Hit a speedbump, please advise...

[macaroni222]

So ive been lurking for a while, decided ive hit a bump and need some advice. So i stumbled onto some videos on youtube about lockpicking and fine decided to get some picks and learn. I got a few picks from southern specialties, and started with simple locks. I started with a master #3 and a similar yale. After watching a bunch of videos from bosnian bil, i moved onto a 5 pin brinks lock and then a master 140 to get to know security pins. I felt like i was starting to make actual progress to learning the skill and develop a sense of feel for spp'ing pins, feeling them move and even feeling the security pins in the master 140, manipulating the pins deliberately and not just randomly moving pins until the lock opened.
So heres where the wheels fell off. I went to habitat for humanity and found 2 schlage double cylinder deadbolts, along with some other schlage, kwikset, and baldwin cyclinders. The whole lot was $2. The 2 schlage deadbolts appeared to be brand new in the box, mfg in the late 70s according to the paperwork in the box. They are both keyed alike. So i strip down the deadbolts to bare cylingers and turn them into a set of progressive locks to train on. I remove pins and reassemble to make a 2,3,4,and 5, pin cylinder.
So with my southern specialties hook i set off to learn on these progressives. I fail miserabley. I can open the 2 pin reasonably often, but even the 3 pin has completely confounded me. Where i was starting to develop a touch for feeling the pins move in the padlocks i started with, i cant feel a pin set at all, when i release tension i can hear multiple pins unsetting but i never feel them set. I can get the "speed bump" but whem i push the pin i get nothing.
What am i doing wrong here? are the locks that much different? Even the pressure its taking to move a pin up in these locks makes it feel like im going to bend the delicate pick handles of the picks i got from southern specialities.

Thanks for reading my wall of text
TLDR;
went from padlocks to schlage progressive cylinders and feel like im starting over completely, need advice.

[DavePaulson]

I see nobody has responded to your question. I 'm fairly new to picking myself and I know how you feel. What tension method do you use? If not top of keyway I would start with that, with a peterson pry bar. I would get both the .050 and the.040 the're $10.00 each but I love them. https://www.thinkpeterson.com/tensiontools.htmlThe .050 is the one you will need for the Schalge deadbolts. Keep picking the two pin until you can open it easily and then maybe add pins to it. Keep us posted and good luck.

[femurat]

Usually cylinders require less tension than padlocks.
I agree about tok tension.
Keep trying and you'll succeed

[Kheops]

In my humble opinion your bump is that Schlage has much better tolerances (I find, particularly, older Schlage).

When you don't feel any pins setting, and yet, when you release tension you can hear them fall, there were perhaps one or more pins under-set, or over-set. In a very good lock, you can bind several pins at once, without any of them being at the shear line.

If, for instance, you use a lot of tension (which is quite possible, since you might not feel any binding without a lot of tension), and then keep the tension as you try to raise the 3rd pin stack to the shear line, it is quite possible that you touch or graze the first or second stack. With better locks, just grazing a pin, with a lot of tension can bind it, in an under-set position.

In a low end lock this doesn't happen much. The holes drilled in the cylinder for the pin stacks are often fairly misaligned, and so the "most" misaligned one binds, then the next, and so on. In high end locks, the deformation the actual metal of the plug and shell caused by the torque you're applying can "perfectly" align the holes.

Try applying fairly strong torque, while testing each pin for binding, one at a time. If several bind, without one standing out more, your are using too much torque (more than one pin doesn't immediately spring back down). Once you find one, and only one, that is binding, try easing up on the torque while raising the pin very slowly. Easing on the torque will keep your picks in better shape.

I've had the same set backs, and know how frustrating Schlage can be at first.

Good Luck!

[macaroni222]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I had it in my mind that these locks should be fairly straight forward for beginners, it puts my mind more at ease knowing that isnt necessarily the case. Ill keep at it.

Thanks again

[billdeserthills]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I had it in my mind that these locks should be fairly straight forward for beginners, it puts my mind more at ease knowing that isnt necessarily the case. Ill keep at it.

Thanks again

The kwikset you got should be just the ticket for you right now,
my only worry is that the lubricant the factory uses can turn into glue over the years, so don't forget to lube it up