What did you pick today?

[Syl]

Just received three Schlage rim cylinders from Ebay and I already got one picked.

That's my first five-pin unlock.



EDIT: Now popped it four times. Binding order seems to be 2-1-3-5-4.

[Syl]

A few miscellaneous observations after opening this Schlage cylinder about twenty times.

Although I have been picking it 2-1-3-5-4, I can also get 2-3-1-5-4 to work. pins 4 and 5 refuse to bind until others are bound. Pin 3 will bind at first, but setting any other pin next will cause it to drop again. This is the first lock I've tried in which pins will drop back down when other pins are set. Frustrating!

I seem to have to put at least double the pressure on this Schlage cylinder than on any of the padlocks that I own. Which brings me to a revelation I've just had:

I think I may have what seems to be a rare case of too light of a touch on the tension wrench. Because most of the advice I had been seeing was to go lighter (unless you're prying open an R70), I kept getting thrown off and trying to go lighter and lighter. I put so little tension on the plug that I can't set any pins most of the time. I'm glad I have this figured out now as that had really been doing my head in. I honestly can't imagine how someone would break one of these picks.

The springs in this cylinder are definitely stiffer than those in the other locks I've picked so far. This also helped me to identify my issue with going too light on the lock.

Please excuse the double post. I know that it is bad form, but apparently there is a time limit on edits.

[1mrchristopher]

Congratulations, and well done. Better to have your tension too light and learn to add more, than to have to try and learn to use less.

[Syl]

Thank you!

This one's tougher.



Binding order: 5-2-3-1-4 and 5-3-2-1-4

Is it normal to be angling my pick off of the lower left warding in the Schlage keyway to manipulate pins? Like so:

[Syl]

Geez. This last one was the most difficult. Not because of that low pin in front, either. I don't know. It just took forever.

I'm trying to get them without looking at the keys, but I admit to examining the key on this one for sure.



Edit: Got it once more. Definitely 5-3-2-1-4.

[Comrade627]

I can see oversetting 1 reaching for another. Nice job.

[Robotnik]

I can see oversetting 1 reaching for another. Nice job.

Most definitely. Deep cut in the first position can leave very little room to work depending on when the pin binds/sets, especially in a restrictive key way like Schlage.

[Squelchtone]

http://s1.postimg.org/le5cfnx5r/SDC11502.jpg
This goldcity lock was quite a challenge due to the abnormally small keyway. I had trouble finding the best way to tension it and almost decided to create a custom wrench to use just with this lock. A top of the keyway approach would not work since the deep impression would cause the wrench to slip out of position when picking. However, after a little testing, I found that the fat end of the flatbar tension wrench included with my klom navigator set fit snugly against the side of the keyway while giving me just enough room to get a thin pick beside of it to set the pins. I found that very light tension is best. It is a 4 pin lock.

http://s12.postimg.org/3znoyhwod/open.jpg

Below, you can see the keyway compared to a Master Lock 130.
http://s3.postimg.org/qwhvcdopf/lockcompare.jpg

[Syl]

Wow, that is small! I assume the 130 uses the same or similar core that the 140 uses? I have a 140 here and it may be my smallest keyway.

Also, I just learned something very cool about these Schlage cylinders with C-type keyways. When I think I have them set, but they don't turn, I can zip them once with my snake and they usually pop open! Are the shear lines on these super sharp? That would explain all the times I couldn't figure out what was going on when it seemed like I had all the pins correctly set.

Is this still considered single-pin picking, or am I cheating?

[classicdeluxe]

Is this still considered single-pin picking, or am I cheating?

It is not technically cheating, but may not qualify entirely for single pin picking. If you feel that everything is set and none of the pins seem to be moving, what may be happening is that you have overset one or more of the pins. If so, when you use the rake, it could correct the oversets by rocking them to the correct position. Congratulations on your pick. I am sure with a little practice, you can single pin pick it entirely.

[Squelchtone]

Thank you!

This one's tougher.

If you rotated this plug counter-clockwise to get it to that position, I recommend having your wrench at 7 oclock pointing to the left, versus the way it is in this photo at 2 oclock pointing to the top right. It is more natural to rest a finger on the wrench, than to pull up on the wrench with a hooked finger.

also, everyone, please use 800x600 inline photos using the [IMG] tags, and if your photos are something huge like 3000x3000 use the [URL] links instead, or upload to imgur.com and use Edit to Resize them before using [IMG] inline tag.

Squelchtone

[Syl]

If you rotated this plug counter-clockwise to get it to that position, I recommend having your wrench at 7 oclock pointing to the left, versus the way it is in this photo at 2 oclock pointing to the top right. It is more natural to rest a finger on the wrench, than to pull up on the wrench with a hooked finger.

also, everyone, please use 800x600 inline photos using the [IMG] tags, and if your photos are something huge like 3000x3000 use the [URL] links instead, or upload to imgur.com and use Edit to Resize them before using [IMG] inline tag.

Squelchtone

I was rotating it clockwise using the tip of my index finger. It just happened to land like that when I set it down to take the photo, I guess. Thanks for the advice!

I did read the inline image rules, which is why I have appended an 'l' to the end of the filename in each image URL. For imgur links, this forces the smaller version to display. The largest image dimension I have posted is 640px. If this is too large, I'll be happy to make sure things are smaller in the future.
But, I do see that you edited some images above, but not mine, so I am going to assume this comment is not for me.

If you feel that everything is set and none of the pins seem to be moving, what may be happening is that you have overset one or more of the pins. If so, when you use the rake, it could correct the oversets by rocking them to the correct position.

Yeah, that's the other thought I had. I'm sticking with this. I'm going to get it.

[Mitchell S]

Lockwood Assa Abloy
Entertaining pick, 5 pins, all shallow spools that liked to get caught up on the sheer line.

[l0ckcr4ck3r]

Nice picking Mitch!! Have they basically got the Assa pins inside them?

[Mitchell S]

It didn't have any nice Christmas tree pins unfortunately, just shallow spools for all 5. They look like assa pins though.