Medco Question

[Pickermeapie]

I have never sucessfully picked a Medco, so heres my question. The slots in the pins line up with the sidebar, my only question is, once the pin has been turned to the appropiate "side" dose it stop, or can the pin rotate in the stack 360 degrees without ever coming to a stop?

[mcm757207]

It has a little notch near the top of the pin (picture the letter "Q") which rides in a groove so that it can't be turned more than the 30 or so needed to place it correctly (-10, 0, and 10 degrees I think).

[quickpicks]

The pins will not rotate 360 degrees or the key will not work properly. There are small notches on each pin that have to be lined up with the special grooves in the tumbler pinstacks before the pins can be inserted properly. There is also a false set on each pin so they are pretty hard to pick.

[stick]

I'm pretty sure that if you align all the pins correctly, you'll feel the sidebar enter the grooves. If not all the pins are aligned, the sidebar wouldn't have entered the groove on the pin you just aligned, and so wouldn't inhibit it from turning some more. Just what I think, don't be surprised if I'm wrong.

[raimundo]

I just sent skold some older medecos, and since its been a while since I had one of these apart, let me confirm some points about them, 1 the sidebar and its slot in the cylinder, this is offset from actualy radial from the center of the cylinder, (just above or below the 3 oclock point, and the edge of the sidebar that goes into the slot is also offset from being perfectly simetrical, so that if it were re assembled with the side bar reversed end to end, and consequently top to bottom the bar would not enter the slot properly and the lock could then be easily picked since without the bar properly installed its just a pin tumbler lock with a few mushroom pins. (could the lock barry wels picked at sneek have been a reversed sidebar not setting properly in the slot) no offense to Barry, but it just seems so fast. Anyone who has a medeco apart on the bench right now could check these points since I haven't seen one apart for years actually.

[Pickermeapie]

Thanks for your replies. I know how a Medco works, but I just was not sure if you rotated each pin if it stopped when it got to the right point or if it kept moving. Once you pick the lock you have to rotate the pins back to their original resting spots or the key will not go in, right? Thanks for your help.

[MrB]

Due to imperfections in manufacturing, the sidebar is going to be pressing harder against one of the pins than the others. So if you can find this "binding" pin and rotate it, you will be able to feel when the slot engages with the sidebar finger and the pin will set. You then have to find the next binding pin, rotate it and repeat.

For speedy picking, very gentle scrubbing with a bent diamond pick can eventually set all the pins on the sidebar with less need to feel each pin set one by one.

However; I understand there may be false slots on the pins, so rotating all the pins until they set may still not open the lock.

I believe Medecos are more reliably opened by decoding than by picking, by using various devices to probe the inside of the lock.

[Wolf2486]

To directly answer your question: No, they do not stop moving they can keep going.

[quickpicks]

I never heard of the pins doing this before.

[Wolf2486]

Okay, here's what I know. There is a small area which a Medeco pin can move. See the picture below.



I must apologize for the poor quality, but circled in red is the area in which the pin can move. Along with a slit, the pin also has a protruded tab which rides within the red circled area. See picture below.



Again the quality is poor, however cirlced in red you should be able to see the tab I was talking about. The slit on the medeco pin must be able to align with the sidebar while staying in this range of movement. Hope this helped.

Wolf.

[David_Parker]

I've got a small medeco, 5 pins. Side bar and all.

There aren't any top pins, just a cover plate housed within the plug, and a shell with two grooves for the side bar.

In order the lock to turn, the side bar has to be engaged into the pins. The lock even has 3 standard anti-drill pins in the front face plate to deter drill bits. But wouldn't it be easier to just drill out the side bar, and turn the lock itself?


-Dave.

[MrB]

I think the Medeco without driver pins is the cam lock? Each pin has to be both lifted and turned by the right amount to engage with the sidebar.

But other Medecos have a conventional shear line and a side bar. The shear line works on lifting the pins and the sidebar handles the turn angle.

[MrB]

I never heard of the pins doing this before.

Meaning what I said? If so, please put me right, I'm happy to be corrected.

[quickpicks]

I never heard of the pins doing this before.

Meaning what I said? If so, please put me right, I'm happy to be corrected.

I thouht Wolf2486 meant the pins could rotate 360 degrees when he said the pins don't stop moving. Sorry for any confusion there.

[raimundo]

hard to actually see in the photos, but but right where the red circle is, the pin channels are broached, and the the pin has a little spalled notch the two fit together and let the pins rotate about 35-40 degrees.