Understanding what the feedback is telling me.

[Matt W]

Hi guys,

I'm having trouble understanding what the feedback in my picks and tension wrenches is telling me.
Here are the following scenarios of feedback that I don't know what it means when I'm feeling it:

1) I can feel the pins moving freely (no resistance/friction) up and down in the chamber.

2) I can feel resistance/friction when lifting the pins with the pick.

3) Sometimes when I feel resistance lifting the pins, there comes a point where I feel and hear a click. When this happens sometimes the pins lock in place and others times I can still push the pins up a little more. Is this what's referred to as a false set or over settings?

4) Sometimes when I'm lifting a set of pins, it causes my tension wrench to push back a little bit. What is happening inside the lock when this happens?

Thanks,
Matt

[demux]

For number 4, that's called counter rotation. That means that you've encountered a pin stack with a security pin (spool, serrated, etc) installed which is in a false set (e.g. one of the smaller sections of the pin is at the shear line which allowed the plug to turn slightly, but the pin stack is not truly set) and as you're pushing up on that security pin, that force is trying to push one of the wider parts of the pin up through the shear line.

For number 3, the click indicates the pin stack you're working on is set. It could be a false set or a true set, see my answer to number 4 above. If you continue to lift that stack and you get counter rotation, the set was false and you'll need to continue lifting until you get a click out of that stack again. Note you may need to set other pin stacks in the lock first for this to happen, depending on the order that particular lock wants to bind. If that stack won't lift any further, it's either a true set or a very deep false set. In the event of the latter, you may need to relax tension a bit and let that stack drop, then try it again from the beginning (this is one of the reasons security pins make it much harder/longer to pick a lock).

All of the above of course assumes we're talking here about single pin picking pin tumbler locks.

[pemlock]

LockPickingLawyer posted a series of videos a few months back with cut-away locks that shows you what's going on while picking locks.

The three basic ones are:

Standard pins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_sy3dLwHkc
Spool pins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqd9DPrgi3g
Serrated pins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muPJjTBuYHY

The second one will answer your questions about false sets and the "push back" (counter rotation).