Electrical box locked?

[Squelchtone]

Hey guys! I am new to the forum and quite frankly new to the world of lock picking. So please be easy on me. . The lock in question is one that is on my main electrical box in the house. This house was a recent purchase and we haven't had to touch it for a while but long story short I blew a fuse and need to access it, obviously there's no key. This lock also looks simple enough that it encouraged me to actually want to get some lock picks rather than destroy it. My question to you is what kind of picks would I want to use and just where to start? Oh and yes I tried the screw but the seemed to be useless. Maybe they have something else holding them in.


http://i60.tinypic.com/16m6snc.jpg

[WittyNameHere]

Looks like you've got a pretty basic single sided wafer lock, there. You often find these on electrical lock boxes, tool chests, mail boxes, and file cabinets. In my (limited) experience, cheap wafers like that are fairly simple to pick using the pics in even the most basic of sets. Some are so sloppy that you can basically just apply light tension and wiggle a pick around and it will pop.

As wafer locks have less depth options than conventional pin tumblers and frequently have a lower number of pins, they are highly susceptible to raking. If you want to pick this lock and you're interested in getting started with picking in general, buy a tension wrench, S rake, half diamond pick, and hook pick. You should then be good to go for this lock and you'll have a good base kit to build upon. Shouldn't cost more than $20.

Refer to this thread for more info on wafer locks and how they can be compromised. viewtopic.php?f=9&t=43881

[AER]

Thanks for the info! I'm exited to start working on it.

[WittyNameHere]

No problem.

Edit: Not a huge difference, but I actually meant C rake not S rake. Although, confusingly, a C rake is shaped like the letter S.

[Squelchtone]

Please take no offense to this or all the offense you want, but we get people here once in a while who have literally 1 post, just joined today, post a close up cell phone photo of a lock they just need to get into, and 9 times out of 10 its something like a utility cabinet, utility meter, vending machine, apartment complex cleaning closet, a college dorm room, etc and since this is the internet and I cant validate your story easily, please help us feel more at ease by posting a photo of this entire electrical panel because I have frankly never seen a locked breaker panel in anyone's house in my life. We want to help all who come here, but it doesn't hurt to to validate a story.

Please understand we are going on many many past posts JUST like this one and many of those turned out to be people trying to get into something they maybe had access to, but no right to be getting into.

If I totally misunderstood your situation, all apologies, but please try to see it from our point of view.

Thank you,

The Management

[illusion]

You may not even need picks - a stiff piece of material cut to the size of the keyhole and with a series of random cuts into it would probably work with some jiggling.