What did you pick today?

[UnlockingBoredom]

Last week I was on vacation with my family, told them I had started picking locks. They were curious, so I gave a 5 minute explanation of the principles and they all had a go at single pin picking of this Biltema padlock.


Two out of three of them got it open SPP within 10 minutes, these people knew nothing of locks beforehand, and I think at least one of them got the urge to start himself. I was a bit bummed though, my point was to prove that it's not easy...
Found this video of Norseman picking this lock. Watch until the end, the lock has some funny "secret tech" inside.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGnPw9jumfk

That video made me wonder about the 2 Biltima locks I have... They are the 50mm locks and I wanted to know if they were plastic inside as well.
Nope, they have what looks like an aluminum bible in there but they are just as easy to pick as the lock in the video.

My little plastic thing on the outside of the lock fell off just like the one in the video..

[marman]

Do you mean those Master locks on the picture on the previous page? They sure look similar, except for the brand name. I hope you don't mean the two Biltema locks I sent you...
Yeah, this lock exemplifies nicely why some (in Scandinavia) regard Biltema stuff as crap. But it served it's purpose well. The look on my little sister's face when she managed to open a lock without a key... priceless! Hoping to get her or my brother-in-law hooked, maybe a set of picks could be a good idea for her birthday which is not far away.

[femurat]

Saturday I went to a flea market and found this little cute padlock without a key. Had to buy it
Once at home I probed the levers with a bent wire to see if they moved and to my surprise the shackle moved a little.
So I tried to carefully probe all the levers, one by one. There is some warding inside the keyway but every lever can be pushed up. At a certain point there's some resistance. I lifted each lever till the "resistance" point and after a few tries the shackle popped open!

I looked into the shackle hole and noticed a flat steel spring that seemed to push on top of the levers. The padlock is quite small, less than 3 cm wide (a little more than 1 inch) so it's not easy to see inside that hole.

Cheers

[Valdo]

Nice opening! without a hobbs even
You should make a key now! ^^

[MatrixBlackRock]

Being a total newbie I cannot believe what I picked this afternoon, I dug out a couple of BEST IC padlocks I had on hand with control and operating keys, so I was able to determine they did operate and the type of core (7 pin) they had, so I locked one in my bench vise and with a slight tension, I was able to consistently get a few to five pins but nothing beyond that, I learned long ago, when I get frustrated it serves be best to walk away and work on something else.

Later on I gave it another try and this time I noticed I was hitting pin 7 (closest to the bow) with the shaft of the pick while trying to work pins 1,2,3, etc., effectively insuring a failure.

Himm, my solution was to carefully grind the shaft of the pick removing the slight taper it had and while making it somewhat weaker I could now get into the keyway without bumping into pin 7 or any other pins.

Time for a retry, first attempt felt good, like 6 pins, but no dice, second attempt and click it went into the control position and I could pull the core, I felt like a kid who just found a twenty on the floor of a candy store.

Once I recovered from that orgasm, I placed the second padlock in the vice and after 7 failures, I was about to give up, but on the eight try, click it went into control position, I freaking love it.

Now a question for those out there who know more than I, any clue as to why I cannot pick either of these cores to the open position, I tried and was able to pick both to control again, but even by cheating and looking at the operating key and having an idea where the sheer line I am aiming for is, I cannot pick either to an open position.

Wayne

[GWiens2001]

It could be that a lazy locksmith who pinned up the cores made all the cuts except for one or two the same, and the operating key bitting is higher than the control bitting.

Gordon

[bembel]

Old Zeiss-Ikon padlock. The core isn't spring loaded.



Dom S. The moving rings on the driver pins can be annoying.

[radical rob]

I picked 3 Kwikset 5-pin dead bolt locks, but they are getting so easy I re-pinned and re-keyed 2 of them to what I thought would be a tough pinning of high,low,high,low,and high but these Kwikset are so easy when I practice SPP I accidentally rake it open....pshhhh
Now on to this tricky little Master NO.140, I get all the pins set then when I try to attack the spooled security pin it just won't pick!!!!! theirs only 1 spooled security pin right??

[Mitchell S]

I picked 3 Kwikset 5-pin dead bolt locks, but they are getting so easy I re-pinned and re-keyed 2 of them to what I thought would be a tough pinning of high,low,high,low,and high but these <censored> Kwikset are so easy when I practice SPP I accidentally rake it open....pshhhh
Now on to this tricky little Master NO.140, I get all the pins set then when I try to attack the spooled security pin it just won't pick!!!!! theirs only 1 spooled security pin right??

Nope, should be 3 spools and one standard pin. Remember to keep light tension and really feel for the counter rotation. Resist the urge to go heavier and b!tch pick, you will overset pins and get the binding order wrong.

Good luck!

[Zenophryk]

rewiring an office yesterday. Basically merging one office with an adjacent office. Had to remove the old Telco demark and all the old wiring. There was an old Verizon T1 termination box mounted on the wall with a 7 pin tubular lock. So I got to try my tubular pick for the first time. Took about 15 seconds and it was open.

-Zenophryk

[Mitchell S]

A nice 700 series American



Guts

[nite0wl]

Being a total newbie I cannot believe what I picked this afternoon, I dug out a couple of BEST IC padlocks I had on hand with control and operating keys, so I was able to determine they did operate and the type of core (7 pin) they had, so I locked one in my bench vise and with a slight tension, I was able to consistently get a few to five pins but nothing beyond that, I learned long ago, when I get frustrated it serves be best to walk away and work on something else.

Later on I gave it another try and this time I noticed I was hitting pin 7 (closest to the bow) with the shaft of the pick while trying to work pins 1,2,3, etc., effectively insuring a failure.

Himm, my solution was to carefully grind the shaft of the pick removing the slight taper it had and while making it somewhat weaker I could now get into the keyway without bumping into pin 7 or any other pins.

Time for a retry, first attempt felt good, like 6 pins, but no dice, second attempt and click it went into the control position and I could pull the core, I felt like a kid who just found a twenty on the floor of a candy store.

Once I recovered from that orgasm, I placed the second padlock in the vice and after 7 failures, I was about to give up, but on the eight try, click it went into control position, I freaking love it.

Now a question for those out there who know more than I, any clue as to why I cannot pick either of these cores to the open position, I tried and was able to pick both to control again, but even by cheating and looking at the operating key and having an idea where the sheer line I am aiming for is, I cannot pick either to an open position.

Wayne

As GWiens mentioned, it could be a peculiarity of the bitting but, I have found that the tensioning tool and method is incredibly important when picking SFICs. If you use a ToK type tool/technique you will basically only ever be able to pick to the operating shearline but, with an edge of keyway tool (or the specialized SFIC tension tools that are available) you have a good chance of tensioning the control sleeve which makes it much more likely that you can pick it to control.

[Robotnik]

Best 6-pin padlock. This particular core was so thoroughly fouled with grease & grime when I bought it that the fifth and sixth pin stacks wouldn't even move. Simmered it in vinegar, dried, and hit it with some Tri-Flow. Finally picked it (to operating, unfortunately); took about an hour of total picking time over the course of a day.

Next up, I'll soak it with some BraKleen and attempt to finally hit control...this core's coming out one way or another. And no, I have no idea what the two drill/punch marks are on the knuckle underneath the core...

[Harry Tuttle]

American 3200s with off-brand Best 6 & 7 pin M cores & 6-pin A core... M cores picked to control.
Also, a 7-pin Master security bag.

[Harry Tuttle]

(Correction: American 3260s)