One piece of advice...

[Rogue]

Other than Practice, which I plan on doing....

I wanted to hear some people's experiences of what 1 piece of advice they wish they had gotten when they first started out. I have my first lock, my first picks will be here by the end of the week, and after the weekend I should have a few more locks. I've watched a bunch of videos, have been in chat, and been reading through the forums. I'm about to jump headfirst into a fun new hobby and want some input. Lemme have it, all the stuff you wish you were told.

-Rogue

[Anarchy_won]

the one thing I wish someone told me was, if you can make your own tools.
I cant explane how much cooler it is when you pop a lock with something you made yourself.

[scudo]

Only started beginning Jan and quickly decided I need more tension bars, I only have one but trying to source material to make a couple (window wipers)

[Neilau]

Hi.

I'll give you two, sort of related.

1. Don't practice on locks that are in use - like front door locks.

2. Don't rotate the cylinder to 180 degrees - in a lot of cases (not all) top pins can fall into the cylinder and lock it all up.
Usually not too difficult to fix but can be a hassle.

Plus what scudo said have a bunch of torsion tools of different sizes and thicknesses.

Other than that enjoy.

As long as you remember rule one you will make the occasional mistake - we all do - but that is all part of the learning process.

Remember that there is plenty of help at this site, so don't be afraid to ask.

Cheers.

[Rogue]

Thanks for the input

I'm not much of a handyman type so making my own tools seems daunting, although I have a few wiper blade inserts and at the very least TW's seem pretty easy to "do it yourself". So in my order for my first set I have 2 prybars included and I'll make a few of my own TW's to go along with it.

I absolutely dont mind the 2 parts Neilau, Luckily i've watched enough vids' and seen enough ppl say how stupid it is to work on stuff in use and breaking it. I'll keep it slow and work on my own stuff that isn't in use. I've already encountered offers to trade when I get a small collection so I'm sure I'll have no shortage of stuff to pick when I get up there

Most of my time here has been spent in the Chat room, and i'm sure some can attest, I'm definitely not afraid to ask a question or 10! So far I'm absolutely loving the community here. Very fun, social, and more than willing to share knowledge and experience.

[oldbiscuit]

My advise is 1. light tension TOK usually works best on most normal locks. 2.take your time and practice feeling the pins set. Once you are really comfortable with how the pins feel when set, then go for getting the whole lock set and open. Most newbees over set the pins with to much tension. But what ever you do, don't get discouraged, take your time and have fun. If a lock starts getting to you, put it down take a break and come back and start with the fundimentals. Enjoy

[rerun12]

dont be afraid to ask questions! no matter how dumb they may seem to you, chances are we've all gone through the same problems, and many are here to help, myself included

one other tibit that helped me early: if you find yourself having trouble with a lock and where you are w pins and binding order and whatnot, try closing your eyes and visually reconstructing what is going on inside the lock; what pin your pick is on, binding order ect...helped me ALOT early on using this method

[GWiens2001]

And you might be surprised at some of the dumb mistakes we have made!

Gordon

[Oldfast]

GREAT question Rich!

Take your time and have fun building a good solid foundation of the fundamentals.
Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in a race to climb the 'ladder of high security'.
It's actually quite surprising how much success you can find & how far you can get,
yet miss out on some good learning opportunities. Sometimes I had to back track.

So yeah, become familiar with each brand and the various models they offer.
If you're interested in the locksmithing aspect at all, take the time to at least get
the general knowledge of disassebly/assembly, maintenance/servicing, etc.
This doesn't have to be a mosh-pit, lol. Make it a slow, enjoyable dance.

In regards to acquiring locks: Don't be like me, lol... do yourself a favor and immediately
get set up on ebay. Stay far, FAR away from any mainstream stores. I didn't turn to ebay
until I had basically exhausted all stores within a 40 minute drive.... needlessly dropping a
small fortune in the process. Besides, as you progress and start wanting the more exotic,
high security locks - you won't find them in stores - ebay will be your main source. Locks
that I paid $15-$20 for can often be purchased for $3-$5 if you're patient. Also, trading
with members here can be a great way to experience new things at a minimal cost.

[faygo6]

That tension is the most important part. Pick stand out the cool attraction of picking locks but learning proper tension makes all the difference between opening a lock and just rattling a pick in frustration. Spring tensioners are nice but you need the feed back of a solid tensioner to truly understand what's going on inside the lock.

[jharveee]

Network, Make friends.
I started out mostly self taught. I had a fool for a teacher.
Now days there are plenty of people to help you along.

Keypicking is like having 24/7 tech support.

[scudo]

Network, Make friends.

I wish, anyone in central Scotland area.

Being a newbie some very good suggestions on here, I have stuck with my basic pick set and apart from a cutaway I bought with the few locks available to me (about 12). In the first couple of weeks I raked them all. I then started backtracking with SPP I managed some but others still could only rake them then slowly over the coming weeks managed another couple on SPP. My cutaway (6 pin) still sits at 4 pins as allows me to SPP and develop a feel for tension and set pins etc, I can also replace the pins with spool pins but have not done so yet.
I am still a long way off but after the few weeks messing with what I have (simple locks) I can certainly say there has been a vast improvement in `feeling` my way inside a lock, yes I want to move up a level but I am not ready yet, maybe never will be but for the moment I now have pictures in my head when I try to pick a lock I suppose a bit like reading braille. To me this is important in order to progress to higher levels.
I also made a couple of mistakes and had to SOS this forum to bail me out which resolved my problems, they stemmed from picking my own door locks:-( so do take all the advice given.

Anyhow thats my pennies worth.