Master No. 15 padlock

[Jim Palmer]

Anyone familiar with the workings of the Master No. 15 padlock? This is a very large lock, about 2 1/2 inches wide and 2 inches vertical. Large, heavy and probably used for something like a warehouse door. I bought two for practice and have been able to open neither so far. They are sold as "contractor's grade," whatever that means. Feels the same inside except for the middle two pins, which seem to be blocked. They are six-pin locks and do not appear any different than any other Master lock, only bigger. Anyone know if there are security or mushroom pins midway or any other characteristics of the lock?

[keysman]

Anyone familiar with the workings of the Master No. 15 padlock? This is a very large lock, about 2 1/2 inches wide and 2 inches vertical. Large, heavy and probably used for something like a warehouse door. I bought two for practice and have been able to open neither so far. They are sold as "contractor's grade," whatever that means. Feels the same inside except for the middle two pins, which seem to be blocked. They are six-pin locks and do not appear any different than any other Master lock, only bigger. Anyone know if there are security or mushroom pins midway or any other characteristics of the lock?

Looks to be a 5 pin..

try here http://www.masterlock.com/cgi-bin/style ... yle_id=B41

and here http://www.masterlock.com/cgi-bin/produ ... late=style

[adrenalynn]

They are six-pin locks

any other characteristics of the lock?

Count the pinstacks again? Or count them on the flats of the key?

The ones I have are 5 pin, as is the spec sheet from Master.

[ToolyMcgee]

Feels the same inside except for the middle two pins, which seem to be blocked. They are six-pin locks and do not appear any different than any other Master lock, only bigger. Anyone know if there are security or mushroom pins midway or any other characteristics of the lock?

That sounds like my first 15. It's a combination of the manufactoring slop and biting. No security pins. Lighten up your tension so those pins don't lock up, or give it a shot tensioning from the top of the keyway. Try front to back picking instead of the usual back to front order of the smaller cylinders.

I asked an old locksmith if he knew the identity of the security drivers in the off brand discus I just picked open. "Are they mushrooms or spools?" and he said "What's the difference?"

-Tooly

[lock2006]

I got a couples of this Master #15
and they have 5 pins
i dont' think they have any security or mushroom pins
since they are to easy to pick
like ToolyMcgee said. Try front to back picking
instead of the usual back to front
light to medium tension
that would do it hope this helps.

[Jim Palmer]

Quite right. They are five-pin. Still having problems, though.

[raimundo]

On those lockboxes that exist in unattended parking lots, I have seen some master locks that were gigunda. I can't remember if they had a common keyway, such as schlage C, or my memory tells me that at least one of them had what appeared to be an oversize keyway, and plug, larger than any common plug.

Does anyone know about these huge locks?

On another note, a lockshop that used to be downtown, calle B-safe, once showed me a copy of this large master padlock with the shackle fractured through, with little or no tool marks, the guy told me that it was done with some kind of coolant, (freon is often mentioned, but likely nitrogen or oxygen, as they are colder) and he said it was done on one of the coldest days of winter, (sounds like a serious risk of losing a few fingers if you slip up.)

[thelockpickkid]

For these Masters I find that sometimes if you rake the lock a couple of times to set some pins and then go in with a hook and set the remainder they will open every time, main problem you run into with some of these is exactly what is mentioned above, they sometimes are a little sloppy in there machined parts and makes it harder to set the pins.

[transformers0704]

master lock is preety simple to pick. even the one with the spool pins in it.. one way you can detect spool pin is that when you hit that pin the lock rotates slightly then you reduce tension then pick it again. works for me everytime
happy picking

[Lauren]

I took apart a Master No. 15 today. It's also a five pin lock, only it has a octagonal hasp. I'm not very impressed with quality of this lock. Outside of the fact that it has a boron alloy, anti-bolt cut hasp, Master cut corners when they put that aluminum casted cover around the lock to give it a more robust look. It's obvious that they are doing everything they can to save on steel. It's even harder to fined a Master lock with an all brass key cylinder. I've even seen a few of these locks of this model get return to my store because the lock won't open after the key is turned. Rather than the traditional ball bearing system to lock the hasp, Master implemented small bars that are half round on each side. These bars often bind up. I don't see Master continuing to make this model much longer after the RTV's show a pattern.

[archosaur]

Jim,
I am new to lock picking (about 1 month) and I just got a #15 from Lowes the other day. I had a hard time 'seeing' the inside of the lock as well, but, at least in my case, that's because the lock just isn't that great. Even with the key, the plug only turns with a good bit of jiggling, and even then, the bolt doesn't release easily. I have several locks from the 'Magnum' series of Master locks, and while they are all varying degrees of crowbar/bullet/hammer/boltcutter-proof, they all have the same locking mechanism. The only difference being that the #15 goes up to 5 pins, from the normal 4, which shouldn't make it that much harder. There are no security pins. I can pick the smaller version of the #15 (the #5, I think it is) in less than a minute, but the #15 takes me anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. Since I'm so inconsistant on this lock, I believe that my trouble comes from its shotty construction, and I have a feeling that your problem is similar. How does your lock feel when you open it with the key?
-Will