I could easily pick Masterlock M5, and then I couldn't

[Jupiter]

Newbie.

I just started picking a month or so ago. I just picked up a Masterlock M5. Once I figured it out and got the technique, I found it to be amazingly easy to pick. I could just rake it with a snake pick while bouncing my tension wrench slightly, and it would usually pop open on the first try. Would take me no more than 2 seconds to pick. I could also use a hook pick and slide it in, lift up the back pin, and it would open. I think the with of the bar on the pick happened to push the front pins up just right. If it would ever not open immediately with the hook pin, usually just picking my way out and lifting the front pin would do the trick.

I was able to pick this lock effortlessly and would open it consistently in no more than 5 to 10 seconds. Then, all of a sudden, it got a lot harder, to nearly impossible. I think I might have damaged the pins from picking it so much over the last couple days, but the key fits in fine and opens the lock fine. The same techniques that used to open the lock no longer do, and I now can work on it for 20 minutes using various raking and picking techniques, to no avail.

Any ideas on what might have happened?

[Squelchtone]

Any ideas on what might have happened?

yes, your luck ran out. =)

Now you practice, practice, practice, and build up some actual skill and you'll be picking that lock again in no time, but this time not relying on random chance or luck.

We all have locks like the one you wrote about. Sometimes it just helps to put the lock down, walk away, and pick it up the next day and it suddenly opens again. If the original key works just fine, there's probably nothing wrong with the lock, so lcok picks should work just fine as well.

Keep at it,
Squelchtone

[Jupiter]

That would seem to make sense as an explanation, except that there really does seem to be something very different. I had picked the lock, knowing how and what I was doing, and what method I was using, 30 times or more successfully and easily. I don't think luck would fully account for that. Again I'm a noob, so perhaps, but I had also researched a raking method to open the lock, that other people have used on this particular lock. I used it successfully 20 or more times, and picked the lock with a hook pick, like I said, about 30 times. And then it simply won't pick or be raked any more.

Could there be any other explanation other than that I was lucky 50 times?

[Squelchtone]

That would seem to make sense as an explanation, except that there really does seem to be something very different. I had picked the lock, knowing how and what I was doing, and what method I was using, 30 times or more successfully and easily. I don't think luck would fully account for that. Again I'm a noob, so perhaps, but I had also researched a raking method to open the lock, that other people have used on this particular lock. I used it successfully 20 or more times, and picked the lock with a hook pick, like I said, about 30 times. And then it simply won't pick or be raked any more.

Could there be any other explanation other than that I was lucky 50 times?

Depending how hard you were raking and scraping the pins, you may have built up a bunch of brass pin powder inside the lock and the spaces around the pins in which they normally move up and down are now gummed up. get a piece of black paper, and tap the padlock against it pretty hard several times and see if anything falls out on the paper.

Good luck,
Squelchtone

[Jupiter]

Thanks for the help, both of you. I'll try that. I've been able to pick about three more times, but still much more difficult than it was originally. A lot of outer metallic coating has chipped off my picks, so I would be surprised if that's it.

Does anyone spray WD-40 or anything into locks. Ir is that a bad idea?

[Jupiter]

Oops, I mean thanks, squelchtone. It's just you.

[Squelchtone]

Oops, I mean thanks, squelchtone. It's just you.

Don't worry, I just changed my signature jpg, so you probably thought it was another user

Squelchtone