Do I need a Disc Detainer Lock Pick?

[WarrenC]

Just started with this lock picking hobby, and am having great fun. Would you suggest getting a disc detainer lock pick as well as some dimple picks somewhere down the road. How common are these?

[MartinHewitt]

The standard are really locks which can be picked with the standard picks, i.e. pin tumbler, wafer, slider locks. I know disc detainers really only from bicycle locks and often lock specific tips are needed.

[MHM]

The thing about picking locks for fun, is that you can take this hobby almost anywhere you want to go. Feel like learning how to open disc detainers? Go for it. Want to become an expert in picking MulTLocks? Fill yer boots. Manipulating open safe combination locks appeals? Buy a 6730 and have at it. Want to be the worlds best pickmaker? Buy a set of files and start beavering away in your shed.

As Martin rightly points out, conventional pin tumbler, wafer, and slider locks are pretty much where we all start out, and broadly use the same tools. And some folk never leave this type of lock, and just get better and better at beating them. My advice would be to learn the craft on pin tumblers - get the basics of tension control, pick placement, and feedback mastered - and then spread your wings to other specialties if they appeal.

My $0.02.

[Anarchy_won]

I would recommend not worrying about that for now. practice picking standard locks with the tools you have and enjoy the sport.
but in saying that if you want the tools then buy them, I have tools I have used 2 or 3 times and have been sitting on my bench since I do not regret getting them but at the time I had the money and though "why not".
the cool thing about locksport is you can spend $5.00 or $500 on a pickset and both sets will open a common lock, its a case of your progress is a direct result of the time you put in.

[edocdab]

On a practical note, if you do want to play with dd locks, now or later, I can recommend to buy the cheapo chinese picks. They are so cheap that they fit in most budgets. They are fun to experiment with as it doesn't matter if one gets destroyed in the process. They do require some modification to work. I recommend the videos on youtube like this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oiNNoHlA4Vc

These will not open all dd locks, but you have a good change with the very cheap ones and it's fun, of course. I made functional replacement tips very easily by hammering a split pin into shape. There are many interesting modifications to play with.

To take them to the next level in the future, I can recommend buying plastic mold ejector rods of 2mm as they allow you to shape very nice pick tips with little effort cheaply. You need to drill out the cheapo picks with a 2mm drill in that case but it improves the quality a lot.

Another step up would be the sparrows dd pick or a proper home made one like this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RXH0pAFfU6w

Whatever you decide, have fun with this hobby.

[GWiens2001]

For the el cheapo disc detainer locks, I used to pick them frequently with a wide wiper blade tension wrench and a bent piece of mechanic (baling) wire.

It is not that difficult. Use the long end of the bent tension wrench to turn all the discs as far towards unlocked as they will go. Remove the tension wrench handle, flip it around and use the shorter end to tension the first disc towards the unlock direction. Then use the bent wire to check which discs are binding when turning back to the locked position. If it is not binding, turn it back towards unlocked and go to the next disc. When you find the binding disc (turning towards locked), you lighten tension and keep turning the disc until it clicks into the gate. Find the next binding disc. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Some disc detainer locks tension from the tip of the key, but I'll leave that to you to figure out. I keep that wide tension wrench and bent wire in my pick kit. At work, sometimes a truck is traded in with a trailer hitch lock that the owner lost the key to. So I pick it open and keep the lock.

Gordon