up fine. You are goign to need significantly more tension than the pick is "set" with at the factory for an Ace II lock. There are going to be oh, about 2 pin stacks with very strong springs. Generally, these pin stacks will force your sliders all the way "up" very quickly.

What I have done, was to identify these pins, either with the tubular pick, or by probing with a small half diamond etc. I then pick the lock as though it were a standard tubular, knowing that those sliders will be probably pushed all the way up fairly quickly. Then I would go back and "single pick" those two, and I could get this to work sometimes. Often, you have to go back and repeat this process a few times, Or I used to until i got my Peterson.

[Asher]

sorry for the delay guy's, i had a bad accident and am able to continue doing my everyday things, i did notice a few pins on the ace 2 push the pins on the tool all the way up no matter what i do, i will keep at it till i get it, i will also try that method of picking them seperately, the peterson has enough tension on it to push these pins back? thanks for the heads up chucklz

[UnLock]

I received the new SO Tubular 8 pick today and I too have experienced the same problem as Asher. The rubber handle just spins and the pick itself doesn't turn. I'm able to take the handle right off the pick with ease. I have e-mailed SouthOrd explaining what seems to be a manufacturing defect. It could be fixed with little effort however I shouldn't have to seeing as this is a brand new item. I'll keep you posted to what SO says.

[Chucklz]

Depending on what SO says, you could probably fix it with a dab of cyanoacrylate (super glue) adhesive.

[UnLock]

Well SO said they'd replace it with a new one. I've decided to just keep it since it'll cost me about $10.00 to send it via an insured method not to mention it'll probably take at least 2 weeks before I get the new one back. I just used Crazy Glue and fixed it myself.

I also modified it to a 7 pin model today with great success. The problem with the rubber handle being loose actually worked in my favor. I removed it completely and was able to clamp it together between 2 pieces of wood to hold it steady while drilling. I used a drill press with a 1/16th drill bit and bought a 1/16th spring pin. The original pin and hole are just slightly smaller but replacing it with a 1/16th works just as well with NO difference. Below are some pictures of the procedure.

To hold the pick steady all I did was drill a 11/32 hole, which is slightly smaller than the diameter of the pick, and clamp it between two pieces of wood.






This close up picture sucks but I'm hoping to use my buddy's camera that'll take excellent close-up shots. If you look carefully you'll see both pins in there. Depending what type of lock you'll be picking, you'll have to remove one of these pins. I'll try and have the new close-up pics posted by Tuesday.

Please note that removing the pin is easy enough with needle-nose pliers but putting it back in takes some time. To make it easier, I squeezed/squished the very tip of the pin so that I could insert it easier in the hole. Once it's there, just push the rest of the pin in by pushing the pick against a hard surface.

On the original 8-pin model, the spring pin is located between two of the sliding blades while on a 7-pin model the spring pin is located directly under one of the sliding blades. I drilled the whole about 90 degrees from the original spring pin.

The final product is an 8-pin tubular pick that will work on any 7 or 8 pin tubular lock!

To do this mod, it took me about 30 minutes and cost me less than $5.00 Cdn. The Crazy Glue was $1.69 and the 1/16th cobalt drill bit was $2.29. Not bad at all considering a new pick would run about $70.00 US.

If anyone has any questions or aren't clear of anything, please PM me and I'll help out.

Thanks goes out to Chucklz and Nasydave for their tips.

[plot]

pictures arn't to bad UnLock, thanks for the tip on how to clamp it.

KODAK DC3200 DIGITAL CAMERA ?

[UnLock]

Hey Plot,

LOL...that's the exact camera! How did you guess? You must have saved the pictures and noticed the file name. Very cheap camera but takes half decent shots as long as they're not close-ups.

I have started a new post at viewtopic.php?t=2237 where anyone with questions, comments, and/or suggestions can post. I noticed there's several posts spread out and thought I should start a new one that is specifically devoted to modifying the SO 8-pin tubular pick.

[Chucklz]

One small clarification question, When you were preparing to drill the second hole, did you use a center punch or something similar to mark the hole so the bit didn't wander? Or was this simply not necessary?

[UnLock]

I didn't find the need to mark the spot with a punch when using the drill press as the bit doesn't wander as it would with a hand drill. I did a practise hole on a seperate piece of steel I had and the hole was drilled perfectly straight.

[Asher]

yeah i figured i will save the time and money and just fix it my self, didnt find a need to send it back to SO for that Unlock thats some great info, thanks!