The Disappearing Spool

[Theist17]

Hey there, everybody. I have encountered a somewhat interesting problem while picking a Schlage residential cylinder. Just to make sure everyone knows, this lock is not in use. It's a cylinder I received from a member of the forum, along with varying key pins and some spools.

After picking this lock in several bittings with straight drivers, I decided to make things a little more interesting an add a spool in the third pin stack. Keep in mind, I'm only pinning five stacks, and there's just this one little old spool right there in the middle.

I picked the lock in around a minute and a half, but I never hit the groove in the spool. "Okay," I thought "I'll just pick in the other direction and see if I find it that way."

This time around, I am unable to pick the lock. I found the spool, but it wouldn't budge. You know that tell-tale counter-rotation spools are supposed to give you when you start lifting them the second time around? None of that. It was as if the pins were jammed. So I let almost all of the tension off, lift the pin, and you can guess what happened next.

*Click!*
I dropped every single pin stack.

Other times, it won't even engage the groove. I just pick through the stacks and it's open in less than a minute.

I'm at a loss for what to do here. I've duplicated this problem several times, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. I've had the spool lock up on me picking in both directions. I've tried backing down on the tension, cranking it up little by little, and just about everything I know to do.

So I guess what I'm asking here is whether or not anyone else has run into this kind of thing before.

Have you ever had spools, or any other security pins, just get weird on you?

[Solomon]

If there is only one spool it's pretty common for the lock not to drop into false set, this is actually a sign that you're doing things properly. You should never aim to drop a lock into false, it's one of those things that you deal with if it happens but forcing it into false can cause problems determining the true binding order.

Pinned the way it is, your lock should only drop into false if the spool is the last in the binding order... for example, if the pins bind in the order 2-1-5-3-4 and 1 was the spool, it would pick without dropping into false unless you were to do random pick jiggling and happened to set everything apart from 1 at the same time. In which case, by setting pin 1 you'd drop the rest of the pins with the exception of 2, because that's the way the binding order works.

You'll very rarely come across any locks with just one spool in them though, it makes next to no difference. Usually it's the other way around, ie. 4 spools + 1 regular, although you'll come across fully spooled cylinders aswell. The idea of this is to frustrate determination of the binding order. More spools = dropping into false very easily, so if the picker doesn't know what they're doing it can really mess up their day. With practice you can still tell the correct order and pick them just as quickly though. Pin it up that way and you'll have some proper fun.

[Theist17]

Thanks for the advice! I pinned the cylinder with four spools, leaving the one in the back a straight driver. That's certainly more fun and about five times harder to pick than just the one spool. Keeps me from memorizing the binding order for a while as well, I'd imagine.

What about the spools being particularly hard to get out of false sets? I'm still having a little trouble there, but it's decreased since adding more spools. Does it have something to do with the lock itself, or do you suppose it's my tensioning technique to blame there? I'm gaining more and more minute control over the muscles in my fingers and thumbs as I go, so I guess it's probably just underdevelopment of my tensioning technique.

[Solomon]

If you get stuck in a really deep false set and aren't getting any counter rotation whatsoever, you can just turn the plug back a little with your pick to free that pin up. You need to let off the tension almost completely so it doesn't bind up and when you feel the pin giving counter rotation, fight it with very gentle tension until it shears. It's very rare that you'll need to do this, but I've had it happen with certain locks before.

[raimundo]

as always Solomon is impressively detailed and absolutely right on.
I may have to hit your profile and read all of your posts. You really know your stuff.

[Solomon]

You're gonna make me blush. You won't find anything you don't know already, I'll send you a link to my book if you want though... would be easier than reading through posts, and there are pretty pictures too

[Theist17]

Let's have that link in the thread, please. Sounds like you're really on top of stuff here, and I'd love to see what else you have to say about picking in general.

[Solomon]

Sure, why not. You can download the pdf here, the password to open it is evva3ks. Enjoy

I was thinking of adding a few extra bits and pieces to it with regards to pick types but I haven't gotten around to it yet. If you read the thing properly and understand what you're doing then that stuff should be common sense anyway, but if there's anything else anyone would like to see added, suggestions are welcome. Thanks

[Theist17]

Thanks so much for that. Seriously, you rock. It's this kind of attitude and willingness to share that keeps me coming back to this forum.