What is MACS?

[Ctrl+Alt+Del]

Hi,

I am new to lock picking. I have a Schlage and a Teshen lock. I can get through both, though the Schlage is much harder to get the pick in there.

My question is about MACS. I did some searching, and some googling, and cant figure out what it means. Is it some sort of pick difficulty rating for a given lock? I know safes have crack time ratings, are locks the same? If so, i sure cant find it in the package the Schlage lock came in. I am an engineer, so the first thing i looked for was some sort of rating, machine tolerances, etc... is there anywhere i can get info like that??

-Thanks in advance

[freakparade3]

MACS means Maximum Adjacent Cut Specification. Basically it's the maximum depth that can be adjacent to another cut. I believe MACS for Schlage is 7. That means you can't have a 1 pin and a 9 pin next to each other.

[Buggs41]

MACS is a term that states how a lock's pin-stack can be arranged.

Maximum
Adjacent
Cut
Separation

This dictates that you would not want a #1 cut next to a #9 cut on the key.
All manufactures have different MACS criteria.

[Buggs41]

Well, now I know that FP3 and I are on at the same time, but he types faster.

[Ctrl+Alt+Del]

Makes sense. The schlage is tough to pick because the ward is right up againse the bottom of the pins. tough to get a pick in there. then, if you add a 1 in the back, with a 9 just in front of it (i might have that backwards), it would be near impossible to get the pick in there....

i have a schlage on my front door where the pins are tough to get at... the schlage im playing with isn't so bad.

thanks for the replys.

[Urbex]

Makes sense. The schlage is tough to pick because
i have a schlage on my front door where the pins are tough to get at... the schlage im playing with isn't so bad.

I wouldn't play with the lock on your front door.

[Raymond]

To further help you understand what MACS means physically follow this logic. With the angle of the cut the same for all spaces, if a deep cut (9) is next to a shallow cut (1) the angle of the (9) cut will completely remove all of the metal required to lift the (1) cut pin next to it up to the shear line. The (1) pin will drop below the shear and be resting on the slope of the cut rather than on a flat at the bottom of a cut. The MACS advises you when this problem will appear when pinning a lock so you can avoid impossible pin combinations.

[Gordon Airporte]

As Raymond explained, MACS has to do with limits on what can be done with keys. As pickers the whole idea is not to use a key, so many people repin their locks in violation of MACS to make them more of a challenge to pick. If you get completely stuck you can always shim the cylinder open from the back.
And yeah, don't mess around with locks that are in use.