Rookie q's...

[ddc]

Hello all

In my first tries, I made a tension wrench and a diamond head pick, both from street cleaner bristles. it was fairly easy, and I had to try them on a few locks I found around the house. to my surprise, I was able to open all three locks I've found, and of course I was happy to know reading here has proven to be beneficial...the only problem now is that the biggest lock (the grey one in the pictures) now won't open with its original keys. my guess is that I have damaged it by excessive wear of the pins, or something like that...I don't see any metal dust falling from inside, so it's just my guess.
any ideas what is wrong, what can be done to fix it or what did I do wrong that caused this? I don't care about the lock itself, I don't need it, but it was good to practice on...
thanks for all the info I got here - it really works.

p.s.
now I got myself 2 cylinders from my dad's garage, both are 5 pin, one is a corbin. where can I find instructions on how to disassemble this kind of cylinder so I can practice on it with 1/2/3/4/5 pins each time?

thanks again

Dori

[Solomon]

Hey ddc, welcome to the forums!

First of all, that's a nice little corbin you have there... I need to get myself one of those, I hear they're really nice to pick. They do have pretty narrow keyways though, so it might be tricky getting the pick you made in there. That little mul-t-lock padlock is pretty cool aswell, don't see too many of those. There is a great guide on repinning euro cylinders here, so you'll find everything you need to know in that thread.

The padlock which no longer works with the keys is a tri-circle if I'm not mistaken, they're pretty cheap and nasty so this kind of thing is to be expected. They don't break too often, but when they do they're pretty much done for. The iron ones like the one you have are worse than the brass ones, as the plugs are prone to cracking and the pins are just plain horrible so I wouldn't really worry too much about it. It could be any number of things and you probably won't be able to fix it without taking it apart.

That pick looks pretty good, although it doesn't look too comfy to hold! Make yourself a handle for it, you'll thank yourself later. The tensioner seems a bit long aswell, I'd trim it down and maybe add a smaller one to the other end so you can use top of keyway tension easier with it. You're off to a good start and I can see you sticking at this; have you thought about buying a set of picks yet?

[ddc]

Hello Solomon, and thanks for the info. the pick I made is really slim (I have a micrometer somewhere, I'll get the exact dimensions later), it fit the tiny lock in the picture with no problems...you're right about the handle, I'm working on it as we speak. the tensioner already got clipped, it was way to long to be comfortable.

mul-t-lock is very common around here, I see it all the time. probably because it's a Israeli-based company...

I already ordered a pick set - from southord, after I did some research around the net and this forum, I got this:
http://www.southord.com/Lock-Picking-Tools/Lock-Pick-Set-Slim-Line-Nine-Piece-C-801.html, I believe it would be fine for my needs as a beginner in this field. I hope it will arrive sometime next week or so, they shipped it the same day - good service, by the way.

thanks again!

[Solomon]

Nice choice! That's the exact same set I have. They'll last you a long time, but be careful with the rakes. I was getting heavy handed with one of them a long time ago and it eventually snapped. They're pretty strong, but you can't put a lot of stress on them. Not that you need to, but when I was still in my newbie stages I wasn't as careful as I should have been.

The slimlines will definately be small enough to get around the keyway warding in the corbin, and as far as I know they have one of the most narrow profiles so you made a really good choice. You can get around pretty much anything with those. Are corbin pretty common in Israel?

[ddc]

Solomon

I don't know yet - only now I start to really pay attention to locks and cylinders...the brands I know which are common in Israel are the following:

Yardeni
Yale
אא (that's Hebrew lettering)
Mul-t-lock
Nabob
Martock

I will try to gather more info, as I said, I never noticed these details before...

Dori

[NanoDuke]

ddc, at the bottom of the Euro cylinders, are they springs held in with little hex nuts? I've got a cylinder here in Aus that you can easily re-pin with an allen (hex) wrench.

I can see the holes in the picture, but they might be plugs inserted...

[ddc]

Nanoduke

I'll take more pics - but the other option you mentioned is the right one - all are pins, not screws. from what I see I think there are 2 rings that should be removed and then the cylinder will slide out.

[ddc]

well, an update - I managed to take one of the cylinders apart and re-pin it with 2 pins - I don't think I did everything right, but it works (opens using the original key) and I also managed to pick it, that part was actually easy. my problem now is that I'm not sure if I can put the rest of the pins back (or even one more, 3 for that matter). the re-pinning process is rather delicate and nerve wrecking...

another question for anyone who can answer - does it matter which pins go in the body (not the tumbler itself)? I don't think I put the right ones in, and it still works...

when I took it apart the pins just popped, so I couldn't tell which went where. the upper ones stayed in the tumbler so I marked them.

moving on to a 3 pin cylinder!

[Solomon]

well, an update - I managed to take one of the cylinders apart and re-pin it with 2 pins - I don't think I did everything right, but it works (opens using the original key) and I also managed to pick it, that part was actually easy. my problem now is that I'm not sure if I can put the rest of the pins back (or even one more, 3 for that matter). the re-pinning process is rather delicate and nerve wrecking...

another question for anyone who can answer - does it matter which pins go in the body (not the tumbler itself)? I don't think I put the right ones in, and it still works...

when I took it apart the pins just popped, so I couldn't tell which went where. the upper ones stayed in the tumbler so I marked them.

moving on to a 3 pin cylinder!

Yeah, repinning is a bit of a pain but you'll get the hang of it. I haven't repinned a euro cylinder before, but I imagine them to be much more fiddly than rim cylinders which you can just use a standard plug follower for. It doesn't matter what order the driver pins go in, even if they're different sizes. As long as the key pins are aligned flush with the shear line, you're good to go.

What kind of security pins were in the corbin, and how many?

[ddc]

Solomon
I didn't disassemble the corbin, but the other one - a local manufacturer. as far as I can tell there are no security pins (If you mean serrated, mushroom and such), all the pins are just little plain cylinders. I'll try to get some decent pics later on...
Dori