Sun Feb 09, 2014 8:31 pm
Modifications to RCS folding pick set
This is my RCS folding set from lockpicktools.com. Model 8E (slim line euro model). And may I say that this is a fine tool. This is my everyday carry (on keychain) and is the tool I use for 99% of my picking. I used to own the Southord jackknife, with the screw on the bottom, and it was terrible in comparison (in comparison to everything, that is!)
I prefer to tension on the top of a keyway. Much more room to maneuver, and I have seen at least one lock (a Schlage) that would not open with bottom tension, possibly because the tensioner caused the cylinder to splay out a bit so it wouldn't rotate (a wild-assed guess anyway). I bought an extra tension wrench (sold as a replacement for the RCS) and modified it. I cut it in half and then bent a small tip to make a top-keyway tensioner. The other end I filed down thinner so that it would fit well into American padlocks (again top tension). When I filed this end down, I left the edges square and sharp, not rounded as they originally came, so that it would stick in the keyway and not slip out. The original tension tool really only serves the purpose of holding the smaller one in place. One nice side effect is that the presence of this smaller tensioner makes it much easier to slide the bigger one into place.
One nice thing about this tool is that you can pick and choose which picks you want. Lockpicktools has quite a selection, but I made some of my own. First off, I make a copy of the Peterson slender gem, hitting 15 mil feeler stock with a scribe, dremel, file, and sandpaper. I really like the Peterson slender gem, and I like that it is 0.015" thickness. Especially for American locks, 15 mil works much better than 20 mil. Actually, I really wish that RCS would sell 15 mil picks alongside the 20 mil.
Picks 5-7 in that picture are my Peterson slender gem copy, a poker tool for TuBAR and Pagoda, and a hook that was meant for rotating Medeco biaxial pins. The last one is pretty worthless and really only serves as filler. You see, the thickness of these tools is 0.015, 0.015, and 0.010, replacing two tools of 0.020 thickness. So 0.015+0.015+0.010=0.020+0.020. If the thicknesses don't match then the clamp lever on the tool doesn't end up in the right orientation when you tighten it up. Originally, I would just put whatever size tools in there that I wanted, and adjusted the screw orientation to compensate, and had to remove a stop peg in order to be able to move the clamp lever to whatever position was needed. Eventually (about three years later) this ended up stripping out the part of the tool that the screw head goes into. The old model of this tool had a twelve-sided hole rather than six sided, allowing for more orientations but which stipped out easier. The new model has a six-sided hold. Okay, a picture is worth a million words, so this is what I mean:
The slender gem tool works great for hooking on to the little hole in the bottom of Medeco classic pins to rotate them (this doesn't work on biaxial pins though). So I carved a Medecoder scale into this pick. You can just barely make it out in this picture, under the rust. If anyone knows a good way to rustproof picks, by the way, please let me know!
I prefer to tension on the top of a keyway. Much more room to maneuver, and I have seen at least one lock (a Schlage) that would not open with bottom tension, possibly because the tensioner caused the cylinder to splay out a bit so it wouldn't rotate (a wild-assed guess anyway). I bought an extra tension wrench (sold as a replacement for the RCS) and modified it. I cut it in half and then bent a small tip to make a top-keyway tensioner. The other end I filed down thinner so that it would fit well into American padlocks (again top tension). When I filed this end down, I left the edges square and sharp, not rounded as they originally came, so that it would stick in the keyway and not slip out. The original tension tool really only serves the purpose of holding the smaller one in place. One nice side effect is that the presence of this smaller tensioner makes it much easier to slide the bigger one into place.
One nice thing about this tool is that you can pick and choose which picks you want. Lockpicktools has quite a selection, but I made some of my own. First off, I make a copy of the Peterson slender gem, hitting 15 mil feeler stock with a scribe, dremel, file, and sandpaper. I really like the Peterson slender gem, and I like that it is 0.015" thickness. Especially for American locks, 15 mil works much better than 20 mil. Actually, I really wish that RCS would sell 15 mil picks alongside the 20 mil.
Picks 5-7 in that picture are my Peterson slender gem copy, a poker tool for TuBAR and Pagoda, and a hook that was meant for rotating Medeco biaxial pins. The last one is pretty worthless and really only serves as filler. You see, the thickness of these tools is 0.015, 0.015, and 0.010, replacing two tools of 0.020 thickness. So 0.015+0.015+0.010=0.020+0.020. If the thicknesses don't match then the clamp lever on the tool doesn't end up in the right orientation when you tighten it up. Originally, I would just put whatever size tools in there that I wanted, and adjusted the screw orientation to compensate, and had to remove a stop peg in order to be able to move the clamp lever to whatever position was needed. Eventually (about three years later) this ended up stripping out the part of the tool that the screw head goes into. The old model of this tool had a twelve-sided hole rather than six sided, allowing for more orientations but which stipped out easier. The new model has a six-sided hold. Okay, a picture is worth a million words, so this is what I mean:
The slender gem tool works great for hooking on to the little hole in the bottom of Medeco classic pins to rotate them (this doesn't work on biaxial pins though). So I carved a Medecoder scale into this pick. You can just barely make it out in this picture, under the rust. If anyone knows a good way to rustproof picks, by the way, please let me know!
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