Spring Tension

[cyloneus]

There is a lot of talk on here about the important of soft tension on the tension tool (left hand typically), but I am beginning to notice that one of the things that makes locks harder for me (read:VERY bad at this) is when they have stiffer springs on the pins. This creates a differential of effort between my two hands, trying to use soft pressure on the tension tool, while working the pins hard.

Any thoughts, recommendations etc? I guess the questions is ARE stiffer springs in fact harder and should that also mean more tenion is OK? Stiffer springs certainly seem harder to effectively rake.

[burchlockkey]

My guess would be that if the lock is not well used it could have stiffer springs. I have noticed that when I repin a lock and replace the springs, it does tend to operate a little stiffer (of course that could be do to the new key, new pins, new springs all combined since everything would be a little tighter.) Also, when I have trouble picking a lock that I don't have a key to, if the lock has set for some time or is exposed to the weather or worse both, it helps to rake it a few times and work each pin individually before I try to pick it just to make sure it is losened up a bit. I find that picking each pin works better for this type of lock. Hope this helps.

[raimundo]

The springs on euro profile locks are stronger than the average spring in a north american lock, and some locks have strong springs. the U Change cylinders are strong springs, there are also some padlocks that have a spring tension on the back of the plug that directly fights the tension to open the lock, American padlocks have this, as do some others. Advise to use light tension is not for every lock, but its good advise for a beginner with a common door cylinder since the big mistake that beginners make is to use so much tension that they are hopelessly binding the the lock, if you have the key to the lock, put the tensor through the keyhole and turn the key with the tensor lever, look how much it bends, (probably little or not at all) this is how much tension you need to pick that lock. since picking depends on creating a step for the pins to hang up on, and yet you want to move the pins up and sometimes let them back down when you have lifted them too far, you do not want to over tension the plug. Pinch the blade of your tensor between your thumb and forfinger, then push on the far end of the lever with a feather or a strip of paper, you will see that it has a great deal of leverage, another beginners caution is not to let the tensor blade bind in the bottom of the keyway, it can become stuck against the cylinder wall and in this condition it will not help you pick the lock, in fact, sometimes a lock may already be picked to the shear while the tensor is in a bind against the cylinder wall and the picker cannot turn the plug so he does not even know the lock is ready to go. You will find that a variety of tensor is good to have or a wide blade tensor that has been tapered so that it can apply various widths to different keyways.