by apb » 11 Jun 2008 12:32
My experience with the practice cyinders where you can see the pins setting as you pick was pretty disappointing. I bought a practice cylinder from lockpicks.com and it was 50 bucks. I wanted to move to a higher skill level and learn to pick security pins better so I purchased one with 5 spool driver pins. Well this was probably the easiest lock I had in my collection. I raked it maybe three times and it was open. The security pins would not false set (which was what I wanted to work on) so it was no different than a normal lock cylinder with sloppy tolerances only about 15 times more expensive. Also,the tolerance in the lock and the pins themselves did not seem to have the same feedback as a "real" lock. It was difficult to feel the pins setting. It was too easy and hard to find the binding pin. I probably could have sneezed into the lock and set a couple of pins. IMHO these practice locks give a beginner false confidence in their skills. One of the most important things you are trying to learn is gainng the correct tension and finding the binding pins through feel alone. I did find a use for the practice cylinder though. Once, I removed their pins and replaced two ofthe spool pins with normal drivers, it would false set and it has its use as a visual aid. That's it though. Get a kwiskset or schlage dealbolt. The schlage may have security pins as drivers which you can replace with normal pins and when you are ready to learn security pins the schlage works well for that also.
