What did you pick today?

[Mitchell S]

today i was able to pick my first Yale 800 took me about 5 mins

Without pics, it's like it never happened

[davesnothere11]

Today I repeatedly picked a Defiant deadbolt. 5 pins 3 of which are spools. I could feel all the sets and false sets and finally knew what was bout to happen.

I know it ain't much, but to me it's everything.

[Robotnik]

Today I repeatedly picked a Defiant deadbolt. 5 pins 3 of which are spools. I could feel all the sets and false sets and finally knew what was bout to happen.

I know it ain't much, but to me it's everything.

Aw, man; puts a smile on my face reading something like that. Congrats and nice work!

[teranaut]

I picked my way out of a wet paper bag recently and got back into opening locks without keys. I took a hiatus from seriously picking while I was finishing up my master's thesis but rekindled the drive when a friend called me to take a look at a pinball machine he had recently purchased. I arrive and am told that it came out of an arcade in Idaho and sat in storage for a few years, so the original owner couldn't remember where the key was. A lot of you have probably heard a similar story a good number of times with events spiraling down the non-legal drain. I would have suspected similar except my friend has been moving his collection from firearms to pinball machines lately and has a number of them in his garage. (I will ask him next time I see him if it's cool to post a pic of his collection)

In any case; this Rocky and Bullwinkle machine needed the locks for the scoreboard and coin door opened so that the scoreboard could be repaired and the play field cleaned. The scoreboard opened with a couple of swipes from a wave rake with a shape similar to that of many Bogota picks. The lock on the scoreboard was one of those generic wafer locks that practically falls open as soon as you start manipulating it. The coin door lock would prove to be a new challenge for me though as it was a 7-pin ESD tubular lock and I have never picked a tubular before. In addition, I had no specialized tools in my arsenal with which to attack this lock with and ended up opening it with a short hook, a Peterson prybar, and a really slim shim to fill in the open space and keep the wrench from slipping side to side.

Long story short (TOO LATE), I was able to get the lock open and out of the coin door. Inside, we found the key for the scoreboard on the back of the coin door; right where it was supposed to be. I also pulled about thirty tokens out of the coin chute and trip mechanisms. Since he was adamant about paying me for my time, I told my buddy that I would accept payment in form of the lock which he had no key for. He agreed and here it is in the open position, still working on getting it back to 'locked'.

[Robotnik]

Yale lever/warded padlock. Didn't know these were hybrid lever locks...imagine how well my impressioning attempts went. Finally realized what I was dealing with, and picked it open using a homemade warded pick to turn the actuator, with a slim medium hook slipped in around it to pick the levers.

[femurat]

congrats for the opening robotnik.

how many levers does this padlock have? I counted 4, 2 on each side. I tried picking one this morning but failed.
do you have a picture of the pick you used to open it?

thanks

[Robotnik]

congrats for the opening robotnik.

how many levers does this padlock have? I counted 4, 2 on each side. I tried picking one this morning but failed.
do you have a picture of the pick you used to open it?

thanks

I counted four levers as well. With the slightly oval-shaped profile of the keyway, I was able to use a warded pick with a thinner profile than the original key, then pick around and above it with the hook in the picture.

[femurat]

Thanks for the pictures Robotnik. I used an L bent wire and a similar pick. I'll try again with a better shaped warded lock key and see if it opens. Dunno if the lock works because I got it without a key. The shackle pin has been driven out, probably to remove the lock from whatever it was attached to. Then it was hammered back in. It's pretty loose but it seems OK.

I'll let you know how this story ends

[Robotnik]

Corbin five pin master ring padlock. Worked hard for this one; early on, it seemed like I was setting pins to both shearlines. On the five pin lock, I would set three pins, then the lock would go dead. First three pins were set, back two were springy. Finally able to break through that wall. Next hurdle was the plug turning into the deeeepest false set I've experienced with a Corbin. Had to re-set the pins and start from scratch a few times before I finally set everything and turned the plug. All told, took me a couple hours spread over a few days for this.

Would love to make a set of keys, but outside of destructive disassembly, I don't really see a way to do this.

[femurat]

Congrats on the opening, you always pick very nice locks
I'd measure the pins height with the lock in the picked position. Then close it and impression a key cut a little less than the measure I got earlier. Worked for me a couple times. You may be able to measure just the first two or three pins but this is a good start anyway.

Good luck

[Robotnik]

Congrats on the opening, you always pick very nice locks
I'd measure the pins height with the lock in the picked position. Then close it and impression a key cut a little less than the measure I got earlier. Worked for me a couple times. You may be able to measure just the first two or three pins but this is a good start anyway.

Good luck

Appreciate the kind words, and the suggestion. Feeling for approximate pin heights and impressioning from there could at least give me an operating key, so I'll give that a go. Couldn't get a master key by this method (may just need a reeeally big set of Corbin tryout keys ), but at least I'd have a working lock.

Thanks!

[femurat]

Thanks for the suggestion Robotnik,
I copied the blank on a piece of steel and shaved away the sides. Used it as a tensor and picked the levers. Now the padlock is open.

Cheers

[Robotnik]

Glad to see you opened it; congrats!

Best of luck impressioning the key.

[kwoswalt99-]

@Robotnik. You could try impressioning that corbin.

[Yuriresner]

today i picked a dead bolt 5 pin schg. Opened it about 5 times today I need to order new locks to pick. I have picked all the locks I have way to many times, so this weekend i should getting my orders of my locks.