Wieser Dead Bolt

[RDC-1]

I am just learning to pic, I have been practicing on Padlocks,. I thought I would try a dead bolt lock which is on my furnace room door a Wiser make probably from Home depot.

I put my tension bar in it and inserted my City Rack and when I lifted up the Rack broke.

My question is : am I doing this wrong for this type of lock or is it just a cheap Rake, I have not attacked this lock with another pick for fear of breaking another one.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Jacob Morgan]

It is generally not a good idea to practice on a lock in use--the lock could be jammed in the locked position, for example.

What brand of rake were you using? Anything by Peterson, South-Ord, Sparrows, HPC, LAB, Majestic, Mad Bob, etc., should not have broken unless you badly misused them. If you are starting out, you may want to stick to thicker picks, as opposed to the very thin ones from Peterson and others. Thin picks are not needed for Dexter deadbolts and similar locks. The thin picks are good for really tight keyways.

[RDC-1]

Thank you Jacob,
I didn't have a choice of picks(make) it was a set given to me for Christmas from my son. The Brand is Goso 24 pick set with practice lock/
I have not had any trouble with the other picks in this set. Touch Wood !!

The lock was not jammed with anything. it was on a door leading to our furnace room and who knows where the keys went. Therefore it's not in use.

I tried to contact Goso but to no avail, emails do not work, went to their face book page sent a message > No reply
. Needless to say not impressed with their service. I guess it pays to deal with a more reputable company and buy a quality product from the start.

I really like this as a hobby so I will invest in a better quality set for sure.

[billdeserthills]

Unfortunately the Goso brand is known to be of low quality, if you want a cheap but decent
set of picks, try Klom

[Jacob Morgan]

To clarify, the concern was not that a jamed lock would break a pick, but rather that trying to pick a lock might jam the lock open or closed. Hence the recommendation on this site not to pick locks that are in use. (Unless it is a lockout situation, etc.)

Second Bill's observation on pick quality. I have the same hook pick I got 20 years ago, made by Majestic. Personally, I would go with South-Ord if you are on a budget. And you do not need a large number of picks. A hook, a diamond, and a rake or a snake is all you really need. I have wasted a lot of money over the years on special picks, only to give up on them and then open the lock with my old Majestic hook. At some point, wrenches start to be the focus and I have at least as many wrenches as picks in my kit.

My observation of most things copied in China is that they are just aping a design and they do not know, and do not care, what the thing is actually supposed to do. You're better off spending an extra couple of dollars to get a pick from a company that works closely with either locksmiths or locksport.