Good place to pickup Practice locks

by **Qingu The Hobo** » 19 Jul 2004 1:48

Hey, hello, I am new here, been lurking for a while and finally bought myself a set of picks and some practice locks. Now I did try searching but it kept giving me debug info when ever I tried "Good practice locks" or even 'Practice locks".

So here is my question, which is actually a few questions that all follow each other. Where is a good place to get practice locks? Is there a good online store or should I just head down to the local home depot? This leads me to my next question of what brand of locks can I get that would be easily re-pined and could upgrade with Mushroom and Spooler pins at my leisure.

I have seen a few padlocks online that say they can be re-key easily but unsure what stuff to buy for that for them.

And my final question is that if you get a dead bolt or door knob to you mount them on a block of wood or just use half the lock (front part) and hold it in your hand?

I have read the MIT guide and the Visual guide to lock picking but my copy of the LSS (which I assume is â€œThe Complete Book of Locks and Locksmithingâ€) wont be here for another week and I have my practice looks down to under 10 seconds, just looking for some advice to pass the time.

by **CaptHook** » 19 Jul 2004 3:40

A couple of places that dont get much mention on here, check out yard sales and flea markets. Every once in a while you run across a deadbolt or 2. And you never know what else you may find that could be useful. Ive walked out of yard sales with power tools etc for pennies on the dollar.
You just have to avoid dragging home useless junk.

Chuck

by **OpenSays-a-me** » 19 Jul 2004 7:42

You can manipulate the locks without mounting them, but it's much easier... and much more practical from a practice standpoint to have the lock stationary/mounted.

Real life application won't often have you holding the lock in your hand.

Get yourself a decent little vice and bolt it to your workbench... Much easier than cutting 10 holes in your door.

by **Eagerpicker** » 19 Jul 2004 7:57

From the start, I've been practicing lockpicking holding the lock in my hand and it's got me quite far, but lately I am feeling increasingly inclined to start using a vise or some such to hold the lock so I have two hands free to work on it. When holding the lock in the same hand as the tension wrench, I find there is much less feedback from the wrench AND the risk of affecting the tension with the lock (putting on counter pressure), so in effect you get two points of tension: one from the lock, one from the wrench. This is not helpful.

On the other hand, with certain locks there is the opportunity to use very light tension, pushing down on the wrench with only the tip of your pinky or little finger, which usually isn't the strongest of the lot.

Eagerpicker

by **frostbyte** » 19 Jul 2004 12:05

I've picked up 4 locks so far at my local Salvation Army thrift store for $2.80 (2 Weiser key in knob, and 2 Schlage dead bolts. I've been checking out yard sales, but nothing yet.

Romstar recommended a local discount building store, but I haven't been there yet to check them out.

by **Qingu The Hobo** » 19 Jul 2004 13:41

Wow, thanks guys, I have to get some stuff to mount a air conditioner today so I was going to poke around the lock section of homedepot, but I will keep a eye out for yard sales.

I currently use a vice about 50% of the time, It helps me not cheap and look at the pins. Thanks again for all the repiles

by **Qingu The Hobo** » 20 Jul 2004 2:26

Well I got 4 door locks and 2 padlocks, 1 deadbolt from Kwikset and another one from Schlage (claims grade 2 ANSI), then a keyed knob from schlage, and one commercial light duty "keyed entrance". Then a beastly padlock from Master and a smaller master pad lock which I have defeated many a time since getting it. I also got a 2x4 and a drilling kit so I can mount them all.

I have already gotten the Kwikset picked a few times with out mounting it and the little master padlock only held me back 5-10 min before I had it down. But the bigger "Contractor" sized Master Lock doesn't seem to like me and I have distinct feeling that there is a mushroom or spooler pin in there?
Its a Maximum Security (930kadlhpf) http://www.masterlock.com/cgi-bin/prod_search.pl?product_number=930kadlhpf
It doesn't say but after a hour on it I suspect there is......

For the Higher security deadbolts I am going to have to hit up a lock shop I suppose but we dont have many this being a not so large town. Home depot only really carried two brands and a small amount of padlocks, far less then I thought they would.

by **Guitar_J** » 20 Jul 2004 9:05

the Big masterlock is rekeyable... nice... dump a few of the pins out for practice, then start putting them back in one at a time as you get better at opening it with fewer pins...

by **Qingu The Hobo** » 20 Jul 2004 13:53

If anyone had any ideas on how to remove the cylinder that would be helpful or where to find that info?

by **Qingu The Hobo** » 20 Jul 2004 14:33

HA!, I figured it out, there is a screw in the hole where the shackle comes out, undo that and the bottom plate falls off and the cylinder falls right out.

But not to make this a worthless post, where is a good place to get repining kits?

by **CaptHook** » 20 Jul 2004 18:40

There are several vendors online. I dont think you need a kit though, just reuse the same pins, and you can even put them in different chambers for a whole different puzzle.
Chuck

by **Qingu The Hobo** » 21 Jul 2004 0:02

Well, that's what I have done, all the pins fell out when the cylinder came out, looking back I should have had the key in the lock and it in the unlocked position. I was wrong, there wasn't any nifty security pins in there but they are rounded, only have gotten it picked once. Thanks again for all the help.

by **Qingu The Hobo** » 28 Jul 2004 0:57

I was wondering if this set of picks http://www.lockpicks.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=32 are the ones that are computer generated and you use them on lower security pin tumbler locks (raking), or are they for the high security dimple locks? (I know that the higher security use pins too but it thought it was the best way to phrase it)

by **Romstar** » 28 Jul 2004 1:01

The Majestic "High Tech" pick set wasn't designed for dimple locks.

I suppose you could try them for that, but that's not what they are for.

The Computer generated picks are sold by HPC, at www.hpcworld.com

Romstar

by **Qingu The Hobo** » 28 Jul 2004 3:53

So the ones at www.lockpicks.com are just some fancy rakes/jiggers? Thanks for the prompt relpy.

Good place to pickup Practice locks

Good place to pickup Practice locks

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