Lock-Aid Pick Gun Info

[The Manipulator]

I wrote this in response to another question, in another thread, but figured I would start a new thread...

I have had a Majestic Lock-Aid Pick Gun since about 1988. I know it has been popular for years...for people to say the same things about them...that they were designed for amateurs and whatnot. People that did not have a lot of time to spend on learning how to pick locks, etc.

I have handed that same Lock-Aid to many people and none of them have ever been able to make it work at all...it's not what it was advertised as for years.

For one thing...as far as the Majestic is concerned, you have to take the needles (straight picks) and you have to file them a bit because they are rough from the factory. Then you place them on a well-oiled whetstone and smooth them out a bit more. They don't tell you that in the directions...because then they would be admitting they did not prep it for you. Heh.

So you want to take the square cross section that is the pick needle and you want to round it to where it is more like an oval. But you are only taking the edges off of it, you're not doing an immense amount of filing and stoning.

And on some manual picks, you may want to do this as well if they are stamped out cheaply.

The original Dyno-Quik-Piks of about 6 years ago before they became anodized and fancy and still had "Pat. Pend." on them instead of a Patent Number were like that...the rake was abysmal...you could see where it was stamped and it had ridges poking up.

But I digress...

Once you have the needle all smoothed out, choose a lock you wish to pick. Many of you won't have keys for some of your favorite pickables (Why? We don't need no stinking keys, that's why!) but you want to choose one that you have a key for.

Place the key along side the needle so the tip of the key terminates with the tip of the needle. Then take a magic marker and mark where the bow of the key begins, but you make the mark on the needle.

Start that way because most people just stick the thing in there and they are not used to picking or anything and they end up tagging the tailpiece and other assorted nastiness in the end of the plug.

That is your mark, for that lock, and you use that to learn so you do not extend the needle too far into the lock - or not far enough. If you are not snapping all pins simultaneously, you're not going to open it anyway.

Second, set the tension wheel to the lowest position. You will get to where you can operate the thumb wheel with no problem while the gun is in the lock, etc.

Third, do not gorilla any pick, especially not a Pick Gun. Put your thumb behind the trigger and you index finger on top of it and scoot the needle under the first pin and then rock the gun in up and down as you gently push forward. Don't just sit there trying to stick the thing in by the pins because you are going to tear something up or get frustrated.

Once you get it into the lock up to your mark, you know two things:

1. It is in far enough.
2. It's not in too far.

With the lowest power, thumb wheel set as low as you can go, you have the gun in up to your mark - estimate.

Insert the turning tool. You want to use light tension or you are going to be beating and banging everything inside the lock - you will be beating the lower pins upward instead of using inertia.

Snap it and feel for the telltale signs through your turning tool (tension/torsion wrench). Learn it well and listen as well as feel and soon you will understand the tool better and will be more effective with it.

This is another reason the "amateur" angle on the Pick Gun is wrong, you still have to have The Touch when it comes to your turning tools.

[Cherry Picker]

So the big question is, if you don't have a key to mark and "set depth" on the tool, how do you know how deep to set it?

[The Manipulator]

The only way to get that is through experience, handling many different locks. You become accustomed to various size keys and basically know them and their counterparts by sight after a while. When you get an oddball, you guesstimate.

But when you first insert the needle, you have to be very careful as I stated above, most people when they first handle a pick gun, the needle takes a nose-dive and they try to force and/or shove the thing in place. That will just cause a bunch of frustration.

Just ease it in and if it nose-dives a little bit, walk it in, rocking it as I said before and everything will be fine. Some keyways, the needle will slip right in there, others you have to manipulate the needle just to get it in place.

[The Manipulator]

The Lock-Aid Pick Gun, and I can only speak for the Original because I have never owned a copy manufactured by ESP, HPC, etc., is a special piece of gear to me. If I think something has mushroom or spool pins, I'll grab it because I think that is where it does the most good.

Contrary to the infamous "Eddie The Wire," who theorized (or flatly stated) that the mushroom pin was an "answer" to the 1950s spread of the Pick Gun, I think it does very well on them because it is (all-pins lifted) simultaneous inertia. There are no false readings when you get all pins airborne at the same instant or even a microsecond stagger/ripple of pins.

As far as anything else? I just use manual picks...

[The Manipulator]

I made one in the late 80s (first one) out of a metal clotheshanger and it did very well. Then I went to piano wire and thought it would be better and ended up making a couple more out of coat hangers because they were better.

They will work and they are amazing, but I don't think they are as versatile because you cannot dial in the strength of the snap like you can with a Pick Gun.


{edited by Varjeal: edited for references to Roy who previously deleted his post}