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The Curious Case of The Cruciform Club...

PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:22 pm
by Shearlock
Hey guys, so here's the thing...

My wife's father gave her a steering wheel club about a month ago, he owns a car dealership and told her it's the "best" and it's "unpickable." So naturally I laughed and ran away with it...

The thing that really interested me was that it's cruciform, pretty cool for a club. I figured it would rake open with little issue. wrong. I have spent the past two weeks trying to SPP it with no avail, getting frustrated and setting it down for a few days, then trying again, nothing. Rinse and repeat. The strange part is, I could swear this thing is false setting and giving counter rotation, as in security pins, I would bet anything it sense spools. But I talked to BosnianBill today and told him about the trouble I'm having with it and he insists that he's never seen a cruciform with security pins. I didn't know that cruciforms didn't.

He told me that it shouldn't have security pins and i'm likely mistaken, which happens. He said use light tension and rake the hell out of it and eventually it will yield. So I did that for about 30 minutes, nothing was happening. So then I decided to try something different. Even though BosnianBill says it likely does not contain security pins, and I must be imagining the false setting and counter rotation, I decided to rake it into what I have been percieving as a false set, then single pin pick it from there. It FINALLY opened.

:bogota: :offestdiamond: :drool:

I was over the moon! I'm sure you guys understand, If you work on a lock for a long time, when it finally opens, It's THRILLING. But I digress...

To make sure this wasn't a fluke, I went at it again, with the same exact method, after about 5 or 6 minutes, it opened again. Victory. So my question is, what do you make of this? It allegedly shouldn't have security pins at all, yet when I treat it like it does, I get it to open. And the weird way in which it at least "seems" to false set and counter rotate. Rather curious to me, to say the least.

Here's a link to the same model cruciform Sport Utility Club LX on Ebay, if anyone fancies one of these:
http://r.ebay.com/AdoMRG

And here's a picture of mine:
Image

Re: The Curious Case of The Cruciform Club...

PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 8:52 am
by Papa Gleb
Shearlock, as far as I understand the club is a cheap lock. I have a feeling that its a company that never made a single lock but had an idea to lock the wheel and they went with it without taking the time to understand what makes a good lock good. They probably went with a cross lock just because its an uncommon design. My point is that this lock is cheap and with cheap locks, the tolerances are so horrible that standard pins may sometime feel like they are spools giving a FS and counter rotation. Ill be honest I am very curious to get to the bottom of it.

Also there are cross picks to rake all 3-4 sides of these locks at once.

Re: The Curious Case of The Cruciform Club...

PostPosted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 9:31 am
by eph778
I heard you can use a .22 caliber wire bore cleaning brush on some cross-locks to open them. It might damage the lock, so do it at your own risk. It will act like a rake. Just rake and twist.

Re: The Curious Case of The Cruciform Club...

PostPosted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 12:11 pm
by GWiens2001
The Club cruciform locks are cheap, but they DO have spool pins. Have one of them that I picked up for a few bucks at a thrift store, and it was my first cruciform lock.

It is not difficult to pick as long as you keep tension light. A tweezer-type tensioner can help keep the rotational force even. That will help reduce dropped pins when you are picking the opposite side of the keyway.

Gordon

Re: The Curious Case of The Cruciform Club...

PostPosted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 1:04 pm
by Papa Gleb
Oh wow. I retract my prior statement :).