antaean3000 wrote:Thanks. I was watching a dvd on lock picking last night and i found out how and why my lock opened.
I managed to do the bypass which means my tweezers caught the latch and bypassed the pins and there for it opened the latch.
You definately need to work on your picking if you accidentally bypassed it! This is good though, since now we know you're putting the pick in way deeper than it should be and that you're also putting way more pressure than necessary on your pick... so now you know what you need to be working on!
Take your time and be gentle with it. Roll your pick over the pins gently with a very slight amount of force, so you can feel them spring up and down a tiny bit as you go over them. Try and get a feel for when the tip of the pick is on each pin, this way you'll get a feel for them and have a rough idea of how far they're spaced apart. After this you should practice pushing each one so you can really feel it, and feel the spring pressure increase as you push it further. Do this for each pinand practice maneuvering your pick around the warding on order to push them all the way down.
That's the hardest stuff to get the hang of... after that it's just a matter of figuring out how much tension you should be applying to the plug. This takes a bit of trial and error since every lock is different, but it shouldn't take long to get the right amount. And remember... LIGHT tension! And when we say light, we mean it. Put your fingertip onto one of the buttons on your keyboard, and push against it gently until it actually presses in. The amount it takes just to hold that key in and no more is actually too much. The only time you need more than this is if the lock is stiff.
Since you're working with padlocks though, you obviously need more than this to counter the spring return mechanism... think of it as neutralising the force of that spring, plus that normal amount of tension on top of it. Science! Padlocks with interchangeable cores have a freely rotating plug, but any standard padlock will have that spring countering your tension. You can put the key in the lock and put your tensioner through the hole in the key bow to figure out how much you need - just use your finger to push on the tensioner until the key starts to rotate a tiny bit. It's not good practice in your later stages, but it's definately a good little trick for when you're starting out. Just apply that amount of tension and pick the pins, increasing a tiny amount as each pin sets and presto, the lock should open for you.
... I do use wiper inserts for bottom tension
lol
