yet another what should i buy question.

[shatar]

Although i do have some interest in locksport, my primary interest in learning to pick lock's is i do a fair amount of dispatch computer/IT work. I am constantly living in fear of going on a call only to find there server locked and no key o to get in to the case or rack. And yes i have actually seen this happen when i was doing a datacenter decommission. luckly, one the staff IT ppl there had some picks to get in to the server rack. what i am not positive about is due to the smaller size of these locks am i better off going with euro slim picks or standard picks?

[MrAnybody]

...... what i am not positive about is due to the smaller size of these locks am i better off going with euro slim picks or standard picks?

If you encounter restrictive keyways and/or smaller locks, then slimline picks would be better. Slimline picks will also deal with regular keyway types without a problem.

I would strongly suggest that you find some similar locks to the ones you would encounter, take them home and set them in a vice to practice, and practice and practice. Do not practice on locks that are presently in use, but find some decommissioned ones on unused server racks.

I'd guess you're already aware of the types of tools you'll need, if you've already seem it done.

[lockr]

Hi and welcome to the forums!

As IT guy myself, i've found myself in that same position before. At one company I worked many years ago, things were so disorganized that we frequently lost the keys to servers (those awful ones with the locks on the front). We also ran the network for one of the local universities they weren't much better than us... They had racks all over campus, tucked into spare rooms everywhere, and many of them were locked. Usually it wasn't too bad, but in some cases we had enormous headaches accessing certain equipment; sometimes even minor maintenance could mean an hour or more tracking down who had the correct key. In several cases (including one of the last calls before I left that company) we never did manage to gain access to our gear locked in a particular rack.

However, I chalk their problems up to inadequate key control and lack of planning: having to keep track of potentially hundreds of different keys isn't a viable solution. In this case someone involved in the planning should have recognized the problem and dealt with it; eg KA or master keyed... there's lots of easy solutions.

Although the locksport community generally frowns on picking locks in use, in a salvage situation it could be debated that the locks aren't really in use per se. Cheap wafer locks are crazy simple to pick with some practice. Another option i'll share - this is primarily what I use myself - is that i've managed to collect a pretty substantial collection of generic-ish keys for computer wafer and tubular locks that i've encountered over the past decade and a half. So far i've only run into maybe one or two cheapo locks I couldn't open with one of these keys.

Just my 2c

[shatar]

well the reality is i don't even like the idea of picking a lock that is in active use. I also fully understand the security implications that this may involve. whatever i do i think at the very least i may get somthing like the southord 5pc kit and start playing with the loksport aspect of things. I have wanted to try picking since i was about 12... And i did have a call this week for a server refresh that even if they did not know where the key was i would not have even asked. I would have requested they call out a locksmith or checked to see it the old hardware could have been left in place. and no i don't really want to mention who the client was. with luck i should have some picks in 2-3 weeks and be trying to see what i can do with them.