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Hello from Delaware

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rusirius

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Posts: 26

Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:41 pm

Location: Delaware

Post Fri Dec 09, 2016 10:01 am

Hello from Delaware

Kick your feet up, grab a drink and a cigar if you so choose. I'll tell you the story of how I ended up enjoying locksport. It's a long one though, so settle in and get cozy.

8 years old. That's how old I was when I picked my first lock. Now before you start waving the "B.S." signs around, let me explain. My parents bowled on a league back in those days, I believe it was on Sunday night. This bowling alley had an isolated area (that I believe at one time was their pro shop) that was set up as an arcade. So every week I'd get my $2 allowance and feed it into these machines. After that 20 minutes had passed I'd have absolutely nothing to do for the remaining 3 hours or so. :mrgreen:

So one day while I was home watching some movie on satellite (courtesy of a 12' Dark Star dish) I witness something miraculous to my 8-year-old eyes. I saw this guy get two bobby pins from the woman he was with, jam them into the lock of the door they were trying to get into, turn one while jiggling the other around a little bit and viola! It just mysteriously popped open. :roll: My 8-year-old mind was fascinated with this... Just jam a bobby pin into a lock and jiggle it and you can get in any door you want! It was like I had discovered the secret to the universe! Actually, in my mind, I had just taken the Super Spy Lock Pickinator Secret CIA Correspondence Course.

I promptly went and asked my mom for bobby pins, to which of course she asked me why. After explaining I was going to jam them into the lock on our front door to open it she quickly told me no and forbid me to do so. :cry: "But mom!!! This is the final test of my Super Spy Lock Pickinator Secret CIA Correspondence Course! If I don't pass this test how can I graduate?" Mom's just don't understand...

Now back to this bowling alley I told you about... The following Sunday while my parents were bowling, I was sitting against the wall of this room that was the arcade with nothing to do having already spent my allowance. Another boy probably 9 years old was sitting beside me. I saw him there every now and then. Suddenly my eyes went up to the foosball table in the middle of the floor. More precisely they went to the small silver circle emblazoned on a small door at the bottom of the table just under the coin slot. :shock:

Yes... I know... I know... You'll be happy to know this was the first and ONLY time I ever picked a lock with malicious intent. I was 8... Cut me a break...

So anyway, the idea formed in my head. I could "pick" this lock, get a couple dollars worth of quarters out of it which I could then feed back into the very same table giving my friend and I something to do. You see, I didn't have any more money anyway. So they weren't LOSING money. At the same time, the table didn't even use any electric, so I perfectly justified to myself that this fell within the acceptable ethics level I was comfortable with. I was pretty sure the boys in the CIA would give me approval for my mission.

But I needed two bobby pins! I explained to my friend that I was a Super Spy Lock Pickinator Secret CIA Genius that could open any lock at will if only I had two bobby pins. He went on his mission and soon came back, but not with bobby pins. Instead, he handed me two paper clips as he explained that was all he could find. :?:

No worries! You don't get to be a Super Spy Lock Pickinator Secret CIA Genius by not being able to work with what's available. I unfolded the paper clips a little and shoved them into the keyhole and went to work...

The seconds then minutes ticked by and that lock didn't budge. I jiggled and jiggled and nothing was happening. I looked at my friend and saw the look of dismay on his face as he began doubting I was truly a Super Spy Lock Pickinator Secret CIA Genius. For a moment I think he was starting to wonder if I had just seen some stupid tv show and hadn't really taken the CIA correspondence course. :bs:

I, of course, had NO idea what I was doing. I had no concept of how a lock even worked. I had no clue about shear lines, top pins or bottom pins, wafers, tension or anything else... I was literally just poking around in there expecting it to just pop itself open.

The crazy part is, somehow miraculously that's exactly what happened. The core rotated ever so slightly, much to my amazement. I didn't really expect this to work I suppose. I quickly turned the core the rest of the way around and the door fell open. A rush of excitement came over me. I did it! I really and truly did it!!! I had no idea what I had done, and would probably never be able to do it again, but I did it! Woot! :mrgreen: I truly was a Super Secret Spy Lock Pickinator CIA Genius!

Then reality sunk in. As I slid the drawer open to get ready to get a few quarters out my "friend" jammed both hands into the box which flung from my hands and dumped quarters all over the floor. It seemed he didn't share the same ethics I did. He grabbed at them like a rabid soccer mom after that last "greatest toy ever" on black Friday. He was shoving them in his pockets as I continued to scream at him to stop. He obviously didn't share my ideal of "being fair" and only using them to play a few free games. After he stuffed his pockets he ran out and left me at the scene of the crime. Here I am sitting in the middle of the floor, door flung open, quarters scattered here and there across the floor. My heart fluttered with fear. I was sure at this point the cops were already on their way. They were going to walk around the corner at any moment, put me in handcuffs and shackles and lead me away forever. I had only just begun my life and now I had only moments until it was all over. I picked up the remaining quarters and got them back into the tray. Slid it back into place and closed it back up. I then left the scene of the crime wondering how long it would take them to review the security footage that would doom me to no possibility of parole.

I sat by my parents the rest of the night, thinking I'd spend my last few moments with them. When it was finally time to leave I felt a small amount of relief, though each new day of the following week I awoke just knowing it would be my last.

Eventually, I realized I had somehow gotten away with it. The fear subsided and that's when the excitement set in. I had done it... I had really and truly done it... I never tried again though... Not for many many many years...

I believe I was 19 just about to turn 20 going to college in Columbus, OH when I managed to lock my keys in my car. I was the guy who would invite friends over, ask them to sit on the couch and then leave so I could dig through the cushions to scrape up any spare change that might have fallen out. I was a poor college kid, so paying "thousands of dollars" (as I imagined in my head) to a locksmith to come open my car for me was out of the question. The other set of keys was 600 miles away, so that was out of the question as well.

Suddenly I flashed back to that foosball table. I hadn't thought about it for years. I did it once maybe I could do it again? But I was older and wiser now. I knew that was pure luck. I couldn't just jam a paper clip or bobby pin into this lock and wiggle it around and expect it to open. I needed an education. I needed to understand more about these things and what exactly I was doing.

So of course, I turned to the internet. Now this was 1995. The internet was a whole different animal back then. But I quickly located a text copy of "The Poor Man's James Bond" or some other such book. Anyway, whatever it was, it had a sizable section on "Lock Picking". I spent half the day reading and absorbing all the information it contained. Once finished I felt ready to accomplish the feat. But I needed tools. Fortunately, it also contained a bit on how to make these yourself. A hammer, flat file, coat hanger and about 4 hours of work provided me everything I needed. Well, that and a whole lot of sweat! :oops:

When I was finished I headed outside. How I didn't get arrested I have no idea. I'm sitting out there in this parking lot beside my car trying to pick the lock as occasional people would pass by. Sure they lived in the same apartment complex, but I didn't know these people, had never seen them before so they couldn't have known me. Still, I managed to keep myself out of prison for the second time.

The minutes ticked by and I grew weary. I was pretty much ready to give up. I had been at it for probably almost 2 hours. I was freezing cold and starting to realize this just wasn't working. Then *click* :hbg:

The core turned and I was IN!!! I had done it again! There it was... That rush... That excitement... Yet my mission was accomplished and I quickly put it behind me. I threw away my "tools" (I REALLY wish I had kept them just as a memento) and carried on with life.

Several years later I was at work at a remote site with a locked rack and no key in sight. We had to get into these machines, but alas the only way in was to once again pick a lock. I figured it was worth a shot, so I grabbed a paper clip and a small straight screwdriver to use as a tensioner. This time went much quicker and easier (no doubt a result of a much crappier lock) and soon all 4 wafers were set and the lock rolled open. WOOT WOOT! There was that feeling again... That rush... Wow... I forgot about that rush...

And then the moment passed.... Until maybe a year later when a server was locked (physically on the front cover) and since it was from a business we recently purchased we had no key. Once again I found myself holding a screwdriver and a paper clip. And once again I quickly found and set them. *click* *click* *click* *click* RUSH!!!!! :shock:

This time I recognized it. This time I listened to it. That feeling as that core turns... It's exciting... It's an awesome feeling! Why can't I do this just for fun? So that's exactly what I decided to do. I learned as much as I could, and still am learning as I guess we all are.

And still, there's one consistency throughout all this time... One thing that never changes... Be it a stupid little master lock or something chock full of security pins, every time I hear that little *click* as the core starts to turn my heart still skips a beat. It's the one constant... A tiny little adrenaline rush that comes with saying, "I just did something I'm not supposed to be able to do... "
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Neilau

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Joined: Tue May 14, 2013 10:29 pm

Location: Australia

Post Fri Dec 09, 2016 4:09 pm

Re: Hello from Delaware

Great little story.

Welcome to the forum.

And yes it is the "Rush" that sucked us all in. :D
Clark's Law (Arthur C)

For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.
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Oldfast

User avatar

OldddffAASSTT the Spin Master Extraordinaire and American Lock Slayer
OldddffAASSTT the Spin Master Extraordinaire and American Lock Slayer

Posts: 4412

Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:16 am

Location: Michigan

Post Sun Dec 11, 2016 5:51 pm

Re: Hello from Delaware

I'm Mike. Nice to meet you and glad you're here. Welcome.

So now hopefully you can finally start enjoying this hobby
without having to look over your shoulder and worry. lol

Not nearly as young as you were, but I recall being interested and
trying my hand at lock picking when I was maybe 16 or 18 years old.
The years following I'd briefly revisit it from time to time. A sort of on/off
hobby I guess. It wasn't until... oh, maybe 10 yrs ago... that it finally took
a hold of me and I stuck with it, working with locks consistently every day.

Anyway, hopefully you have many years of enjoyment ahead of you.
Clear off the kitchen table, or better yet, a room. You might need it. lol
" Enjoy the journey AS MUCH as the destination."
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rusirius

Familiar Face

Posts: 26

Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:41 pm

Location: Delaware

Post Mon Dec 12, 2016 2:18 pm

Re: Hello from Delaware

Indeed! It's definitely got ahold of me. I just ended up stealing a kaba-ilco 673000 off the 'bay for $10... So that's just become my practice combo lock. :)
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Oldfast

User avatar

OldddffAASSTT the Spin Master Extraordinaire and American Lock Slayer
OldddffAASSTT the Spin Master Extraordinaire and American Lock Slayer

Posts: 4412

Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:16 am

Location: Michigan

Post Mon Dec 12, 2016 2:52 pm

Re: Hello from Delaware

Ten bucks?! Well there ya go. Can't beat that :D
" Enjoy the journey AS MUCH as the destination."
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HT4

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Active Member

Posts: 370

Joined: Mon Jun 22, 2015 8:12 pm

Location: Maryland

Post Mon Dec 12, 2016 3:52 pm

Re: Hello from Delaware

Welcome, from a former Delawarean (Wilmingtonian).
Check out my "LockPickingLawyer" YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9K6rby98W8JigLoZOh6FQ/videos
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rusirius

Familiar Face

Posts: 26

Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:41 pm

Location: Delaware

Post Mon Dec 12, 2016 3:59 pm

Re: Hello from Delaware

HT4 wrote:Welcome, from a former Delawarean (Wilmingtonian).


Awesome! I've watched pretty much every one of your videos... Had no idea you were formerly from DE though... I'm on the opposite end though... In the slower lower... :)
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rusirius

Familiar Face

Posts: 26

Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:41 pm

Location: Delaware

Post Mon Dec 12, 2016 4:02 pm

Re: Hello from Delaware

Oldfast wrote:Ten bucks?! Well there ya go. Can't beat that :D


My thoughts exactly! I've been wanting to get a decent practice combo to work with but was kinda waiting for a good deal to come along. I saw it pop up in one of my searches when it was first posted... The opening bid was $9.99 so I figured what the heck, I'll bid $35 just for fun, even though I'm sure it'll be outbid in no time... Well low and behold I got the notification this morning that my $9.99 bid won it! Definitely excited to get it in, get it mounted on something and start playing around with it... Gotta find a change key for it now though...
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HT4

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Active Member

Posts: 370

Joined: Mon Jun 22, 2015 8:12 pm

Location: Maryland

Post Mon Dec 12, 2016 4:32 pm

Re: Hello from Delaware

rusirius wrote:
HT4 wrote:Welcome, from a former Delawarean (Wilmingtonian).


Awesome! I've watched pretty much every one of your videos... Had no idea you were formerly from DE though... I'm on the opposite end though... In the slower lower... :)


Thanks for watching. I've spent some time dodging chickens on the road in slower lower.
Check out my "LockPickingLawyer" YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9K6rby98W8JigLoZOh6FQ/videos
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rusirius

Familiar Face

Posts: 26

Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:41 pm

Location: Delaware

Post Wed Dec 14, 2016 7:26 pm

Re: Hello from Delaware

Got the Ilco in today! I didn't spend any real time making anything fancy since I was in a hurry to get spinning, but I did slap together a mount for it and got it working good!

20161214_201822.jpg


20161214_201807.jpg
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Oldfast

User avatar

OldddffAASSTT the Spin Master Extraordinaire and American Lock Slayer
OldddffAASSTT the Spin Master Extraordinaire and American Lock Slayer

Posts: 4412

Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:16 am

Location: Michigan

Post Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:43 pm

Re: Hello from Delaware

Oh nice! Looks to be in really good shape. You scored a nice deal there.

Looks like you'll eventually need a thinner mount - spindle's a bit short.
Should be ok to get you going though. Just be sure there's no 'play/slop'
between the drive cam and dial. They should move as one solid unit.

I mention this because it could really throw your readings off leaving
you confused. Not what you want when learning. Hold the dial solid
with one hand while turning the cam back and forth with the other.
If there's no movement... you're good to go.

Oh hell, shit, sonofbitch....!! POP-QUIZ !! :gosplit: :rofl:

1. What contact point are you touching in your photo? Right or Left?
2. What wheel do I see there closest to the drive cam? Wheel 1 or 3?
And what number of the combination does it correlate with? First or last?
" Enjoy the journey AS MUCH as the destination."
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rusirius

Familiar Face

Posts: 26

Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:41 pm

Location: Delaware

Post Wed Dec 14, 2016 9:28 pm

Re: Hello from Delaware

No slop in it at all. It didn't thread all the way through the cam, but it definitely went in a lot. The spline key went in quite a bit as well.

As for the quiz, I'm glad to say this one was easy!

1: The right contact point. The "more important one" since the rounded nose will help indicate height of the fence better due to more amplification.


2: I'm pretty sure that should be called wheel #1, since it's the "first" wheel to get picked up by the cam. I can see where that would get confusing, because one might think then that it was the wheel for the first number in the combination, but it would actually be the last since we have to pick up all three first in order to leave that third wheel behind, followed by leaving the second behind and finally dialing in the first and leaving it behind to grab the nose.
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Oldfast

User avatar

OldddffAASSTT the Spin Master Extraordinaire and American Lock Slayer
OldddffAASSTT the Spin Master Extraordinaire and American Lock Slayer

Posts: 4412

Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:16 am

Location: Michigan

Post Wed Dec 14, 2016 10:06 pm

Re: Hello from Delaware

rusirius wrote:No slop in it at all. It didn't thread all the way through the cam, but it definitely went in a lot. The spline key went in quite a bit as well.

Sounds good to me then. After you've been spinnin' on it a while, you might check it from time to time
just to be sure it hasn't worked its' way loose. Learning is much easier when everything stays consistent.

rusirius wrote:2: I'm pretty sure that should be called wheel #1, since it's the "first" wheel to get picked up by the cam. I can see where that would get confusing, because one might think then that it was the wheel for the first number in the combination, but it would actually be the last since we have to pick up all three first in order to leave that third wheel behind, followed by leaving the second behind and finally dialing in the first and leaving it behind to grab the nose.

Someones been doin' their homework!

Good! Your understanding of the wheels; how & when they move, and which one goes to
what number of the combo is SPOT ON. That is the most important part of the question.

Except... this wheel (closest to the drive cam) you'll want to refer to it as wheel #3. As you
already mentioned & know, it is the first to be picked up when spinning - but it's the last to
be positioned when dialing in a combo and correlates to the last/3rd number of the combo.
Therefore we call it w3. Spin on my friend!!
" Enjoy the journey AS MUCH as the destination."
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mrdeus

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Posts: 52

Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2016 6:26 am

Location: Sweden

Post Thu Dec 15, 2016 6:36 am

Re: Hello from Delaware

I enjoyed reading your story :D
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rusirius

Familiar Face

Posts: 26

Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:41 pm

Location: Delaware

Post Thu Dec 15, 2016 8:37 am

Re: Hello from Delaware

Oldfast wrote:Except... this wheel (closest to the drive cam) you'll want to refer to it as wheel #3. As you
already mentioned & know, it is the first to be picked up when spinning - but it's the last to
be positioned when dialing in a combo and correlates to the last/3rd number of the combo.
Therefore we call it w3. Spin on my friend!!


Gotcha... I was thinking it should be 1 since it picked up first... But yeah, like I said, I see where that could cause a lot of confusion since wheel 1 would be the third number in the combo and wheel 3 would be the first... So I suppose it does make more sense to reverse them despite the order they are picked up!

My change key won't be here for a couple of days, so I've been purposely avoiding paying attention to the gates so I can try to figure it out on my own... (current combination wasn't included, LOL)

I've definitely determined 40 is a number, and it's on wheel 3 after testing. I didn't use graph paper and I actually didn't even pay attention to the left contact point. The right contact point slowly shifted around between what I'll call 6.2 and 7.4, but at 40 it drops to 5.5. A substantial drop by the way. To be honest I was kinda expecting it to be much more subtle than that, though I suppose it depends on the lock.

Now here's a question... Is there a certain "good" place to start while looking for the next number? And is there a particular direction that's better than the other? In other words, is it easier to go all wheels right to X, then switch and pick that 3rd wheel up to get it back to 40 before checking my contact point again? Or is it better to go all wheels left to X, then pick 3rd wheel opposite to 40 then contact point? I know there can be a shift in the gate, if it's not the direction I discovered it in I'd have to test out in that direction to make sure it was still at 40 and not shifted slightly. Just wasn't sure if there was an advantage to going one direction over another...

Also, before anyone asks... I did try 20-30-40 and 0-20-40 just in case... LOL

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