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Figured I would just make one thread for most of my stuff so I don't keep cluttering up the forum!

Anyway, I just got an American 1105 and I picked it right off the bat.. once. Ever since that I haven't been able to pick it at all! Must have just been dumb luck.

I also just got an ACE padlock which (I believe) is very similar to, or actually IS, an American 5200. It's got serrated pins and serrated-spool pins. The one I got had a difficult High-Low-High bitting so I actually swapped a front low pin with a back high pin. I know.. I know.. I'm such a cheater! I've been able to pick it fairly easy, since then, though.

I also got frustrated with the 1105 and swapped pins in a similar fashion.. still couldn't pick it, but only tried for a little bit last night. I think I'll be able to get it later tonight.

And, out for delivery right now, are 3 US Army American 5200's I'm pretty excited about! Got them on eBay for about $25 for all 3. I've also got some plug followers coming so changing pins will be much easier.

If anyone has any tips on the 1105/5200 by all means.. I did watch Wizwazzle's YouTube video about it.. I know I'll get it eventually, and after that I will swap the pins back to their original difficulty.

Serrated pins are a real pain you have to be able to tell the difference between the click of a set pin and the click of a serration . Practice is the only way reading old fasts and Xeos posts on American locks will fill in the gaps .

Cool, yeah I've been reading a bunch about them.. I'm sure I will get it in time. Figuring it out is the fun part! Hopefully the mailman leaves the 3x 5200's im my mailbox today (my mailbox is a small apartment box) so I can play with them all! My stash of locks is starting to grow... I don't know what I'm going to do with all of them!

Trade them on

Yeah I will get into trading for sure.. right now I've only really got Master Lock stuff to trade (don't think I wanna part with any of these American locks just yet) - but good idea

Quick update, I got my Peterson prybars today, along with a hook, gem and diamond. I sanded them and polished them. They're the carbon steel ones. I like them, but I'm so afraid I will break them.. I find myself going back to my homemade stainless steel picks more. I do like the shapes of them (the gem is nice), and the rubber handle is nice. I will probably use these as templates for my next set of SS picks.

Here are the main picks I use that I made:


(I find myself using the bottom one the most, although it's hard to get Low-High-Low bittings.. I will need to make a hook with more of a curve like the Peterson one)

The handles are a bit too big and oddly shaped, so I will probably make mine a little smaller.. maybe the size of the Peterson picks, not sure yet.

Also one slight peeve about the prybars is that I wish they were bent a little so it's more comfortable holding with my middle finger, if that makes sense. I do see myself using these exclusively, though.
Can you bend the pyrbars a few degrees? Maybe 10-20 degrees on the handle? Would that be a bad idea?

And here's a comparison of my picks and Peterson picks



sorry for the crappy flash photo