A new, (hopefully) more secure pin-cylinder

[shirtninjas]

Obviously this probably won't fulfill the full set of requirements in the TOSL sticky thread, but I think I've got an idea for a much more secure (against bumping, picking, and probably vibration) pin-cylinder lock. I've made a crappy MS Paint of my idea, but I think it works to get the message across:



The top is a diagram of a traditional pin-cylinder, and the bottom is my revision to the design. A lever across each set of two pins will push one down if the other is pushed up, and the only simple way to prevent that from happening is to have the key inserted, flattening the lever against the top and operating the lock like normal. If the lock is picked by hand, it would be nearly impossible to keep one pin set while moving on to the next pin.

Eh?

[vov35]

how would this prevent picking? the top pin won't drop if it's set...

[Solomon]

Yeah... the pins would still bind and set as normal, this wouldn't really do anything.

[ckc123]

the shear line would prevent the "picked" pin from being pushed back down. it's not being held up by friction, it's being held up due to the cylinder being "under" it once it's rotated a small fraction.

[shirtninjas]

In my experience (which I admit is probably not as great as most of yours) the shear line isn't always enough to prevent a single pin from falling... what I mean is, it will hold it up, barely, as long as nothing else bothers it. I trust the collective experience of this forum more than my own, though. Perhaps I'm just doing something wrong when I pick. I often have a pin fall because I picked another one, or because I looked at it wrong, or because it's Tuesday...

[mh]

What the levers do is push on pin #2 stronger when pin #1 is lifted up. And you hope that this will push pin #2 down again, past the shear line.

I think that you could achieve the same by using stronger springs.

Cheers
mh

[mcm757207]

I see where your coming from. I don't think the top springs (above the lever) would be necessary, just another pivot point on top of it can rock left and right. It may frustrate some picking attacks, but I don't think it would do much for bumping/impact attacks as the pins would all be impacted at the same time.