Hello

[kanped]

Hi there. Total novice, picked it up purely out of curiosity and found a lot of youtube videos very entertaining and decided this would be fun to get into. So far, I've gotten through what is quite possibly the most easily picked padlock in existence (viewtopic.php?f=64&t=10754) and one of those clear acrylic 6 standard pin practice locks.

Got the hang of those and went shopping yesterday, picked up a Yale P1109 (5 pins, 2 spools apparently. Not really wanting to run before I can walk but there wasn't a lot of choice in my little town's hardware shops, the price of shipping is too high from Amazon and I have an aversion to eBay). Now I'm seeing where the skill and home-brewing come in. I got the Southord MPXS-20 set (and a few extras) and getting one of those picks into the keyway to get a good feel at the pins is proving extremely difficult, let alone feeling for feedback and everything else.

Lot to learn before I beat this one but I'm working on it. Also thinking I should try to make a thinner pick, because even if I should be able to pick this without it, I figured that would also be a good skill to learn. Might bite the bullet and pay shipping on a Masterlock 140 or something to ease me in a bit more, too.

So, that's where I'm at right now. Still having a bunch of fun. Hello!

[MBI]

Hello

[pmaxey83]

Hello.

[Anarchy_won]

Hello

[GWiens2001]

Hello

[SisterMorphine]

Hello

[sparagmos]

Hello and welcome!

[just1pick+open]

Hello

[muddassarusa]

Hello

[elbowmacaroni]

Hi There!

[MBI]

Hi There!

Nonconformist!

[xeo]

Helleaux

[kanped]

Thanks for the welcome, everyone. Here's a little update; I was working on the Yale again today. I've found that using a diamond pick seems to give me much better access to the pins and it's helped a great deal. Got a false set, pin 3 fell back down, repicked it, felt the tension go and the keyway start to turn and then... lock up again. I thought I'd overset something, or one of the spools was false set and just needed a little more. Fiddled with it for another 5 minutes or so, shone a flashlight in to have a look and eventually decided to release the tension and start again.

Then I noticed something...



Here is the view I was seeing it from, all nice and clamped up. I'd scooted it far forward so I could use the bottom of the keyway since the top was so tight.



And here is what I noticed after I gave up. The actuater is locked between 2 bars and prevents the lock from turning. Tried it with the key and yup, don't turn. I'm about 95% I had this thing picked but I can't really be 100% sure. Ah well... next time, I shall try not to be an idiot.

[just1pick+open]

Oh man, I bet you had that sucker picked. One thing for sure you will watch for that now...lol

[xeo]

Nice vice. I have the same one.