Crap, I thought I could talk on the phone and type at the same time...I guess not
A correction on my last post...I meant that I can pick a 5-pin Medeco with 5 of their mushroom drivers in about 30 seconds or less with a small hook, WITHOUT the sidebar.
Also, I am sorry...I thought I explained how I accomplished this. Well, here is what I do: I took the small hook that I have been using on this Medeco (not the full rake), and I thought that it would help if the tip was rough, so wouldnt just glide/slip off the pins. I used 80 grit sandpaper on the tip of the hook and on both sides, just below the tip of the hook...a few swipes with the sandpaper will do, so its rough/jaggy when you drag it across your finger. Thats all I did with the tool part of it.
If you are trying this, you might want to take it down to one pin with the sidebar, just to get used to this picking "technique" so to speak. From the past few days on messing around with Medeco's, I have realized that they need very slight tension, and no other lock that I have picked needed that light of a touch except for maybe the 140 that sorta comes close, but not really.
Insert the tension tool, and push on it almost on the base where it makes the 90 degree bend so you are using less tension than normal. Insert the "modified" hook, and I usually start with the back pins first, no matter if they set low-high or high-low. Provide little tension, and start moving the hook in small circles, and from time to time, moove it up and down once or twice. Its hard to make it an actual circle obviously, but I have found that moving the hook in small circles will rotate the pins (a little at a time) while actually setting the pins whenever the sidebar is aligned for that pin and when it reaches the shear line.
Another way of picking that I have less success with, is with a small, half diamond. Nothing was done to the pick, but just insert it and instead of moving the pick in small circles, twist your hand to the left and to the right a few times, then up and down to try and set the pin. This works, just not as good for me as the hook.
Once again, this method works for me for a 3 pin with the sidebar. Unfortunately I havent been able to pick anything higher than a 3 pin, mainly because yesterday I broke 2 of the other springs in a matter of 10 minutes, so I will have to get more to try more than 3 pins. You will see how much a difference in difficulty there is when going from 2-3pins while picking. One last thing...for some reason, if the bottom pin in a Medeco is invisible, that means something is happening, and that pin has not been set I believe, atleast that is what I have been noticing. Anyway, sorry for any spelling/grammar errors, and if you have any questions or anything, please ask.
