Help, I'm probably an idiot...

[Shrub]

You mean Squelchtone actually had his clothes on this year?

lol Only playing

[Squelchtone]

You mean Squelchtone actually had his clothes on this year?

lol Only playing

haha! but wait, how did you know? they promised me that was the only copy of the tape.

very funny!

thanks,
Squelch "clothing optional" Tone

[Schuyler]

heh,

I was actually pretty excited to join lockpicking101, because I thought they sold customized shirts with your username. Didn't realize until I saw you back on here that you had made your own. It was a hot shirt though, to those of you who haven't seen it, so don't think it was like sharpie on an undershirt or something...

[Schuyler]

WAHOO!!!

So, today the guy came to install our DSL at work, but there was a padlock on the telcom box in the basement. Usually this isn't a problem, as we have a key to it monday through friday (that's when the owner works) but for some reason this guy comes out here today, saturday.

WELL!

I grabbed my picks and asked the next guy up the food chain if I could give it a shot. He said "couldn't hurt" and I went down.

I picked that lock straightaway (it wasn't anything special, some off-brand, 5-pin, padlock and I don't know enough about locks yet to tell you anything more about it.) and the DSL is being installed as we speak.

Quite the thrill...

[sturmgrenadier]

Good stuff, Schyuler. Pretty neat that you got to make use of picking in a real situation. Who care if it was an 'easier' lock? Enjoy the success for what it is. And pass some down to some us other newbs:)

[Schuyler]

Ok...

I'm sorry to dig up this old thread, but I'd like to bring this story to it's conclusion.

So, 1 month ago, July 24th, I made my very fist post on LP101. I'm shocked at what a difference a month has made. Today, August 25th, this thread has come full circle.

I tried to contact our realtor multiple times, saying "Can you please have someone look at our lock, it no longer works, tell me what we can do." on an answering machine, over and over. No one even called me back. No worries, we had another way into the house, we're moving out in 1 week from today, whatever. Well, this evening, after returning from the bar with my roomate I noticed a package had arrived. Well, if it wasn't my Weiser re-keying kit with master wafers! I boldly said to Nick (my roomate) I know I could get our lock to work with our keys, I'm just not confident it'll work with the master key.

But, I said I'd call again tomorrow so we had it semi-on-record that we had tried to seek help for this problem and not recieved it, as we didn't want to lose our deposit over this lock not working. Nick, before he went to bed, said, "Do it. If you can do it, do it."

Well, long story short, the re-keying kit wasn't of much help, as these aren't weiser locks and thus the master wafers weren't quite right, but I begged and borrowed from a collection of a half dozen pulled apart locks sitting around my room and finally found the perfect master wafer, replaced the missing one, and our key works again. And! The manner in which it failed indicates to me that the master key will work perfectly as well.

I wish I had photographed the process. It was very very exciting for me. First, I completely replaced our deadbolt with a Schlage that I had re-pinned to fit our house key, then I pulled apart the broken one, laid it all out, it was awesome. Having a real plug follower and the re-keying tools that came with the kit were brilliant. I shimmed the back of the lock just like I read in Illusion's walk-through. I've been laying all of my pins out on corrugated cardboard (as I don't have pinning trays yet) just as someone (I'm so sorry that I can't find the thread, but please identify yourself if it's you) suggested just the other day, and it's made things so much better.

I can't describe how satisfying this was for me. So far above and beyond any lock I've ever opened. Making this one lock work, has made me so happy.

Well, again, I'm sorry to dig up this old thread, but it seemed appropriate, and an appropriate time to thank everyone. I've got a hell of a lot more to learn, but I'm getting it, and my love for this hasn't waned in ths slightest.

Thanks LP101!

[Schuyler]

I found it! (Sort of...)

As Octillion knows from our last meeting,

A good way to keep pins organized when pulling apart an individual lock is to use a piece of half corrugated cardboard. This is usually used to wrap fragile things, but makes an amazing pin sorting tray, especially with master keyed locks.

(ok, this isn't the one that I saw, but perhaps this is where the person who mentioned it recently saw it originally!

[VashTSPD]

I BELIEVE it was Eric M, but I may be wrong.

[UWSDWF]

Hi,

So, I fell in love with lockpicking during the HOPE conference. I arrived home about an hour ago and thought "I should pick the door to my apartment, what a clever thing to tell my friends who have just dropped me off when we are all talking about the conference later on"

Let me be clear:
I didn't try to pick the street door (not looking to cause myself or anyone else trouble) and my apartment is one of 2 in this building, the other being my landlords. I just don't want anyone to think the ignorant part of this post is that I'm opening picking locks in public, or something of the like.

The ignorant part is this:
I got in! Sort of...the lock (deadbolt, nothing special, not sure of the brand) spun freely, halfway around, then stuck again. Seemed odd and wasn't something I had heard of (but I assume there is a TON I've never even imagined about locks) so I spun it back around, grabbed my key and went to enter my apartment, seemingly defeated.

Well, I sure was defeated, not only didn't I get in with the picks, but now the key will not work in the lock. It simply won't spin. My hope is that this is some weird fluke and something to do with...well, with something I'm hoping is benign.

Happily, I had another place to crash and I have a roomate (didn't want to wake him, so I went elsewhere). I also have another way in, but it would have woken said roomate, so I didn't bother.

I just want to know: Have I broken this lock? Or is it a fluke?

Any opinions would be appreciated! (Even if they are simply opinions on my behavior...)

Thanks

can you believe this nOOb ..........................

[freakparade3]

This post is refered to so many times it should be made a stickey.

[supersteph]

haaa i was just about to bring this incident up!

genius

[Schuyler]

heh, and look at me now, suckers

supersteph hadn't read this before . . . though she's had opportunity to roll her eyes at the story plenty of times.

[JackNco]

Just shows u, all hope is never lost.... or was it?

[Raccoon]

Hey Shoes, did you ever find out if the landlord's master key infact fit the lock before you moved out? I'm just wondering if we should add a new rule "Never re-pin locks that you rely on".

[Shrub]

Well if the landlord had a master key it wasnt schylers lock so in essence the note would be you shouldnt repin locks that arent yours