American 1105 picked with Middle of Keyway tension

[andrew_r]

I got an American 1105 on Friday, but haven't had much success SPP'ing it with BOK tension. Twice I have got about 30 degrees rotation, making me believe that the pins are all correctly set, but the cylinder has bound up tight against the tension tool before the shackle opened. I believe this is a design feature to frustrate picking. Since I don't yet have any TOK tensioners, I tried using a BOK tensioner in the middle of the keyway. This didn't leave much room for the pick, but I managed to get a 0.025 short hook in, and - aided by benign high-low bitting - got it open in a few minutes. My first American

DSC_3715_DxO.jpg

[GWiens2001]

Well done!

As for TOK tensioners, use a piece of spring steel from a windshield wiper blade. Bend it like the BOK, and cut it just long enough to have the handle of the tension wrench clear the body of the lock. Also you can go to a hardware store and pick up some music wire. Bend it, and file it to the width of the keyway. It makes a better fit.

IMHO, TOK is the way to pick the American padlocks. And many other types of locks. It takes a little practice getting used to it, but it leaves more of the keyway available to maneuver your pick and provides more even tensioning.

Gordon