I picked my first American 5200 lock!

[Squelchtone]

So happy. After many many attemps, today I opened it in about 2minutes. Found out the meaning of feather tension.

http://i.imgur.com/JNJmqRl.jpg

[Nightingangel]

[LocksportSouth]

Congrats! I have one of these too that I got without a key in a bundle of stuff from the US, not had any lock getting it open yet. Lots of nasty security pins in there.
Good going

[Nightingangel]

So I was looking at the American letter date code and couldn't figure out when mine was made. Suggestions? TNEr4, also this was an interesting pick because I needed a steep hook to get pin 1 and 4.

[Squelchtone]

I noticed some of the military ones have the long code but I usually ignore the ending so yours looks like Sept 2010 if we follow the old date code chart here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=44614#p341427

Perhaps someone here can call American Lock and ask them what the newer numbers stand for. I think only we collectors and hobby pickers are interested in such things, I doubt a normal locksmith would every bother looking up a padlock date code.

Update: I just left them a message, let's see if they get back to me.

[Squelchtone]

Ok, Master Lock customer service replied to my inquiry.



So continue to use the American Lock date code as usual, and ignore the 4th and 5th number/letter as they are manufacturing related and not date code related.

Squelchtone

[GWiens2001]

Thank you for the update, Squelch.

Gordon

[Nightingangel]

So I finally got around to taking it apart. Mostly standard pins with one weird pin. I'm thinking it was challenging for me because of how dirty it was. Seemed like the whole thing was caked in carbon like substance. Now I just have to wait for my shipment to arrive so I can attempt to make a key. Once again thank you all.

[GWiens2001]

Ahh, one of the new 5200 locks with no security pins except for the BumpStop pin. Almost ridiculous how easy these are to pick. Can hardly believe they dropped using the decent security pins.

Gordon

[Nightingangel]

Ahh, one of the new 5200 locks with no security pins except for the BumpStop pin. Almost ridiculous how easy these are to pick. Can hardly believe they dropped using the decent security pins.

Gordon

Yeah, I was definitely expecting more of a challenge from this one. 3/6 I have I've picked so far. This is the only one I've taken apart thus far. Hopefully the other ones have some cool stuff in them to surprise me.

[GWiens2001]

The keyway should let you know. The older keyway uses security pins, the newer one does not.

Here is a thread on the differences.

Gordon

[Nightingangel]

The keyway should let you know. The older keyway uses security pins, the newer one does not.

Here is a thread on the differences.

Gordon

Amazing thread, I was looking for something like this I'm just terrible with words sometimes. Many thanks.

[kwoswalt99-]

The bump stop pin threw me when I first picked mine. It took me a while to figure out why none of the pins would bind.

[Nightingangel]

The bump stop pin threw me when I first picked mine. It took me a while to figure out why none of the pins would bind.

I can still get it to bind, just barely a difference. But 2 of the ones I've picked had no false set, one had a deepish false set, and the other I felt the false set but very hard to see by eye. So far all of the ones I've picked are the newer ones, still tricky for me to pick but at least I can eventually.