Lockwood 234M45 challenge lock

[aeporia]

Hi,

So I was recently inspired by Flywheel’s “Pin-in-Pin” design to repin a LW 234M45 marine-graded padlock, whose steel chrome-plated cores I’m fond of.

This is going out to LockPickingLawyer/HT4. I figured I’d make a video of it, to show off the homebrew security pins and to provide some notes on re-assembly (plus, watch me screw up the gutting yay… :/ ).

(HT4: spoiler warning — pinning is covered below )



Since my camera and lighting isn’t so great, here are some sharper shots of the pins:





[Edit: just realised this might not be in the right subforum… ;s]

[Papa Gleb]

Those look great mate. I will be hitting you up soon to trade for one of these.

[HT4]

EXCELLENT!!! I can't wait to try my hand on this... I've wanted to try this since I saw the BosnianBill video on the original Flywheel lock. Thanks for sending it!

EDIT - I subscribed to your channel, and will take a look at the video over lunch.

[HT4]

Nice video. You need to make another video of making locks like this. I'd love to see that process! Thanks again.

[HT4]

Update - I've had this for about a week now. First, the Lockwood is an incredible lock -- I've never held one before (not so common in the USA), but the quality appears excellent. As for the picking -- nothing so far. I cheated and unwrapped the keys. The bitting is extreme. I did some measurements holding my pick next to the key and discovered one possible reason why I've had no success: My deepest pick (Peterson Gem) is not deep enough to set #6 without oversetting other pins! I've been meaning to make some deep cut picks for a while, but now I have to. This lock will not defeat me!

[Shearlock]

Looks wicked, I look forward to getting up to that level

In related news, I have a HS lock marked "ez pick" a friend let me practice on, had it a couple hours. Failing miserably.

Ever feel like giving up, but, you've never given up on anything in your life so you press on? Yeah that's me right now. Ha.

Nice pins mate!

[Papa Gleb]

Shearlock, you have a pic of that lock? Never head of that brand of locks but I think its a non HS lock. Try to treat it as a standard lock. I know many times when I assume pins in a lock it always messes with me.

[Shearlock]

Shearlock, you have a pic of that lock? Never head of that brand of locks but I think its a non HS lock. Try to treat it as a standard lock. I know many times when I assume pins in a lock it always messes with me.

I was told by the person who gave it to me, its HS. But I'll indeed take your advice! Also reminds me I need to email you, ha-ha. Talk soon.

[aeporia]

Update - I've had this for about a week now. First, the Lockwood is an incredible lock -- I've never held one before (not so common in the USA), but the quality appears excellent. As for the picking -- nothing so far. I cheated and unwrapped the keys. The bitting is extreme. I did some measurements holding my pick next to the key and discovered one possible reason why I've had no success: My deepest pick (Peterson Gem) is not deep enough to set #6 without oversetting other pins! I've been meaning to make some deep cut picks for a while, but now I have to. This lock will not defeat me!

Woo.

*dances*

Ty for the update. (:

[aeporia]

I just remembered… ;s

Not sure if I covered this properly in the video… and I just don’t want it to happen: The cam piece thingie has a little pin that functions as a ‘toggle-able’ dead-locking/key-retaining pin. It’s not usually enabled by default in this series; I engaged it — you can see it when you take the core out at the back. You *must* reinsert the core in the unlocked position if you are using the retainer pin in the dead-locking/key-retaining setting (as opposed to taken out, and reinserted into the other off/holding hole; not key-retaining)… otherwise if you screw the core back in and close the padlock you’ll brick the core inside the padlock body.

Tip: to always be on the safer side, simply close the padlock *without* first screwing the core sleeper screw back in; that way if you inserted the core in the wrong position (e.g. not engaging the spring-loaded bar) simply slide the core and sleeper out because it’s not screwed in — hold the padlock up and they’ll fall out even. :)

[aeporia]

My deepest pick (Peterson Gem) is not deep enough to set #6 without oversetting other pins! I've been meaning to make some deep cut picks for a while, but now I have to.

Just remembered a tip from BB: grab a file to gently take off a mm or two from the ‘top’ side of the pick’s shaft; the side that would be in contact with said deep-cut pins (sand to whatever desired degree when done filing). I did this to one of my Peterson hooks, and intend to do the exact same to my 15k Gem. The hook above had almost the same straight line along the top of the pick shaft, iirc:

[flywheel]

Cool stuff. Keep up the good work!

[aeporia]

Cool stuff. Keep up the good work!

Thanks Flywheel.

Since your PiPs were the inspiration for this lemme know if you’d like one of these LWs — more than happy to send you one, PiP-style pinned or not. (:

[Shearlock]

I haven't picked a PiP yet, I'm certainly looking forward to my first encounter. Such a cool concept in my opinion.

Also, nice work on the pick adjustment. I just finished a set of homebrew hooks all designed for DCA.

[HT4]

UPDATE #2 - http://youtu.be/ppxKFAsexdM Opened on video. The pin- in-pin design is really pretty incredible. It changes everything you thought you knew about feedback. It's springy before and after you set the pin. It's springy whether it's binding or not. The only time it's not springy is if you overset a key pin, and after the deep false set. That said, once you get to know what you're looking for in feedback, it becomes attainable (not easy, just not impossible). The trick is the push past the springyness until you start engaging the outer pin. Of course, when the lock has different types of pins inside (some not pin in pin), even that can trick you and give you deceptive feedback. I had a huge advantage in picking this because I knew what was inside before I started, and I unwrapped the keys. Without those advantages, this lock would have been much harder.

The bitting is a whole different story. That alone would have made this lock a challenge. When combined with the unique pins, it really bumped the difficulty level up a few notches.

This has been a ton of fun to pick, and has forced me to expand my skills. I can ask for nothing more in a challenge lock. Thank you to Aeporia.