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Finally got my Medeco cracked this weekend. Since I've been able to pick it many times with all 6 pins. The real secret for me was using the deep hook pictured. This worked better than my gem style pick I had been previously trying. My lock has a very low cut pin, so the deep hook helps a lot. It does occasionally have less precision getting between fore and aft pins that are sandwiched together when trying to distinguish, but that's less of a problem for me than over-setting was before.

Thanks to tumbl3r and this forum for the guidance. In the end I got a lot of confidence by just sticking it out and knowing others have done it.

CCW is getting pretty easy, but CW pick still eludes me. My lock doesn't go into a false set once picked to sheer CW, so rotating pins after that is much harder than doing the rotation CCW up front then picking to sheer. I've also experimented with CCW tension to align the rotation. Then switch to CW tension to pick to sheer. This works sometimes, but occasionally a pin slips out of rotation, probably just due to luck and how loose it is in binding order and if it gets bumped or not.

Coongratulations.

Definitely a milestone pick.


The nice thing about Medecos is that once you get comfortable with it, you can rearrange the pins to make it more changeling.

BRTW I like the Irwin grip idea. I'll have to try it out.

Fantastic!! Also, just in case you haven't come across it - Xeo's write-up

Yeah I was at American locks pretty easily before the Medeco. I feel like it is a bit of a leap forward. I've already re-pinned the lock several times to change it up trying to get some challenging areas. Not having a key makes me not care how I switch up the pins! But I do plan to get at least 1 more Medeco to see how I do on a blind pick.

My next sights are set on a MTL MT5+, so I'll be getting some dimple picks and working up I think. Getting ahold of a cheap MT5+, now that seems like a bigger challenge than the picking!

I did see xeo's guide, which is my major reference on Medecos. Great to have such resources around. I feel like once you can see the inside of the lock, things with picking become easier. If all I had was a keyway to go on it would certainly be more difficult as models aren't stamped on the front of most cylinders that I can see.