order of picking

[mikemike]

what do you mean that you have to pick in order i have a 5 pin mountain lock my first and haven't been able to pick it in 3 days. when you say order what do you mean and how do you know what order to use

[marso]

Mikemike,

In the MIT guide it has a good example of how the pins may be off centre and so forth. My understanding (and i will remind ppl I am just as much a begineer as yourself) is that if you see the "random" offset think how you can pick that if you turn in a certain way. Pins on one side will pick where the others will sit on the sheer line till other pins have been placed above it. Basically this is not the only reason order is important, i just dont understand it enough yet . I don't think there are any "rules" of what order it is, just try as best you can to start near the back and randomly playing with specific pins.

As i have said before the exercises in the MIT guide a good and have helped me. Bouncing pins and other exercises have helped me tremendously. I now have a lock I open quickly consistently, open my next lock after a bit of time and still having trouble with the lockwood. Basically it seems I need to have the pick at a large angle due to the keyway, springs are very strong and I believe there may be some security pins. Having said that I am noticing I have improved my feel dramatically.

http://www.blackmarket-press.net/info/lock/chapter6.htm

Does this kinda help?

[CitySpider]

what do you mean that you have to pick in order i have a 5 pin mountain lock my first and haven't been able to pick it in 3 days. when you say order what do you mean and how do you know what order to use

Okay.

There's the "order" that the pins are in -- front to back or back to front. Ignore that.

Here's the order you pick a five-pin lock in:
Most binding pin.
Second most binding pin.
Third most binding pin.
Fourth most binding pin.
Fifth most binding pin.

Apply a little tension, and feel around in order to find which one might want to move the least. It'll be a miniscule difference. Sometimes there might be two or three that want to stay put equally -- then those'll all be your "first pin," just pick one and set it. After you do that, set the next one.

And three days is how long it took me to open my lock, working probably seven or eight hours a day, AND it was an easier lock. Don't get discouraged; the thing'll open.

[marso]

Hi all, I learnt even more today Gotta love this site.

Chubby mentioned a good exercise at the below thread.
viewtopic.php?p=8048

[unclepappy]

I'll tell ya. What you are relying on is the poor manufacturing of the lock. If you pick a weiser lock you will be set with two scenerios and anywhere in between. You can pick it or you can't. You can have a well worn lock that will give you nothing but grief because the pins are all crudded up. The top pins are all crudded up and the springs suck. You can have a new lock that is a charmer except for that one deep pin. But what they all have in common is that they are a weiser. They are poorly machined. By this I mean that if you were to set a ruler along the top holes of the plug they would not be straight. If you look at Sargeant you will find that they are better machined (More in line) and harder to pick. If you keep this in mind you are not looking for the pins to bind. If they do then you are applying too much tension and you are not going to pick the lock. You will just sit there pulling your rake across a lot of pins that aren't moving. What you want to do is put enough tension on the lock to make the top pins bind on the shear line when the rake is drawn. This will allow the plug to turn slightly and the next pin (Machine error) to be picked and so on. A good way to determine how hard the lock will be to pick is to rake once and release the tension, listening to how many pins fall. If you have 3 to 4 pins falling you are off to the races if you have one or two you may need to work at it. But develope a style and don't believe the hype. There is no right way. I pick with a hook that I made myself. (even though I have an HPC pick set) and I have a lot of luck with it.

Cheers