Picking Spooled pins

[xxmarcusrxx]

Hello Everyone I'm new to this scene and I'm here to give my prosective and advice on spooled pins and getting them picked. My only lock is a schlage 5 pin lock with 4 spool pins. I'm using a feeler pick that I made from a bobby pin and a tension wrench. I finally picked this LOCK! These are my reflections.

Well this is my method on picking spooled pins with the most basic of tools.
FIrst I identify if I have spooled pins by applying high tension on the lock and pushing each pin up. Then I slightly decrease the tension ( If you hear clicks when barely releasing tension then you have spooled pins.)

After Identifying these pins I apply high tension and push up the pins then slightly release again (WHEN I say slightly I Mean Slightly). Then I keep the lessened tension and push the pins up again while slightly increasing tension. After you hit all the pins again Slightly release again. With each repetition of this you should hear less and less clicks (I identify the clicks with False sets). After a couple of repetitions "Walla" the lock should open.

I'm a Newbie Speaking to Other newbies Trying to Help Out with my Experiences Tell Me If This technique worked for you!

-Marcus R

[Olson Burry]

Well done on picking that lock matey

The thing is, I think, it is very very common for new comers to the sport to apply far too much tension. Im not saying this about you, but sometimes this is born out of lack of knowledge and skill or just plain frustration.

See when you got that lock picked, how easily the cylinder turned? How little pressure on the tension wrench made it swing oh so satisfyingly around? A little more than that amount is roughly how much tension you really need to pick the lock.

All locks are different however and if you've got one with particularily strong springs in then more tension could be required.

Over time, skill and feeling in the fingers will be increased to the point where a hairs more than a finger weight (or just slightly more than plug spring bias on padlocks) on the wrench can be used. When applying this small amount of tension, you can pick the lock to a false set (noted by plug rotation) and then push up further on the pins. The plug will try to rotate back ever so gently as you try to push the spools. With lots of tension this slight counter rotation wouldn't be noticeable. As you push, you can let the plug rotate back and then the bottom of the spool will clear the sheer line, the plug will rotate back towards open (perhaps not as much as when it was false set) and the pin will be truly set. It may be that other pins drop during the counter rotation but that is just the way it is and as you ascertain the correct picking order this will happen less and less.

It is important to note, that when using very light tension, movement of the pick and the pushing of the pins can change the bias you are applying. Great care should be taken not to disturb other pins and not to counter rotate the plug when manoeuvring the pick. You can sort of 'pulse' the tension between light and super light to kind of allow the spool to jiggle through if that makes any sense.

With practice, being very deliberate and skilful with the pick and tension, will help develop a real feeling for what is happening inside the lock and will pay dividends later on as you try different locks.

I hope you take the above in the spirit it is meant, it is only advice and I dont want to sound like I'm knocking your method, overall, if it works for you, it works and picking all those spools would give anyone a challenge so good job. Especially with a bobby pin, that is impressive and it may be that given your tools using my method would be more difficult as accuracy and feedback is very important.

All the best.

OB

[xxmarcusrxx]

Well said. After picking the lock a couple more times "light to super light tension" would be a better description on it. The switching of the two tensions is what works for me.

[le.nutzman]

Almost wanted to cry when I read this posting.

Congrats on the spool pins, they can very easily take the wind out of anyone's sail. I know, I started picking locks over a year ago and all I had were spool pinned locks (American 5200 padlocks). When the first one went, that's when I knew I wouldn't have problems like I did when I first started out.

Reflecting back on it and based on what you ORIGINALLY stated in your opening post, I urge you to go back and continuously pick the same lock and then perhaps with the forum admins good graces edit your original posting.

Not saying there's anything wrong with it, but honestly, I gotta disagree with your technique on identifying spool pins. I've never seen anyone pick a lock that way and that's definitely not the way i'd tell anyone how to identify spool pins, but again that's just me. With the amount of tension you're suggesting newbies to use, it's a wonder your picks haven't broke already, especially since you're using homebrew picks.

Use the search feature here, look around, there's thousands (and i know this both because i've read them, and have posted some of them myself) of posts regarding security pins, especially spool pins. For someone who's just starting out, it's a job well done, but go back and re-examine your technique, you'll find that soon you'll be contradicting yourself.

Spool pins have an inherent design flaw that helps a person identify them on a more regular basis than most other pins, when they initially false set, the tension wrench movement is usually exaggerated in the aspect of how far it moves. Meaning, the plug/wrench will turn more than what most people are expecting. Now, while maintaining light tension, continue to raise suspected spool pin stack and you'll find the plug/tension wrench starting to counter rotate, hech the spooled end clearing the actual shear line and then the plug moving forward just slightly compared to before. That my friend is the indicative signature of a false set to true set spool pin.

[5thcorps]

I hated false sets at first, but after a while I realized how much help they could be. by knowing each manufacturers different security pins and their relative heights where the serrations or the spool flats were I knew just how much more to lift or not lift the pin. Bottom line, learn from everything.

[raimundo]

I would design spool pins so that the thin center post is off set, like a crankshaft, this would cause them to be very difficult to repeat the same opening technique twice as the pins can shift and change the binding order. in fact, I would only spool cut half the cross section of the pin, so that one side is still un cut, a bit like a pin that is O in cross section, and the spoolish part is D in cross section.

That should make it more interesting.

[nostromo]

Three cheers and a tiger for you, xxmarcusrxx!! When I was working as a fulltime locksmith, I quickly surrendered and drilled the cylinder if there were spool pins that couldn't be got past in just a few minutes (which was always for me). You pretty much had to keep hopping and get on to the next work ticket or you lost money.

Lately, though, being able to not rush things I've been working the 'practice one pin at a time' method with a mortise cylinder and assortment of regular and spool pins.

Back in the 70's, a neat old guy named George taught me how to make a plug wrench that wedges into the TOP of the keyway which puts you about as close to the center of the plug as you can get. Pretty good control of most of the plug.

You could get a two foot tube of spring steel for $20, I think. I haven;t seen anything like it since. Anyway, he would use square spring steel stock and bend quarter inch long legs at each end, then grind chisel shapes into the legs. One tip would allow you to jam the wrench perpendicular to the keyway, the other end let you place it at 12 oclock.

George eyeballed the dimensions, grinding until each tip would jam tightly into a Schlage keyway, about halfway down the length of the leg. The upper part of the Schlage keyway is pretty much the standard width for most common keyways.

Not able to find the square stock cheaply, I make this tension wrench with a four inch length of .076" music wire, this being a pretty common and cheap piece of music wire at US Hobby Shops. Being blessed with a Harbor Freight micro dial caliper, I measured and found that the average keyway (from the pile of cylinders I have, anyway) is .055", with a maximum distance of .28" from plug face to the front edge of the first pin. So bending a 1/4" - 3/8" leg means you have little chance of interfering with the front pin, just have to worry about keeping the shank of the pick from dislodging the wrench. Raking's not good with this wrench.

When grinding (I use a one inch Dremel bench sander which runs much cooler than a grinding wheel), I lock the microdial caliper to .055" (tho using a spare cylinder plug would be fine) and alternately grind the whole 'faces' of the short arm of the wrench, hogging more off the tip than the shank, until the mid point of the arm is about .055" wide.

The arm length being .25" puts the midpoint at 1/8". If you grind/file flat, the end of the chisel point will slip in just fine and not touch the first pin. The .076" diameter of the wire makes sure that the thick end of the chisel point will be thick enough to give a good angle for 'wedging' into the keyway.

Just made a dozen of them for a NDE class I taught last week, having forgotten that a plug wrench takes a little getting used to if you are just starting. REAL easy to have too heavy a hand with them, but decent SPP control after some practice.

Happy Picking!!