Tension on the Wrench

[shaothegreat]

Okay, so I'm fairly new to all this, but within the few months I've been at it, I have managed to pick roughly 75-80 locks. I wanted to post this to help other beginners because I wish someone had taught this to me. I think one of my greatest hinderances at first was ALWAYS applying too little pressure. Reading and watching videos had me all psyched up to rip into any lock, but I think I took the super light tension thing too far. I would often refuse to use anything but super light tension and that caused many problems. Sometimes I start soft, then increase pressure and sometimes I start with a lot of pressure and then let up as I feel around - it depends on the lock really. After setting a few pins I may also lay down the heavy hand so that I won't lose my work as I go to refill my water/grab another beer, and then let up as I resume picking. Anyway, just thought I'd throw that in there - I'm no expert or anything.

[Gonewild]

Ya the problem i had was setting the security pin. I wasn't letting off tension and pushing up at the same time. Saw a video on here and it straightened things up right quick. Tension is everything!!!

[Wizer]

Using too much pressure at first, I got a couple cheap locks open raking them violently. Even a few securitypins. After braking second rake, I started to lighten tension. Then there was this "Whale-top security" (not that secure), that used to lock my boat. I got all pins to set, but nothing was happening. I thought there was a sec. pin false set, and after a while, in frustration, twisted more tension, and.. it opened. It was all set, I just didnot turn the pug to open it. Since then, I try harder tension after I´ve set most pins. -Usually it don´t work. I´ll just have to keep practising..

[Rift]

I couldn't agree with this more. At first I didn't realize it either applying way more tension then was needed. This didn't cause to many problems with cheaper non security pin locks, but now that I'm working on a Schlage with security pins over tension got me no where. It wasn't till I started to use almost featherlight tension did I start getting results with security pins. Even going back and re picking some of my padlocks goes much smoother now with the right tension applied. Once you learn to control the tension tool things change dramatically.


Rift