How to tension American locks?

[Mr_Bones]

I prefer to use bottom tension, what is a good way to do this with the American keyway? An 1105 is really giving me trouble.

[Squelchtone]

[Topic Moved from Lock Picks to Locks]

[zeke79]

For bottom tension you need a wrench that fits snug and won't drag on the cylinder at the bottom of the keyway. My best advice is to pick up some Peterson flat 5s and a prybar and learn tok tensioning.

[Squelchtone]

For bottom tension you need a wrench that fits snug and won't drag on the cylinder at the bottom of the keyway. My best advice is to pick up some Peterson flat 5s and a prybar and learn tok tensioning.

+1

I always tension American's with Top of Keyway tensioning, sometimes I pick them counter clockwise which doesnt open the lock but helps me figure out pin lengths, then I pick it clockwise.

good advice zeke!
Squelchtone

[nite0wl]

For bottom tension you need a wrench that fits snug and won't drag on the cylinder at the bottom of the keyway. My best advice is to pick up some Peterson flat 5s and a prybar and learn tok tensioning.

+1

I always tension American's with Top of Keyway tensioning, sometimes I pick them counter clockwise which doesnt open the lock but helps me figure out pin lengths, then I pick it clockwise.

good advice zeke!
Squelchtone

I also prefer ToK tensioning for American Locks. I find the keyway and their pin patterns just don't allow edge tensioning to work very well, even with extremely thin Euro-profile picks. My personal favorite tools for this tensioning them are the two toothed Peterson Pry-bars. I find most of the Flat-5 set to be a bit too thin for the usual American Lock keyways and the rather heavy resistance of the locking cam.

[zeke79]

For bottom tension you need a wrench that fits snug and won't drag on the cylinder at the bottom of the keyway. My best advice is to pick up some Peterson flat 5s and a prybar and learn tok tensioning.

+1

I always tension American's with Top of Keyway tensioning, sometimes I pick them counter clockwise which doesnt open the lock but helps me figure out pin lengths, then I pick it clockwise.

good advice zeke!
Squelchtone

Thanks Squelchtone! You can also pick them counter clockwise as you said and use a plug spinner to rotate you the right way past sheer line. I have had great luck with petersons plug spinner. Not to sound like a fanboy.

[Misticmight]

American 1105 padlocks are actually pretty good, make sure you use almost no tension and absolutely avoid binding up the first pin if you use tok, as its very easy to do on Americans

[knowspicker537]

I ve been trying off and on to pick this American padlock, I haven't been able to figure out how much tension to use it feels like I should use a lot but I barely can get the first false set