Impressioning tubular locks

[Donny]

Hi everyone, this is my first post but i must say that i spent a few dozen hours on the forums reading as much info as i could because there is so much of it. Im trying to learn the trade enough to become an apprentice.

I recently learned impressioning and i was wondering if it is possible to do it with a tubular lock. I can pick some of them with a modified allen wrench that just fit in the lock but i would like to learn other and faster ways to bypass them without drilling. What type of file would you use for impressioning them if its possible by hand?

I am also wondering if the southord tubular lock picks can also pick smaller type ace 2, i dont think so but can someone confirm this? I might buy them anyway and make my own smaller version for those nifty smaller tubular.


Thank you for your time

David

[stick]

As far as I know, you should be able to impression tubular locks. In fact, it seems like tubular picks operate on the same principle as impressioning.

[Donny]

Yep i was aware of that but i am wondering if it would be possible to do it with a tubular key blank instead of a specialized tubular pick.

[ufd538]

yes, in fact some company makes a tool for impressionioning them....don't recall who though....maybe pro lok? Yeah the tool holds the key and there is a groove in each spot a pin should be and a nice little file that fits in the groove.

I have never seemed to think of trying to impression these when I had the time....But i would imagine it would require a circular rocking motion.

I usually just pick them with an ace round pick and read the cuts from the pick.

[guard70]

I've seen tools for impressioning tubular recently as well. I believe it was either a-1 at demanda1.com or pro-lok. Impressioning tubular is probably a lot less common since it is soooo easy to decode the cuts of a tubular pick and cut perfect key. For portable cutters A-1 has one called the Herty-Gerty and HPC offers one called something like the pocket-cutter?

[raimundo]

try impressioning it in plastic, like the barrel of a bic pen, and then read the impressions and cut it into a key blank. if you do not have the machine to cut an ace key, a fine flat file crossing the blank can do it if you understand the spacing and other principles of the lock. I have some keys made this way, the locks are quite forgiving for cutting by eye.

[xodishox]

wow i never knew you could impression tubular locks, ive learnt a lot since i joined

[monkeE]

Yeah, I believe the media went crazy with this a few months ago. Remember the BIC pen scandal that could "unlock all bike locks"? No ones bike was safe! (or so the scare tactic media reported).

Sometimes the BIC pen trick for unlocking kryptonites and similar tubular lock actually works on impressioning (sometimes on jsut pushing the bottom of the bottom pins to the sheer line).

Hope this helps you get some ideas on Ãœber fast impressioning of tubular locks.

monkeE

[xodishox]

i love the small padlock exploit lol, all the pins are so small they r nearly touching the shear line, all you gotta do is turn lol