This trick was actually taught to me by a pro locksmith of 40 years. . .you need a specialized tension wrench, but you can make it yourself. See, tubular locks work similarly to pin tumbler locks in that there are top pins, bottom pins and springs. They're just arranged in a circle instead of a straight line. When you insert the key, it pushes the pins back to the shear line, and the cylinder can rotate.
Those $60 tubular lock picks are actually pretty good. . .I had one once, and for the right type of lock it could open it in under 15 seconds. The specialized picks available from places like Lockmasters for $300 (for a Peterson) are brilliant. They allow you to fine-tune the picking needle for each pin using adjustable screws, rather than just sliding arms.
But anyways, here's the Poor Man's Tubular Picking Technique. . .
Take a regular lock pick from your set, no fancy handles, just a flat piece of cold rolled spring steel, right? Turn it around to the handle end. Since most picks have a rounded end, cut off the rounded part so it's square. Then grind or cut the handle below that so you're left with something looking like a perfectly square, sideways "U". Grind or cut away the handle below that U, so the end product comes out looking something like this: (Pick head) M______/|||||||||||||\____||__|| (Modified handle)
The two fingers poking up from the "U" should be measured and cut to fit perfectly into the track of the tubular lock you want to pick. The outer finger (on the very end) will go in the notch that you use to line up the key. The inner finger should fit perfectly in the track on the opposite side of the cylinder. Each finger will only need to be about one to two millimeters wide, depending on the size of the lock.
Using this as your tension wrench, apply gentle pressure to the wrench in the direction you want the tubular lock to turn. Take a straightened paper clip, and starting by the notch, push one pin down at a time, going around counterclockwise, until you feel one that sticks and is hard to push. Push that one in, and hopefully it will stick at the shear line. Start again at the notch, going counterclockwise, round the circle, until you find another pin that's hard to move. Skip any you've already picked, of course. Eventually, with luck (and practice) you'll have all 7 (or
pins at the shear line.
The reason this works is the same reason normal picking works. Because no pin holes can be lined up absolutely perfectly during the machining process, one pin suddenly coming to the shear line will allow the lock cylinder to turn a microscopic amount. This amount may be just enough to allow another pin that might otherwise not have reached the shear line properly to now do so.
Hope this helps. Happy picking!
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