Early Lesson Learnt...The Hard Way

[Schlussel]

Okay so I'm new to this, picking wise, and I have had some success with two out of the three locks I bought to practice on. The third one, an Era 6 pin Euro lock has been driving me kind of nuts. ( I tend to never give in when given a solution to be found! ) I found a couple of spool pins, in pins 3 and 4, then read everything I could find about defeating them, went at them again and again and again..you get the picture
Today I decided to take the lock apart, one side of it that is, and removed the plug and found pins 1,2,3,and 4 are all spools 5 and 6 are plain. So my assumptions, based on what I have so far read about, was part way true: however, theory rarely mimics real life.
Then I tried to re-assemble it with a makeshift follower..that failed in accordance with the rules of sod.. so the springs ended up mangled
On the upside, I still have one side of the lock to practice on ( the other plug is re-installed minus pins etc to keep things aligned) and I now know how many and where the spools are, that should aid me in getting a proper feel for them. At least I hope so!

Any advice would be most welcome as the key way is quite tight and can only really use the small diamond and flat ended hook from the Southord 22pce slimline set I have, I also suspect that tension is another big player in this one.
Regards Rob.

[mhole]

Practice - Era euros are very easy picks once you've got the hang of the security pins. I use top of keyway tension (though in a euro this actually becomes bottom of keyway tension) on these, and a medium deep hook.

Once you set the 2 normal pins (90% of the time 1 and 6) the plug will turn a ton, and you just need to push lightly on each pin until you feel counter rotation. When you feel it, ease up your tension to set the pin, and move onto the next. You may need to reset the two regular pins if they slip back, but on Era's you rarely reset the security pins by accident.

[Schlussel]

Thanks mhole for that info. I definately think I'm being too heavy with the tension, with practice I'm sure I'll get there though.
Rob.