Ever broken a lock by picking

[femurat]

Hey Pickmequick, did you manage to turn the plug? Is the lock OK now or it still need to be fixed? Is it a M5 or a M15? The first can't be disassembled so if it's broken there's nothing you can do to fix it. The M15 could be salvaged by replacing the core.

Good luck

[Pickmequick]

Hey Pickmequick, did you manage to turn the plug? Is the lock OK now or it still need to be fixed? Is it a M5 or a M15? The first can't be disassembled so if it's broken there's nothing you can do to fix it. The M15 could be salvaged by replacing the core.

Good luck

Thanks for that,

Yes, repaired

I couldn't see a way to get the core out though?

Some gentle tapping on the lock body while working the core and holding the shackle in place and it went.

The key works on it fine as well i believe.

[femurat]

Good

[IndigoChild]

I dont know if it was said at all but the title made me laugh. My shop will often blow the tops off of those u-change locks by cranking their pick guns up all the way and blast away at the middle of it to pop it open so they dont have to pick it.

[glens_1999]

Yes. I seem to wear the springs out so the pins just "float", ie they stick wherever you put them! That's one of the reasons we shouldn't pick locks we don't own. It takes a toll. Anybody considered plastic picks? Seems like they wouldn't wear the lock pins, and wouldn't create shavings. I think it's still hard on the springs though, especially if you're a noob like me and probably use too much force.

[keymaster1053]

Yes, even after 20 years as a locksmith, it did happen to me when Schlage introduced their "secure key" locks. (worst locks ever by the way) I bought one, just to play with it picking. Shortly after I started picking it with my diamond pick, which did in fact open it, after that it wouldn't work with the original key. What happened was my pick went between the tip of a bottom pin, and the small spring right above it, and turned it sideways. so the proper key now without the pin tip sitting the way it was supposed to, wouldn't work.

[cowboypicker]

I havent broken a lock yet but, Im pretty new to picking. I have however, broken a homemade pick, almost never got the piece out.

[john5]

Never. Yet

[Rewt254]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I haven't broken a lock nor a pick. Atm I'm trying to open an old lock I have picked years ago. After 1 hour of trying (while watching a movie) I still can't get it open. It feels like the last pin is stuck/tight so that it won't move. I don't have keys for the lock so I can't test if it's broken. We shall see

[CMS_SAFECRAKR1]

I Blew the tops off of a few stubborn schlage F-series knob cylinders with the compressing bibles using a pick gun.

[keymaster1053]

I Blew the tops off of a few stubborn schlage F-series knob cylinders with the compressing bibles using a pick gun.

Yeah, that was the poorest decision Schlage could have made (next to their secure key abortion)

[jeffmoss26]

I wouldn't totally call it broken, but I picked a Sargent Signature and had to take the whole thing apart and put it back together in order to get the plug to turn back to the locked position.

[buddykiller]

no locks broken YET. my master lock 6835 had a problem with pin 3 feeling like it wasn't there until i took it apart and couldn't find anything wrong, now it's just like it was when i took it out of the box (save some scratching on the face of the plug). i did, however, break a pick on my no. 3. i was stupidly trying to set a pin that was already set using a ton of tension and a slim profile pick ah well, if we never make mistakes we can never learn from them, and mistakes are sometimes the best lessons.

[bjornnrojb]

I just broke a lock by picking it last week. An SC cylinder had some really small master pins in it, probably .015 or .020, and when I picked the lock these went above the shear line. When I turned the cylinder 180 to pull the bolt all the way back, these wafers fell into the bottom of the plug and when I rotated the cylinder back the little master pins were stuck between the plug and the bottom of the keyway, meaning no keys could go in there anymore. I didn't realize this until I had shimmed the lock and hammered the plug out. Then the little master pins came out!
Also one of my customers who is a fan of lockpicking orders kind of expensive padlocks, and picked one in a similar way. Only problem was there were no bottom pins in this lock he ordered! There was no good way to get the plug to turn back except I suppose a comb pick. Couldn't force the plug to turn back and ruin the springs because this lock was designed in such a way that without bottom pins all the top pins traversed the sheer line.
So there you have it, some great real world examples of ruining locks by lockpicking. If you live in an apartment complex and you try picking your deadbolt and turn the plug 180 degrees, you very well may have the same problem that I did. Better locksmiths don't use top pins smaller than .030 in KW or SC master systems because of just such problems (particularly in KW cylinders with a lot of slop, a .020 can get caught between the plug and the housing and jam the whole cylinder) but those systems with .010 even are out there, I get calls to fix jammed locks where one of these ends up being the culprit a few times a year.

[nite0wl]

A couple months ago I managed to destroy my favorite Master Lock 410 at a TOOOL meeting. Not by picking per se but by trying to lock it back up. The 410 has a hollow body, an American Lock style cylinder (pin channels drilled from opposite the bible) and the only restriction on plug over-rotation is having the key inserted. I accidentally turned the plug the wrong way (past the normal keystop) and dumped several of the key pins into the hollow spaces of the body. I ended up having to saw the thing open to salvage most of the cylinder.