What did you pick today?

[KPick]

The only job I had to do today was to pick the car door open for the owner. I don't understand why it was such a 20 minute job to open the door. It's a wafer tumbler lock and for some reason it acted more like a double sided pin tumble lock with 8 pins spooled up. Thank god I got it open with the jigglers. In the end, the guy was happy and so was I when I walked away with some extra money for my business. I'm thinking about getting patches for my clothes that say my name in script lettering and the company name at the bottom. Sort of like a mechanics patch, but better

[daniel22747]

I can now rake open my medeco 5 pin padlock. It is a driverless cam lock in a padlock body.

Still working on single pin picking it however.

[logically]

I finally figured out to open my masterlock #5 padlock I was having such a hard time with. I have to use my long hook pick at the steepest angle possible and rake back with the curve of the pick. If I do that with my tension wrench just on the inside edge of the keyway with very light tension I can usually pop it within 2-3 min. I know it's only a masterlock, but for me it feels great to finally open it more consistently.

[GWiens2001]

Very good, logically. It feels great when you finally figure out a lock that has driven you crazy.

Gordon

[nite0wl]

Today's list of victims;
Master Lock: 1, 3, 5, 40, 130, 140, 3x 141
American Lock 701, 706 (both bypassed)
Abus: 55/40, 80TI/50

A friend donated an old camera so that I could try my hand at making some picking videos. Needless to say, every attempt on camera either took four times as long as usual or broke tools. Now I am down both Peterson AL bypass tools, just before HOPE and with demos promised to TOOOL.

[KPick]

WEEAK

[Divinorum]

American Series 50 Padlock. Non-Rekeyable, Key Retaining. Lots of crunchy serrations and some spools. I plan on drilling out the retaining pin and hopefully making it rekeyable.

[KPick]

It should make it re key able. I've seen it done before with one of those suppose non rekeyable locks.

[phrygianradar]

I have been picking my Mul-T locks lately… I picked a 4 pin Interactive and a 5 pin interactive as well as a cool MTL Classic that is for a car "club" type of thing.

But the crazy thing that I picked today is a very strange story sort of. I bought this lock off eBay that is a Schlage padlock that can take an SFIC lock. It was sold without keys and had an Instakey core in it. My plan was to pick the core out and put my own core in because it is a really nice looking shiny padlock! I see them at Frys electronics; same type with Instakey cores, but I am not sure if that is where this one is from because I got it as is. So I finally got it in the mail this morning and thought that I would see if I could get lucky picking it to control with my triple bogota. I got the plug to turn a few times but no luck with the control pick. I am not sure how much I can say about Instakey locks on here but they tend to have really extreme high low high low type of bitting for their control keys… anyway, about five minutes go by and my bogota pick breaks off in the lock… deep in the lock. It is a seven pin lock and I'm in deep. The sucky part is that I wasn't even being rough with the tool (honestly! I was caressing it; or at least I thought I was…), so I try to pull the broken piece out and it just gets jammed further back in the lock. The warding on this one is nasty too. The pick was in kind of sideways and all three humps are broken off and in the lock now. After trying to fish the piece out it is so jammed in there I can't even see it anymore. So now I am thinking about destructive entry . I was just sort of raking the front pins with another pick and I still had the tension wrench in when all of a sudden - click - the sucker pops into control position! I was absolutely floored When I pulled the core out the bogota was holding up the back three or four pins and must have been in just the right place to act as the control key… incredible…

I took some pictures of it because I hardly believe it happened and I was there. I will have to upload them later and show everybody what I am talking about. That was one of the most amazing things to happen picking an sfic core ever; my broken pick actually acting as the key with it's high low high low thing… spooky.

[GWiens2001]

Sounds like a waste of a good bogota, PR. But hey, at least you got the core out! Lookin' forward to those pictures.

Gordon

[KPick]

+1 on the picture request

Aha that is kinda strange that you got the lock into control position with a broken piece of a pick inside the lock. It's sort of funny, but since the problem has been solved... good!

[phrygianradar]

Sounds like a waste of a good bogota, PR. But hey, at least you got the core out! Lookin' forward to those pictures.

Gordon

Yeah, I was really PO'ed about the broken bogota plus I bought the lock thinking it would be a fun project to work on until I finally got the core picked to control and removed. I thought it would take at least a day or possible way longer. I never thought it would end up coming out the way it did...




You can see how wedged in there the piece is:

I couldn't remove it without turning the plug back to 12 O'clock and releasign the pins!



Here is what the lock looks like:


Enjoy!

[mseifert]

I was up by Ft Hood, Texas today stopped in a Surplus Shop and found this American 5200 (Date Stamp OEFF4).. Couldn't pass it up for $9.50

[KPick]

950? Wow he might as well have let you keep it at that price.

[logically]

Wow phrygianradar what a cool story.

I have broken three picks since I have started. And I was able to get them out of the lock fairly easily.

But for it to get broken, stuck, and help you pick to control is quite the interesting chain of events! That seems like one of those things you couldn't even do if you tried on purpose. Thanks for sharing!