Latest pick...

[Mad Mick]

Here are 'the-guts' of my last victim. The lock is a 6 pin Schlage SC1 keyway key_in_knob, one of a bunch of locks (mostly Schlage) which were given to me this week. I went through the others without too much trouble, one being particularly easy due to being MK'd. But this one took a little longer...after multiple pin resets, followed by more resets.

Here are the guts:


The ball-bearings are in stacks 1 & 2, the security drivers being in 5 & 6. As you can see from the above pic, the normal drivers in 1, 2, 3 & 4 are alternating short/long, but what you may not notice are the actual security pins themselves.


Heres a close-up:

These are something like a normal spool, but slimmed down, with the addition of a sliding sleeve.

Tricky.

[vector40]

What the... what would you call that?

How do the ball bearings behave? Do they act like master pins?

[Mad Mick]

Dunno what the correct name of these security pins is... Anyone?

The ball-bearings are probably there for anti-drill measures, but do hinder picking a little due to the pick slipping off. The biggest problem was the multiple resets... Once picked, the decision was made to strip the lock and find out the source. The lock is now back together and mocking me as I type this.

I'll try to get a bit more time on it this week. The first pick was probably more due to luck than anything else.

[vector40]

Thought the bearings were to decrease wear on the bottom pins...

[GateTwelve]

I guess the bearings could provide master keying, but it's not their intent. They are for highly used locks. Most corbins at my school have bearings in the first and second cylinders. The purpose is so that when a key is inserted, the bearings roll with the ridges of the key, rather than letting them grate across the bottom of the key pins. And since pins one and two experience the most wear (ie, pin no. 1 will have the entire length of the key grate across it, however pin no. 6 will only experience 1/6 of the wear) they are the only ones equipped with bearings.

From what I read, mostly old fashioned apartment buildings will have these on their front door lock because everyone from the entire building will use their key on it at least once per day. And, as I said, my school also uses bearings in their locks in the "high traffic" areas.

[stick]

Sliding sleeves?

That's actually a pretty cool idea. Anybody seen those in any other locks before?

[vector40]

Gate -- what I meant was, how do the bearings behave in the pinstack? Do they act just like additional pins? They look too wide to enter the gallery.

[capt.dunc]

nice, or nasty, depending on your view point. how do the sliding spools feel to pick mick? i guess they pick last due to the inner being slimer at the ends. how do they respond to a pick gun, bumping etc?

[Mad Mick]

Vec: The bearings are the same diameter as the key pins and do indeed fit into the gallery. Gate's post about high traffic areas is probably right regarding this lock, as I think it may have come from a department store, maybe one of the storerooms or similar application.

Dunc: I've only picked this lock once so far. I was going through the whole lot in a half-hearted manner, having a dabble at one, then the next, and this was the last one which opened. Since it took a while longer than the rest, an autopsy was done to see why. It was one of those moments where you're not really paying attention (TV was on ) and the constant resetting was getting monotonous.

how do the sliding spools feel to pick mick? i guess they pick last due to the inner being slimer at the ends.

Funnily enough, I think you're right there Dunc. I'll post back when more time permits a decent session.

Unfortunately, I don't have any SC1 blanks to make a bump key and wouldn't buy a pick gun, as I don't really see the need for a hobby picker to use one. Maybe I'll get one if a career change happens in the future...

[stick]

Not necessarily. It'll still depend on the way the holes are drilled and the diameter differences between the normal pins and the sleeves of the spool pins.

Think about it. If a spool pin is binding, then the sleeve is caught between the plug and the housing. When you begin lifting the inner pin, the sleeve won't move until the lower lip of the spool pin catches the sleeve.

Basically, the lock would be picked like any other lock would, but you wouldn't know if the spool pin was binding or not unless you lifted it enough to catch the sleeve.

[Wolf2486]

Small question. How does the alteration of short and long driver pins affect picking?

[n2oah]

Woah!
Good job, mick. No way I could pick that beast!

[Mad Mick]

Woah!
Good job, mick. No way I could pick that beast!

Why not? The TV works wonders for the de-concentration.

[HeadHunterCEO]

never seen a factory schlage lock loaded for bear like that.
somebody trying to give you a challenge?

[capt.dunc]

stick; i know what you're saying about how the slidey spools move, but if the outers bound in the middle of the sequence, when you raise them and the cylinder moves to bind one of the normal pins i think that the inner spool will have enough clearance to drop back in. they look a good bit narrower than the outers. this should just mean that you'll have to pick them twice. the trouble with them will be that they'll feel unbound untill you raise them high enough to engage the outer when they feel stiffer. a sensitive picker probably won't raise them enough, or stop raising when the resistance suddenly changes. a more ham fisted picker may have no problems at all. perhaps over lifting all the pins and droping the key pins back, then picking the inner spools which will have dropped, may be a good approach.
mick; it's a pity that you put the whole lock back together, it might of been handy if you'd re-pinned as a three pin lock with one of these pins, for ease of learning about how they feel. just keep thinking about how nice that would have been, think about it all the time while you're trying to re-open it, i mean let it occupy your every thought