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You set the tension when you make it, its a matter of the angle of the two arms of the thing and the angle between them,
you can mitigate the tension by not pressing it down all the way before let off
Different spokes have differnt diameters
the guy Spyderco on the 101 who reviewed a number of the older ones really liked one that was made of very stiff bladed spoke, that thing was a beast until it destroyed itself from use.
he was unfamiliar with snappers until he did the review, Matt Fiddler sent the snappers to him because he didn't want to review them himself, I only asked that he show a photo of the new style snapper but he had already lost his copy so he sent this guy a lot of old ones I had sent him over time.

the tight little 720 degree coils can be a bear larger diameter coils can also help mitigate the strike I suppose, those of you who have the pliers Piotr recommends can make larger coils.

http://vimeo.com/user14713311/using-snapper-1

U.S. Lock seems to be a mediocre brand so I thought I'd post a video of one of these being picked rather than a lock that is utter crap.

I have managed to open this particular cylinder with as little as 3 snaps. Anyway, the point of the video is to illustrate how to use the device rather than demonstrate how good/crap I am. My impression is that some people think the snapper is used the other way around, i.e. with the thumb on the needle arm and with the snap being generated directly by squeezing down the needle arm. That is incorrect!

The percussive force that is applied to the key pins originates from the impact of the trap on the needle arm: the trap arm is compressed (with the thumb) and then released, causing it to strike the needle arm which in turn strikes the key pins.

You won't be able to use the snapper incorrectly (i.e. upside-down) in a restrictive keyway because the warding will prevent you from compressing the needle arm. For this reason alone you should learn to use the snapper correctly, i.e. trap arm uppermost, trap arm squeezed downwards and then released, striking the underside of the needle arm.

Thanks for the video, it's useful to see it in action. The main problem I have with mine is that it's difficult to hold. I hope I'll get used to it. Nevertheless I opened a padlock with just two hits, and it was the first time I've ever tried a snapper in my life!

Cheers

Very nice video. It is tough to tell from the angle but, are you rotating the snapper slightly? I have found this useful in dealing with some types of warding when using the snapper i.e.: generic Yale keyways.

Yes, I am rotating the needle slightly so as not to strike the ward that is immediately beneath the key pins. IIRC the U.S. Locks have a Schlage 'C' keyway. I will post more videos as my technique improves and I am snapping open better locks.

Like you, I find that I am more effective with the snapper than I am with the commercial pick gun. The beauty of the snapper over the pick gun is that it can easily go into a roll-up pick case, is quieter and has near zero probability of mechanical failure.

The tubing helps. The snapper in the video has plastic tubing (dry wall anchor) on the trap arm only but you can put some tubing on the needle arm also. This should aid grip. Also, I am yet to photograph the "banana bend" modification because I haven't been able to produce the graceful curves as per Rai's modifcation but that mod. will also make the snapper easier to hold and use.

Thanks again Piotr, for the video.
Some master padlocks will open on the first snap if you are careful to place the needle not to deep,not too shallow.
I have made the ultimate small snapper, its a little over an inch wide at the trap and it has a double turn coil, and the needle is just enough to hit a 6th pin and give just a tiny clearance for the BOK tensor. If its a lockout, the snapper is a good first attempt because when it works, its fast. and the uninitiated find the thing scary when they see that.

Making a tiny yet functional snapper is a good challenge. I've made one from an over-sized safety clip but it is only marginally smaller than the others I have made -- but I can scale it down further. I will post pictures if I succeed.

Thanks for the awesome tutorial as well as the video showing it in action!

Here's my snapper that I made in action. The lock was a schlage everest.

Lots of thanks to Rai and others who give so much to the community. I love seeing different tools that people make!

I have a store-bought version of this snapper (bought several decades ago). It was an HPC product for years. I don't think Rai designed it.

Snappers have been around quite a while,

deniro uses a large coathanger version in the 80's movie midnight run. that coathanger version needs to be redesigned. its too big, but then when used as a movie prop, it has to be large enough that the camera can get it into a medium shot.

there are many variants of the design.

I have designed some of those.

the thumb spinner that makes it easier on the thumb is my idea, I did not copy that from anyone, but someone might also have thought of it before me,

the designs I make are from bicycle spoke, and they are compact, small, with a small coil.

I would love to see a photo of this HPC version of yours Magician perhaps with a key or other object to give an idea of the size of it.

Re: Picture

My wife has moved some stuff around, straightening up the house, since my surgery. Just in case the thread dies down while I find it, I'll include the photo in a PM to you.

Sometimes it seems like Rai is an infinite pool of wisdom that we only get small snippets of, lol.

Really nice work, Piotr. The pictures are EXTREMELY helpful, also. I'm a very visual learner.

After getting some more premium bicycle spokes from a friend I decided to save a few for havin a crack at this—



This is Mark II. Some thoughts—

1. Switched from pen tubing to springs. Springs rock! They’re way more comfortable, and don’t flop around as much. Compared to Mark I (which used pen tubing), the springs also seem to give more stability when snapping. I ‘trapped’ one of the springs up at the front using the snapper’s trap, and added 2 more springs so that I had coverage all along the top part, without the springs flopping around. These springs came from various click-pens, and aren’t deforming over repeated usage. Very, very happy with these.

2. There’s definitely a technique, and tensioning has a lot to do with it. Still learning what works and what doesn’t, and I suspect that different snappers from others could easily work better. For example, I had mediocre results at first, and once I ‘tightened’ my coil by what seemed like the smallest bit it suddenly seemed to be snapping the few locks it did work on way more consistently.

3. Finding thus far fairly limited success on locks with wild biting, and/or lots of security pins (no luck yet with my PiP challenge locks). Wild biting + spools seem to get caught up the most.

4. Added some heat shrink-wrap to the bottom part (black tubing) for comfort. This seems to be a minor improvement, and makes the bottom part more comfortable to hold. I was considering cutting out little bits of the shrink-wrap so that it provided a texture of sorts to further aid grip, but haven’t tried this yet. My other idea was the layer the shrink wrap to bulk it up a bit, but I haven’t tried this either.

5. I need some rosary pliers; I used a padlock’s hasp to create my coil, and while it gave success (more than using generic pliers) I think having the proper tool for the job would be nice.

6. My spoke material came partially flattened (for improved aerodynamics in cycling I guess?), which is fine, but the material felt a bit too thick for my tastes. I used the material as-is for Mark I, and while it works, the entire contraption seemed just a tad too fat for my liking, and snapping seemed harder. I ended up using a dremel and grinded off circa 1/2 a millimetre of material from along the entire length of the spoke. The thin side of the spoke is about 1.2mm thick (from ~1.6mm); the flattened side is still larger, at just a hair over 2mm (from originally ~2.4mm). This is why my snapper has a couple of additional 90° bends in (e.g. to give me a flat edge for the needle). This imprecise removal of material gave the spoke a rough texture, which I sanded briefly with 1k paper, and then straight with 3k paper prior to any bending. This gave the spoke a nice brushed-metal appearance, and didn’t make it too polished to slip out of the hands while using. (There are still scuff marks from the vice grips during the bending stage that are too annoying to sand clean, but hey.)

7. I am just stunned at the beauty of Rai’s golden snapper that incorporates a single and triple peak + tensioner. I’ve been thinking of finding a way to incorporate these, if not at least a tensioner. Mhh….

Finally: a kudos to Rai, and a big thanks to Piotr for the write-up.