ARCHIVE 2003-2013 Introduce yourself HERE if you are new. :)

[Mr. Peabody]

Hi all

I'm from Brisbane, Australia... Been lurking here over the past week or so ever since i decided to get a new set of lock picks... Got my first pick in 1996 - Dyno - Kwick Pick and started practicing when I was grounded and had my house key confiscated hehe Got given a great set of homemade picks bout 5 years ago but lost them and have been pining after a new set for a while... Now I've given up smoking and lockpicking will be a great hobby to keep my hands busy hehehe

Nothing else to report :) Trying to read as much as I can and UTFSE so i don' ask stupid n00b questions :P

Carry on.

[tonksy48]

Hi just found the site and its just what im looking for worked with safes for 29 years and the last 3 as a service engineer with well known safe co.
I am dying to get into picking now as i need to move on.

[under25armour]

Hey, I just joined. This is a really interesting site. Lockpicking is one of those really cool skills that I've seen in movies and always wanted to learn. I look forward to learning the skill =D

[hunky]

Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself to the forum.

I have been interested in locks and picking for 5 years, after an initial burst of it after finding an old pad lock with no key in my graduate school desk drawer. If you've ever written a dissertation or thesis for a graduate degree, then you'll understand all the time I spent at that desk staring at a screen trying to figure it out. Well, occasionally I'd need a break from that, so I would use my break time figuring out how to open this pad lock.

I have no idea what this lock was, or anything about it (It was 5 years ago, and I was really more focused on writing my thesis at the time). It must have been crappy because I managed to finally open it after a couple of weeks of VERY casually poking around inside it with a sharp probe as a pick and forceps as a tension tool. I remember it popping open and me being pretty surpised. I also remember the feeling I had from getting it open, like I'd just solved a rubik's cube for the first time! That was pretty much the end of it, cause I put the lock down, finished my thesis in the next few weeks and have since been trying to start my professional life.

Now that I'm a little more settled and can get back into many of my old hobbies, I've also decided to take up lock picking as a hobby. My wife and I just bought a fix-er-upper house and replaced all the locks, so I've got these really really cheap gold plated deadbolts to start on. They are 5-pin with no security pins at all (I've already taken them apart to inspect their insides). I've also ordered the southord 5 pick set to start learning the fundamentals with. I figure I could bust out the old dissection kit, but why not go all out on some real picks and really get the fundamentals down this time.

Anyway, thanks for the site, I've been lurking for 2 weeks and can't wait until my picks get here so I can delve deeper into this addictive little hobby.

~hunky

[PocketHero]

Hello!

I found this site via Google, and I hope I may found some useful information here.
The first lock I ever picked was opened with needles, without any practicing in 2 mins. I read it somewhere, and I tried... Couple years later I successfully picked the lock of the first car - with self made tools. Later I learned how to open locks, security doors, safes, cars, everything. What to say? I'm locksmith.
I hope I will find some useful information here

(Sorry for my bad English, I haven't never learned it)

[dlong]

Hey there. I'm new :-) and I'm just looking to secure a single family home for a reasonable price. :-) Hopefully, the wonderful people here can help!

-d

[Wren]

Hi, I'm Wren.

I've been lurking here for about two weeks now. It's been really interesting reading tutorials, guides, and just threads in general. The quality and thoroughness of discussion here has been great. Though I'm very much beginning to learn, this site inspired me to try my hand at making a set of picks to learn with. Just tonight, I spent an hour or so filing away at wiper blade inserts, cross-checking my results with pictures of picks, then doing more filing. I'm currently being thwarted by my lack of a torch - though a candle was able to get the metal hot enough for a simple bend for the tension wrench side, it was not hot enough to make the ninety-degree twist I'd like in the main handle. I wasn't really expecting it to work, but I figured I might as well try it anyway. Though I wasn't able to complete the entire project, I did manage to make two tension wrenches and amuse my cat, who was supervising me the entire time.

My goal for this project is to make a bogota rake set, so I can begin practicing both single pin picking and raking. In the meantime, I'll have to choose a good starter lock to learn on.

[Solomon]

Welcome to the forums, Wren. With wiper inserts, you don't need to heat the metal. They still retain their strength when you cold bend them, and since you only need a small amount of tension there really is no need to heat them up. Trust me, you can bend those things into all sorts of shapes and they won't fatigue as long as you don't bend back and forth. Give them one quick bend in a 90 degree angle and they're sound as a pound.

The only time you need to heat metal for bending is when dealing with non-flexible or brittle stuff. I just bend mine with pliers, as for making twistflex style wrenches I do the same except gripping tightly with 2 pairs and giving it a quick twist that way. You don't always get a perfectly uniform bend, but it's fine all the same. :)

[muddassarusa]

[quote="Solomon"]Welcome to the forums, Wren. With wiper inserts, you don't need to heat the metal. They still retain their strength when you cold bend them, and since you only need a small amount of tension there really is no need to heat them up. Trust me, you can bend those things into all sorts of shapes and they won't fatigue as long as you don't bend back and forth. Give them one quick bend in a 90 degree angle and they're sound as a pound.

The only time you need to heat metal for bending is when dealing with non-flexible or brittle stuff. I just bend mine with pliers, as for making twist flex style wrenches I do the same except gripping tightly with 2 pairs and giving it a quick twist that way. You don't always get a perfectly uniform bend, but it's fine all the same. :)[/quote]

You right about that that is true about this type of material no need to heat up thanks solomon to explain about that Good job.

[mckoy]

Greetings
I have been registered for a while, well, I just registered because I wanted to have a couple of templates, and i got'em, but now I want to participate more in the threads.
You know, lockpicking is some kind of familiar hobby, thats why I came interested in this. I want to become better in lock-fu and have a good time, with this activity.

By the way those templates I got, have been very useful.

[Wren]

Thanks for the suggestions, Solomon and muddassarusa!

I think my trouble is that I'm trying to twist both of tension wrenches simultaneously so that, once the twist is made, they fit together like a pair. If I do one at a time, I can definitely make the twist - I just tried it on some spare material a second ago. Since my hand-held vise grip is actually pried open by the material when I try to twist both wiper blades, I think I may have to try using a table-mounted vise.

[loansindi]

Well, I stumbled across this site a few days ago and spent some time lurking. It's definitely a really positive resource for me.

I'm a lighting/sound designer, theatrical technician, engineer and amateur musician.

I think my interest in lockpicking arises from a fascination with machines. It's also an excellent exercise in physical precision, which I enjoy.

I've had at least a passive interest in the hobby for a while, and I've collected a few cheap masterlock padlocks I fiddle with. I look forward to everything I learn on this forum, and to interacting with others likewise inclined.

[cnorris]

HI i am completly new to this stuff but i want to learn

[bobbb]

... and this seems to be one of the really good ones. I just need to qualify to so I can see all the restricted stuff and learn some stuff. I'm particularly interested in learning the different types of locks and their innards so that I won't try to pick a dimple lock with regular rake.

[Phatdriver]

Hi everyone,

New here and so stopping by to say hello!
I've been picking on and off for a few years now so thought it was time I'd join the forum.

Still learning but it seems I'm a decade or so too late
I say that because picking locks has become so hard
with the influx of all the new lock types out there.
Ya bag of tricks needed to encompass more than just a hook, diamond, rake and tension rench :o)
To be able to pick "any" lock you come across out there you need to spend 1000's!

Now looking to make all my own tools and really looking forward to mortise lock picking.
Have just bought a dremel, grinder and niddle files but trying to get the wire form a spining road sweeper eludes me for the moment :o)

I'm going to have a look but if any one reads this, what size shrink wrap would I need to fit nice around plain southord picks?

At the time of writing my tool bag contains the following:
Southord C6010
FB keys all of them
Medum jigglers (going to make the large and small from templates)
Home made snap gun (going to buy a real southord)
Padlock shims
Warden picks (never used them)
Dremel, grinder, files and other bit and pieces
and a few badly made home made picks! I'm getting there :o)

Thanx for reading and nice to be part of the famo...

Much love PHatDriver.

PS.
Why am I not authorised to look in certain sections and how and/or when will I be allowed?
What's in there, I need to find out! :o)

Later...