Single Pin Picking

[random_guy]

Hi,
Am Trying to pick this cheap padlock ( Am new to the business ). it has 4 pins and when I put my wrench I can feel the 2nd pin binding (solider than the rest). I set it, then I go for the 3rd. After that I cant feel either the 1st nor the 4th binding, they're still springy.

What is my mistake to be exact?.

I've watch several vids on lockpicking and read Gibson's lockpicking overkill tutorial.

Thankful

[femurat]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

If I should make a wild guess, you may have overset a pin. Or the tension wrench got caught between the plug and the cylinder hole, acting like a brake.

Can you show us a picture of your tools and lock?

Cheers

[ShadowXT]

If you have the key, a picture of the key will help too. Sometimes, you have some deep set pins and there are shallow pins in front of it. If your pick is not deep enough, as you set the deeper pin, the pick may push up the pin in front past the shear line. You may need to change you pick to one that can set the deeper pin without touching the other pin.

You may also have to change your tension wrench to use top of keyway instead of bottom of keyway if the tension wrench restricts the angle of your pick. Another thing to consider is to increase the tension and see if the other pins would bind with higher tension. You don't want to overtension, but you need to apply enough tension to identify the binding pin. You may release the tension slightly as you try to set the pin. The lockpickinglawyer prefers higher tension on certain locks.

[stratmando]

Lockpicklawyer recently had a lock from someone that couldn't be impressioned, lock was cheap, from another Country, turns out it was NOT a good lock with lots of faults, but DID have spool pins, and cylinder was made from plastic. Turns out you can't impression From a material that gives(plastic). Go with Femurat first.
Try more tension, Try less tension

[GWiens2001]

Turns out you can't impression From a material that gives(plastic).

We'll have to agree to disagree on that particular point. It may not be easy, but if you knife-edge the key blade, sometimes it will work.

Gordon

[stratmando]

Turns out you can't impression From a material that gives(plastic).

We'll have to agree to disagree on that particular point. It may not be easy, but if you knife-edge the key blade, sometimes it will work.

Gordon

Agreed, I actually don't believe "can't". Just tougher