Opened my first pick-resistant lock (weird though...)

[Krypos]

uhh...i was under the impression that construction keyed locks have balls in them, this has been stated thus far, however, you are all missing one thing.

that is one ball. and it is friggin huge. construction balls are way tiny, in fact there was an arguement between i think raccoon and octillion or raimundo or someone about how many of those balls can fit into a pinstack and only take up one space on the depth chart.

maybe im missing the size difference in the blurriness, but i think if that was construction ball, it would be hella smaller than that.

schuyler- is there a second set of holes parallel to the pinstacks in the plug? ones that are slightly smaller than the pinstack holes? there should be if it is constructin keyed, if there isnt a second set of holes, then that is a wear and tear ball or something else.

lemme know if that doesnt make sense, i can post pics.

[Schuyler]

Nope, no extra pathways, just wear and tear balls. (which helps me to understand how the ball actually escapes the keyway) Though I am getting an idea of how the whole construction ball thing works, if you did have pictures I would love to see some.

[Shrub]

Well the construction thing works like this,

The chamber has the normal pins and in addition balls under some or all the top pins so they are in between the top and bottom pins,

The plug has 2 rows of holes, the real ones and a row of blind ones,

The workers have a key that lifts the bottom pins and the balls to the shearline, the top pins go into the chamber when this key is used,

As soon as the other key the lock is keyed to is inserted it lifts the bottom pins to the shear and the balls and top pins go into the chamber,

When this key is turned the balls then drop into the blind holes but the top pins dont as they are a bigger diameter than the holes,

The top pins drop down and now the lock is rekeyed,

The contractors key cant be filed down to work as it is cut lower than the customers key,

[Sesame]

So the balls live out the life of the lock in the blind holes? That's wild. Who comes up with this stuff? Locksmiths are creative people, that's for sure.