Is the lock broken?

[spoonzor]

Hey all,

Here's the story. I have a very cheap Chinese deadbolt that I like to carry in my pocket to practice on when waiting for the train etc.
I picked it many many many times and now usually have it open within seconds. So fast, that I started to worry if the lock might be broken. It often feel's like I only set 2 or 3 pins, not all 5, and the lock pops open already. So, I took the lock apart, changed the pins around to try and make it a bit harder (low/high pins next to eachother etc), and to see if everything still looked as it should.

I noticed the key pins had some scratches on the bottom (key side) from my raking practice, apart from that the lock still looks as new. All driver pins and springs are fully intact.

Changing the order of the pins did make me learn how to handle over set pins better (do you call this "reverse picking?") but it didn't change the challenge much besides that. I still [feel like I] only have to set about 2 or 3 pins.

So what do you think is going on here? (some options that i thought of myself are..)
a. Some pins are so worn down that they set themselves?
b. I just 'accidentally' set the other 3 pins without noticing it, maybe setting 2 or more pins at a time with the shaft of the pick (mostly small half diamond)?
c. Wiggling the tension wrench in locked position is not enough to reset all the pins and some pins remain set from a previous pick?
d. Scratches on some (key) pins make them fail to reset? (if the driver pins are in bad shape i could understand that, but only the key pins where scratched)
Or my favorite: e. something else?

I hope it's just a result of my progress, not from the lock. Have been looking for better quality locks around here (Thailand), but so far no luck (only very expensive ones or very cheap ones, nothing in between).

Best, Spoon

[spoonzor]

I actually tried again with the keypins turned upside down, because i noticed the key pins are a bit rounded at the top (where they are supposed to hit the driver pins) and more flat on the bottom (where they are supposed to touch the key). It didn't make any difference.

I tried to make a picture to show the scratches on the key pins.
Click here: http://zaakzorg.nl/pins.png (putting the image in the post screwed with the forum layout, so here is a link instead)
in the picture it actually looks worse than to the naked eye because of the shades in the scratch lines produced by the flash.
As you can see there are some scratches on the cylinder too that might explain what is going on here, but again it looks worse on the picture, those scratches are not very deep at all and I hardly noticed them until I looked at this picture.

As you can see the lock is of the famous brand "IsOn", I'll never put that on my door, and my plug follower is of the famous "ballpoint with some paper and tape around it". I think i'll ask a shop around here to make some nice plug followers for me with the pin holder on each end.

[spoonzor]

after putting it back together it got even worse. If insert my small half diamond and set the 5th pin the lock is open.
If i look into the lock and push the pins one by one they all spring back, telling me that the driver pins are pushing the key pins.
If i enter the lock from the back, trying to set the 5th without touching any other pins it doesn't work (the pin is not even binding).
Thus my conclusion: I'm setting all the pins in one go with the shaft of the pick. (correct?)

By the way, the original key that came with the lock doesn't work as I changed position of the key pins, so the tolerance is not THAT big.

Still the question: how is this possible?! Is the lock so extremely worn down "just" from picking it about 1000 times including some days of intensive raking practice?
Is it the cylinder that is worn at the sheer-line (as a result of HEAVY tension when I started out) that makes the tolerance on this lock HUGE? Since I don't directly see how worn down key pins could make this happen.

[smokingman]

I think the reason is , the chinese don't make them like they used to.
Ancient chinese locks were a work of art.
All the modern china locks I have seem to scream and fall open at the sight of a pick.

[mh]

A key will lift all pins to a specific height and the wrong height will block.
The middle part of the pick can jiggle the pins a bit so that they set (if it's a not-so-well-made lock).

Cheers
mh