Ace II

[Raymond]

Yes folks, I am new to posting on this site but have considerable past experience. I rarely have difficulty with tubular locks and this latest one made me mad. Yes, it became personal. I spent several commercial hours trying to pick it and nothing worked. I tried impression picking and manual pin-by-pin. I did not take the time to actually inpression a key. I had to move on so we drilled and replaced it. Yes it was on a rather new vending machine. The owner had locked the keys inside and this key fit other machines. I deal with ACE II so rarely and have not had to rekey one so I just was not sure what differences it had to make it more difficult. Basic construction appears exactly the same. I wonder if the center post moves in and out slightly to negate the effects of impression picking? I was not aware of the variation in spring compression force. I am not sure how that would really affect impression picking but I guess it does.

I have tried to be very careful giving direct info that might compromise someone's security, however there is so much detailed info on picking theory and picks are so easily obtainable that I did not feel this question to be a problem.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

[hesevil]

Don't take it personally, it's not meant like that. I've only been on these forums for 2 months and I've seen several people with their first post being 'how do I get this briefcase open?' or 'i have one of those locks like on a coke machine, how do I pick it?'. Too many people want to pick locks for the wrong reasons and they spoil it for the rest.

As for the Ace IIs, the ones that I can't open with a tubular pick, I have to open by single pin picking. I find that setting some of the pins can be difficult and you have to be very good with adjusting tension accordingly. I have had better luck with hard tension on these locks.

Several of the pins can bind at once (due to smaller mechanical tolerances I'd assume). When you set 1 pin, it may cause another to be difficult to depress. Like I said, try softening or hardening tension when you come to these pins.

On several of the locks, I false set a few of the pins and may have to come back to them to unlock it.

If you don't have it, there's a template on these boards for a tubular tension wrench; get it and make it. I modified mine a bit from the template but it works great, helped me a lot working on tubulars.

-Matt

[Chucklz]

Some of the springs in the ACE II are much stronger. These push the sliders in your impression pick back too far when attemting to pick these locks. Here is another shameless plug for the Peterson Pro 1. It will do all the 7 pin tubulars of standard and reduced diameter and 8 pin as well. You can also do the hexagonal tubular locks, but I have yet to see one of those in the wild.

[raimundo]

I saw a different kind of wheel clamp/boot used today, it fit the wheel like a caliper clamp, it was called the 'pit bull tire lock', the keyway appeared to be some sort of tubular lock, (I didn't get up close to inspect) but it was marked LA1, anyone seen one of these?

[Eyes_Only]

Like this one? http://www.tirelock.com/productdetails.php?pid=12

[raimundo]

yup, thats it, I understand that the car I saw it on has been in that parking lot for a while like that, I may go back and look at the keyway. if its just an ace lock, we can all make fun of it, or it may have something a bit different, which is what I was wondering.