by Svensontini » 28 Aug 2019 20:16
Hi Guys,
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Not exactly a pick, but I recently made a tool that's working well.
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We have a lot of lock cylinders at work that the guys never tagged with which keys they are. I usually try the usual suspects, but if I don't find the right key quickly I just shim it open.
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Usually I use a blank key to lift the pins, but I also occasionally use a pick (or a combination of the two on stubborn locks! We use mostly Corbin Russwin and they seem to be a bit tighter in tolerance than Kwiksets, etc., so if you get a particularly dirty lock, they can get STUBBORN! (carb cleaner, followed by Houdini seems to help here)).
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Most of our locks are drilled six and keyed five, though we do have some six pin profiles in use. I found some seven pin key blanks (one of the buildings that had apartments in it years ago used 1-1/4" mortise locks with 7 pins in them), so I filed a less extreme slope on the nose of it - this lifts the pins a bit slower and seems to make shimming a bit easier.
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I made this one so it works with six pin profiles, but it's working well enough I'm thinking I may file one with a bit less slope for use just on five pin locks to see if it'd work even better.
