This is where I come in, I've been going through these processes slowly but surely, and am writing this tutorial for all the noobs who feel lost even after reading countless tutorials.
My bet is that you'll obtain ur first few picks by making them, out of what? it doesnt matter but when u make em, be sure to make em right - the better the make, the more productive they are in getting the lock open.
I started with paper clips, yes laugh all you want, but they definately worked. And when you approach ur first lock, be sure that it is a lock on ur level. A person learning karate isnt gonna go challenge chuck norris. A person who starts boxing isnt gonna take on Sugar Ray Leonard. No, in ur case, a standard drawer lock u may see at work, or a lock that you would use only to guard your toilet paper rolls is ON YOUR LEVEL...... FOR NOW.
But for this tutorial we're going to assume you chose the lock on the drawer (my apologies to anyone desperately seeking toilet paper). Start by opening the drawer component, when the drawer is open you shud see a little latch comming off of what I will also assume is a standard, low-level cylinder lock.
Find the key for this lock and lock it of course, but dont close it - we wanna learn about pins and tension but we arent ready for tension tools yet.
So our lock is locked but we have no way of picking it, in this drawer there might be a few paper clips, a piece of wirey metal, watever. Anything bendable yet sturdy will work.
start by making what I think is an S-Rake. Dont really mind the handle - this is nothing professional, but a toy to learn with basically. It's like going into the city and picking up a hood rat - you're gonna wear it out, but who cares.. you aint keeping it and ur sure as hell aint braggin with it - so take the time to learn.
In the end ur material pick end shud be something like:
~~~---- (excuse the art work)
now, use this to approach ur lock. Dont do what i did at the beggining and try to peek into ur lock, that crap only works for the first pin. But it would help knowing where the pins were, in my case they were on the left side dropping to the right because it was the top drawer.
hold onto the latch, and always go clockwise to add tension, while shoving ur hoodrat/clip to the back of the lock (try not to jam).
bring the pick down, and pull out holding it down slowly but surely keeping it down hard while adding tension more and more - be sure to listen to the pins. if u realease tension you'll here the pins click. dont worry about not getting it, ur gonna take a while.
if you did get it the first time, congrats ur awsome and u can go read something else. but if u didnt, then congrats on not lying.
If you wanna know what ur dealing with, get a flat piece and do the same thing but dont add tension, just count the clicks, each click is one pin, then you'll know how many pins ur dealing with. Now go back and edit ur pick accordingly adding any particular bends u want in ur pick to do exactly wat u want. If ur gonna rake, act like a drunk putting their keys in the lock, all weird and retarded, back and forth side to side, where ur picks go u wanna do like a teeter todder motion (and not with rosie odonnel on the other end, so dont stick to one side of the tilt, go for both sides equally gradually adding tension.)
hopefully you were smarter than me, and made another pick, sorta like a short hook made like so:
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(_____)____/ once again excuse the fine artwork but yea, just anything with a little hook like thing at the end will do.
This will be used to target certain pins, my biggest problem was getting the 5th pin in the very back (yes i delt with a 5 pin lock yay for me) that the rake never really got all the way down, of course i was using a longer hook but its all good, a short hook will do fine just be sure to really get it down and ALWAYS REMEMBER TO ADD SOME TENSION.
some may be thinking WAIT ONE WONT GO DOWN. congrats ur not a moron going at it for an hour and crying. this is a problem for you because this means this is one of those pins that has to go down first. And what do we do? Let go of the tension and listen to the music of all those pins dropping. Dont cry, dry your eye.
Now, find that pin again by adding a lot of tension and taking ur short hook and picking at each pin untill you find that one that wont budge, take note of which one it was and wear u found it and continue down looking for other tense ones because these will be much tighter when u get the first pin down, meaning you'll have to go at these next.
when u get the little
So u've gotten those little devils up, what about the rest? If you've managed to get to this point, u can either continue or just rake em up. I just pinned em rather than switching picks, then i did the opposite the next time round.
You also may notice that phrase "give a little to get a little" and will notice a little bit of less tension may not hurt when u get to that last pin, some pins need a little less tension than ur giving on the latch in order to go past the sheer line, its okay if pins drop because thats part of the learning process, just redo it till u get to this point and act accordingly, but be smart about it.
Well if u did everything right, then the latch shud surprise you by falling down faster than Oprah and a failed parachute. Congrats - you've picked the lock. But dont get cocky and try to break into ur best buddy's house, those locks are far better than the one u picked with paper clips and will take more time. My suggestion, go get or make some real picks and start buying locks.
Once I've done this I'll write another tutorial about it and you'll see it thru my eyes.
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Now some may criticize my terminology on the above, but this is stuff only a noob would know and learn from, if i run around saying the proper terminology not only will i get lost but so will the noob. I'm sure the ones this tutorial is ment for will understand, but feel free to comment, criticise, or praise.