Day of Frustration

[le.nutzman]

Oh man, I can't tell you how humbled, no how, stupid i feel after today.

Seeing how today was like any other, i had been working on a bundle of masterlock padlocks that i have infamously dubbed the "DG" series because they all have that stamped near the top of the faceplate. Well, today was a major break through. All my cockiness and thinking I really had it down, went down the drain.

I finally got to the point, sad to say, that I let the lock get the best of me and I beat the retaining caps (8 of them) off the bottom and pulled the lock apart.

It then took me an additional 20 minutes to shim the dang thing open. Once i got it open i carefully flipped it over and dumped each chamber one by one and you'll never guess what I found...............................

Deep
Deep
Shallow
Deep
Shallow

I liked to have cried. Needless to say i can confirm that this lock at the very least, doesn't have security pins.

Stupid on my part because the entire time I thought I was hitting the sheerline, i most likely was oversetting and causing more friction on the chamber wall. Now I will say that these style of locks having very loose plugs, does have a serious affect on feeling the right tension. The other thing that has thrown me with these locks is the keyway is backwards compared to any other lock i have worked on.

__
| |
| |
/ /
| |
|_|

Yeah, i know, not very artistic, but hopefully you get my point. So since the lock turns CCW, the only place to put the tension wrench without slipping is up at the top of the keyway. Ah, and another note regarding these Masterlocks, they only open CCW, not both ways.

Anyways, it's actually been a long frustrating day, and i thought ya'll should know about how stupid I feel right now.

[jordyh]

A quote on the learning curve, mate:
"Giants often trip and fall.
But worms don't, because
all they do is dig and crawl."

Landing on your face is part of the process.
Keep going, and more importantly, thanks for sharing.
If only 1 or 2 newbies read this one, and learn that it's a good idea to use a diverse array of locks, then you've contributed greatly to someone's progress.
My EUR 0,02

Yours,


Jordy

[raimundo]

A bundle of padlocks, eh, do the others treat you like this also, perhaps some of them are keyed alike, do you have keys?
I have often regarded impressioning as the way to open a lock that just won't pick. Difficult to find proper tools in the sandbox, perhaps some of us will send you some, for impressioning, you need a baby visegrips, a rattail file or an expensive pippin, either of which should be in the second or fourth cut. (has a number on the tang and is a fine tooth file)
I was going to send you some locks, but so far I still only have that one medeco, and that would likely be frustrating,

Perhaps some others on the site will help. we currently have two members, yourself and Dmux who are over there, and theres Phoenix, whos so secret, he dosent even tell himself where hes at.

To those reading this who know my opinion of the leaders of this fiasco, do not assume that my opinion reflects badly on the guys who have to go there. Quite the opposite, I blame the chickenhawks and idiot-experts who thought this thing a quarter way through before committing to it.

Those who would help our guys, just pm them, and make any offer you can. Sergeant, if you need anything more from me, just ask. I'll see if I can find you a file that is suitable for impressioning, currently I have only one that I keep for my use, but I could look around and ask some locksmiths or jewelers here, and keyblanks, too, you have to be specifil about length, keyway number etc.

Thanks to those who read this and pitch in and thanks for serving sir.

[le.nutzman]

Yes, oddly enough now that you mention it, i am actually having the same difficulties with the rest of the bundle so it is a possibility they are keyed similar. But they didn't have the keys for them, that's how I got ahold of them.

I've got a mini vise, but blanks are what i'm really hurting on. I don't have a full key blank directory, but I can take a picture of the keyway and email it to someone if that would help any. I wouldn't know the first thing about trying to impressioning these locks considering the plugs are so loose.

Anything anyone could send would be greatly appreciated.

[raimundo]

if these are laminated locks and I assume they are since you mention the cylinders being loose, one step in impressioning is to file away much of the shoulder of the key, not so deep as to prevent it from indexing the cuts under the pins, but to avoid the ramming of part of the shoulder into the first lamination which will block you from impressioning the the pins as all the forces are spent jamming the shoulder into that lamination. Do these locks have a model number? that may help identify the keyblank. although master locks come in some left and right versions of the similiar keyways. and there are a number of keyways. we have already established that they are five pin havent we.