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[InsertPickHere]

Hey guys, found this forum the other day, did a bunch of reading and decided I wanted to be a member of the community. I picked up a lock pick set the other day because it has been something I've been interested since about 6th grade. Although my intentions were less than legal back then, I've since grown up and now do it as an intellectual challenge with no desire to get in any trouble with the law.

Plenty of locks in the Army, so I'm currently practicing with some American 5200's that I've disassembled and re-keyed to some combination that I do not have the key for so I have to pick it to further my learning =] Thus far I can pick it with 4 pin stacks using serrated drivers about 30% of the time, and 3 pin stacks 100% of the time. Just started a few days ago so I'm feeling good. Found some Masterlock 140's as well to play with.

There's no shortage of soldiers forgetting or losing their keys, or even more common, forgetting combinations. I am the go to guy for opening masterlock combo locks, and I'm sure it's just a matter of time before I get asked to pick a keyed padlock...

Anyways, that's where I'm coming from... =]

[Maric]

Well first post.

Was interested in lock picking for a long time now and read up on it for awhile but was to lazy to actually do anything about it.
Got grounded for 2 months so decided to take up programming again but wanted something to do when I wasn't doing anything (bed, school, anyplace where I sit down for a bit with nothing to do) so decided to make use of the time I was wasting.

Went to the dollar store, bought myself some hack-blade-things and made some picks ($1 for 4 of them) and used a bobby pin, which isn't bad but now looking for something better, as a tension wrench. Problem? Yep, no lock to practice on so I gathered together some pocket change and bought my first practice lock.

A Canada Can-Pro (Professional Tools) single cylinder deadbolt (Meet/exceed ANSI Grade III Standard which I have no clue what that means) with 5 pins. I ripped it apart by accident but managed to repair it (I think I actually made it better because now I just remove a plastic strip which is clamped on by one of those paper clamping things and can put in the pins/springs and it works fine).

Didn't want to post yet without picking my first lock. While I only did 2 pins so far I guess it counts as my first.
All thanks to this site was I able to accomplish what I did above and now I think Ill officially join and get involved a bit more.

You guys freaking rock!

[unlisted]

Well first post.

A Canada Can-Pro (Professional Tools) single cylinder deadbolt (Meet/exceed ANSI Grade III Standard which I have no clue what that means)

That means a butter knife will take about 5 mins to carve it open..

And just so my post is not completely useless, here is some info on ANSI standards.
http://www.sargentlock.com/support/ansi_guide/

[Maric]

Yeah after moving up to the full 5 pins I have realized it is to easy to pick.
Tried moving onto my front door but need to get a better tension wrench....

[Josh K]

Hi guys, name is John from Connecticut.

I've been into lock picking as an off and on hobby for a long time. My dad and I used to mess around with it starting when I was a wee one (that and HAM). I've since come into TONS of free time (spinal surgery recovery) and decided to pick it up a little more seriously.

I have no tools as of yet but I did manage to pick my little fireproof "safe" with the small file on a nail clipper when my wife said, jokingly, I would suck at lock picking. Other than that I haven't picked a lock in a while.

Hope to learn a lot of new stuff and maybe in the future be able to help someone else.

Thanks

Welcome to LP101! :D

[diggers]

Hey all, came across the site out of a combination of curiosity and necessity.

Always been interested in puzzle solving, and definitely don't like to be beaten by anything. Fiddled around with locks a little when I was a kid, but never really went anywhere.

Anyway, now I work for a firm that uses secure(ish) storage for part of its operation. One of the secure(ish) units has had its keys lost, and the engineers we use will not try any non destructive means to open it, which defeats the purpose a bit. As far as I can tell, I might be well out of my depth (I think it's a type of lever lock with many levers, I might be able to get an old lock to practice on from our engineers).

So I started thinking, could I get in there? Being an instant internet expert in everything, I have been researching bits and pieces for a little while now, and am getting quite excited about having a play (so much so I went to my friendly local hardware shop, bought a cheap cylinder, some hacksaw blades and files they also threw in a couple of shagged out old lever locks they had in a box under the sink).

My biggest problem...

...all the little tutorials make it sound so easy!!! (not to mention some of the youtube videos, those are either fixed, or those guys have ridiculous quality) I have a good sense of mechanical devices, and am fairly good at constructed mental images of devices, but it is definitely testing me.

I will keep it up though, I have a target, and I intend to sort it out (eventually).

Thanks for such a useful resource, and hope to speak to you all again soon,

Diggers

[blwork]

Hello! I'm Brandon, from the central part of the USA.
Been into lockpicking as an idle hobby for years, never past basic tumbler locks. Recently, for whatever reason, the hobby has become more interesting to me. I've dremel'd a set of decent picks, and started practicing on a few padlocks around the house, and the front-door deadbolt. I, like many of you, have no illegal or malicious purpose in learning this trade - it's the challenge and sense of reward I'm after.

I'm really enjoying the sense of accomplishment I feel each time a lock pops open after I've worked on it, and I've worked my skill up enough that I can open my own front-door deadbolt in less then a minute, and most keyed padlocks I have lying around, repeatedly within just a few minutes. All of them are 4 or 5 pins so far.

My current challenge is a circular (No. 40) masterlock, which has been defeating me - I haven't been able to pick it even once yet!

Anyways, I look forward to reading the posts here, and making use of the valuable information on this site.

[stargazer]

Hi All
I've joined today as well. I'm fairly new as I've been practising now for just over a year and get a real buzz every time I pick a lock.
This looks a great site. Happy picking!

[geardog32]

Hello all, my name is Zach. I am a second year electrical engineering student in the U.S.(there seems to be a lot of people from the UK). Iv really learned a lot since joining the site and now have some proper homemade tools. i started messing with locks a couple years ago when i saw a news story on bump keys. I made a few tried them out and lost interest very quickly. Now that i know what i am doing and have the right tools i enjoy picking a lot.

[Shini]

Hello, I'm Morgan from Australia.

I first started picking locks in high school after reading a very simple .txt guide I came across when looking for something completely unrelated. I was first using pieces of wire and paper-clips and bobby pins to open padlocks that I came across as a challenge but since I was unable to get my hands on any real tools I didn't take it much further than that.

Just the other day, some 3 years after finishing high school (am now a second year physics student) I have again stumbled upon lock picking and found that owning the required tools is legal in my state so I just placed an order. I'm looking forward to getting back into the challenge only this time with the right gear to open some harder locks.

I was really happy when I found these forums and am looking forward to learning a lot.

[Eviscerator8138]

Hello ladies and gents. Figured I should say hi, so there it is.

Just here for fun, and for my own interest. I have an interest in anything that requires precision and intelligence, most notably for myself being fine woodworking and musical performance.

I hope I can learn a little from you all. :)

[tomacsafe]

Greetings to all.

[mr2nice]

hi so first go at this stuff new to locksport been on the other side of this for 20 yrs driving delivering installing chubb phoenix safes and atms and gun cabnets around south of uk been picking 6 months now up to yale n chubb domestic 5 6 pin mid sec love home brew bypassing and of course spp its7pm here west london

[Ikeprof]

Hello All,

44 year old Automotive IT/Controls manager looking at an alternative career and found this site. Have been practicing daily on a set of 3 deadbolts I mounted up in the house. Those I have no issues with but a Schlage F Series door handle lock has been kicking my butt daily with no success on my part even once.

As I have found in IT, persistence pays off (most of the time LOL)

Anyhow, nice to meet you all.

Ike

[maccalocks]

Hello everyone. I've recently started my own mobile locksmith business so expect plenty of questions from me in the near future!