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I know you all have your favorite locks and locks that just give you nightmares, well here's my nightmare lock. It's just a simple 5 pin mortice lock, but for the life of me, I've never been able to pick it. It's a Kawneer with a pretty restricted keyway, plus it uses 5 mushroom spool pins. Even using my thinest diamond pick, I might get 1 or 2 pins set,then I just keep getting false sets.
I can't even count the number of times I've picked this lock up with a fresh mind set, thinking this is the day I'm gonna get it,only to toss it back on my bench after several hours of agravation.

i see thous on 90% of the buildings around where i live did it come all spooled up like that or did you do it yourself?

That's the way it was. Actually I had 2 doors at work with the same key. We removed one of the doors and I scrapped this lock out of it. I used that key to open this lock up and remove the cylinder, then I repinned it to another key I had laying around. But the mushroom spool pins were in it when I opened it and I wanted a challenge, so I left them in it.

Now I gotta go through my box of mortises and get the Kawneer and see if it has those cool driver pins. Darn it, I was hoping to get to sleep in another few minutes! Guess not anymore!

You know what they say... Early to bed and early to rise makes a man sick and blind in the eyes.

Gordon

haha oldbiscuit i totally hear you mate! only for me it's not just one lock it's a whole class of the bastards!
i have definitely hit a plateau [fast becoming a rut] where the next level is eluding me...
good luck on this hateful lock of yours!
p.s. those are some sexy driverz

Well, dug through the collection and can't find a Kawneer. Thought I had one, but then again, I was ready for sleep. Yet another lock to find for the collection.

Gordon

Tell me... what seems to be the problem? Are you trying to enter your pick in straight from the front and end up oversetting because of the bitting? Or are you having problems with the spooled drivers?

Xeo, You can't go in straight from the front because of the keyway. I've used really thin diamond and short hooks to attack it at an angle, but the spooled drivers keep false setting. I'm sure there are plenty of you out there that would pick this open in a heart beat, but this one has been a real challenge for me. I'de be glad to pack it up and send it to you, if you want top play with it. Mark

If its false setting youre on the right track...keep at it..You'll start ot get counter rotation on your wrench ..firmly but gently let the wrench come back until you set it and then carry on with the next

The security drivers you're dealing with are a pain in the ass. Trioving/Vingcard uses them. They will false set over and over and over endlessly. You may *think* you're in a neverending loop but keep setting the binding pin. Hard tension helps for this. If you get totally sick of the lock I'd take a crack at it sure.

I have met the enemy and he is ME. I picked up the Kawneer today when I got home, put in my Peterson prybar and grabbed a thin hook diamond pick. I tried heavy tension and light tension, light worked !! It took several tries at all the pins to figure out which one needed to set first, but once I got the first pin, I was able to try several combos of the other four, and Success !! it opened. Now to lock it and repeat the process, Grr

I still hate this lock, only because it's so agravating, but I just picked it for the second time, so maybe I'll learn to love it,.. eventually.

NICE!!!