Greetings, I'm new here, thought I'd introduce myself.
I'm not a complete newbie when it comes to lock picking.
I first discovered lockpicking around 15 years ago, I think the MIT guide got me started, but I can't remember if that's the first thing I read.
I've had limited success picking inexpensive deadbolts and small padlocks, and I used lockpicking as my topic for my "process/how-to" speech when I took speech 101 in college.
Over the years I put together a small collection of lock stuff: picks, interesting locks, pick guns, etc...
My interest in lockpicking waned and I pursued a career in computer network security. For a while I did computer security stuff in a very physically secure environment: a government SCIF facility. During that time, the "day" door to the SCIF was replaced, and I trash-picked the 5 button Simplex lock from that door. Finally I was able to make sense of *hobbit*'s excellent Simplex lock bypass procedure.
Matt Blaze's recent paper on safe locks has re-piqued my interest in physical security issues. Shortly after reading his paper I found a killer TL15 safe at a salvage place: locked, no combo available. In about 2 hours I had it open, and I was hooked.
The lock was a plain S&G 6730, but with plastic wheels.
I bought the safe, and have been collecting safe stuff for the past several months.
I'm planning to install a LaGard 4 wheel redundant electronic / mechanical lock into my safe. For those familiar with modern safe locks, this is a neat item: It works exactly like the locks described in the Blaze paper (but with 4 wheels) and has one extra feature:
The lever has an extra pivot point about halfway along its length. The lever nose is a seperate part, and, because of this pivot, the nose can fall into the cam/driver even when the fence is held up by the wheel pack.
There is a tiny solenoid mounted to the lever. When the solenoid is not energized, it's shaft acts like a pin, holding the two halves of the lever assembly rigid. It's a completely normal mechanical lock in this mode.
Enter the combination on the auxiliary keypad and the solenoid will retract, allowing the nose to fall into the driver
without entering the mechanical combination. So, there are 2 ways to open this lock: dial the combination (I looove mechanical stuff) or push the buttons (makes the wife happy).
Super neato. except that I need 3 new holes in my safe to use this lock: 1 for the wire, and 2 for the mounting screws. This could be an ordeal.
Ordinarily I'm a lurker in forums like these, but I
really want access to the "advanced" area because that's where the safe stuff is (supposed to be).
So, I post.
While I'm at it, I'm also working on a robo-dialer. I hope to make it a robo-manipulator (like softdrill). I just got the stepper motor yesterday. I think you'll be able to see the progress here, but I'm not sure because I've never used this host before:
http://www.sendmefile.com/00039306
If someone cares to recommend a free webhost for movies like this, that would be great.
) your posts will most likely be deleted by mods. Information like that is strictly kept to the advanced forums. Welcome to LP101 and happy picking. 
