Are cheap padlocks worth the practise time?

[PBYOcarrol]

Hello,
I have been at the sport for a couple of months and still can’t SPP even the cheapest 4 pin locks from the hard ware store.
I spent some money on the Sparrows Dark Shift picks and have had them for a month but alas I can’t seem to get the open via SPP.
Am I wasting my time on these locks?

Thanks in advance.

[Kenneth_V]

it is never a waste of time, as long as you learn something from what you are doing.

The biggest issue many new pickers have is applying the correct amount of tension.

Think of trying to massage the lock open being firm yet gentle if that makes sense. Use enough tension on the core to get a pin to bind, you do not want to get not all the pins to bind at once. Once you find that binder, gently lift the binding pin til it clicks, move on to the next binding pin.

Once you get it once or twice it all falls into place!!

[blue60]

Hello,
I have been at the sport for a couple of months and still can’t SPP even the cheapest 4 pin locks from the hard ware store.
I spent some money on the Sparrows Dark Shift picks and have had them for a month but alas I can’t seem to get the open via SPP.
Am I wasting my time on these locks?

Thanks in advance.

Have you SPP any locks? not just cheap padlocks?
From your post it sounds like you are having issues with Single pin picking in general. If so I would recommend checking out this post by Digital_blue viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10677
Sometimes super cheap locks are harder to open by being so bad they are good, I know that sounds odd but as you learn how locks work you will see why this is the case .

[GWiens2001]

Blue60 is correct. The cheapest locks, due to their extremely lousy tolerances, can be very difficult to pick sometimes. There is so much slop that the pins can be tilted a little bit, hitting the shear like at an angle, especially under tension.

Gordon

[PBYOcarrol]

Great help everyone, thanks. The info and the link were very helpful.

[blue60]

I am glad that helped if you have any other questions just ask.

[PBYOcarrol]

Just an update,
Since following the training exercise on the link my skills have got much better.
I realise I was focusing too much on the picking rather than the tension applied.
Once I got more skilful with the tension I started to get a lot more opens with SPP.
Thx.

[Kenneth_V]

Thanks for the update. Glad you are having more success

90% of SPP is tension!!