Hey! New here...with a few questions...

[selim]

Hey pickey, watch some videos about taking a cylinder apart. Then get a lock that you can take some pins out of. That will give a a boost in confidance

[Gratefuldeadbolt]

Someone told me this a LONG time ago but you may find it useful.

As you gain experience you are basically learning to read what is happening inside the lock.

One test to run on the lock to see what it might reveal:

1. using a flat side of a pick, or upsidedown, place under all the pins and lift them all as high into the plug as you can go.
2. insert your tension wrench in the bottom of the plug (probably no room now at the top of the plug due to the other pick holding the pins up)
3. put some heavy turning tension (not enought to break your wrench obviously) in one direction CW or CCW
4. Note ALL or MOST of the pins should be now be trapped up high by your turning force which is overcoming the springs that would force them back down
5. keeping turning force on the lock plug, remove the flat pick that you held the pins up with
6. using a hook , diamond or similar pick, explore the lock to see what pins have fallen if any and make note of their position
7. very carefully release tension until you hear /feel / see that another pin has fallen back down to its original spot and add a bit of tension again.
8. goto 6. and repeat until you have hopefully discovered a little about the order in which the pins will release.

(an ideal situation for the lockpicker is if they all release individually one at a time for example on a 5 pin lock #5 might drop first, then #4, then #3, then #2, and finally #1)

In this ideal situation, what you have discovered is the order in which the binding pins will release.

To pick this lock in this ideal situation you would just have to reverse the order in which they release, so you would pick #1, then #2, then #3, then #4 then #5

Now not every lock will bind and release pins in a nice order or individually, sometimes more than one pin will release at the same time.
The important lesson here though is that there is more than one way to determine if the lock will reveal anything about the order in which pins want to be picked.
Remember that in theory pins will bind in the opposite order that they will release.

Good luck.

P.s. Someone else told me a long time ago PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!

[GWiens2001]

Yes, go for the binding pin first, then the next binding pin, and so forth until the lock opens.

Good luck,

Gordon

[Pickylocks]

So, I took back to the two padlocks I'd bought, and grabbed a deadbolt from the local blacksmith. It was just a cheap one, probably the cheapest; only $19.99. I doubt it's repinnable, I dunno. But it should be okay learning. It's made by Halsco. Is this a decent purchase or should I have grabbed a different deadbolt?

I asked about the Master Lock #3, which I'd heard was the easiest padlock to pick and a good starter...he said its plug is springy as well. Does a springy plug really make it that much harder? Is it just that it cancels out some of the feedback you'd feel along the tension wrench?

[PickForge]

It is re-pinnable, but I recommend you watch a video of someone doing it before you dive in and start ripping the guts out of your lock, it is easy to damage the springs. also I would recommend you use some kind of plug follower, you can buy these from various locksmith/lockpick shops online, or use a wooden dowel or a marker/pen that has the correct diameter. and tweezers for when those springs and drive pins do come out, having a pair of tweezers around makes getting them back in a hell of a lot easier .