Medeco Classic Question.

[bouncer965]

I have been trying on the classic today. Manage to pick it without the sidebar fairly fluently now.
I put the sidebar in and started rotating the pins to set the sidebar, bear in mind im tensioning ccw. When i was doing the rotations they keyway moved to nearly 11 o'clock position which i in turn thought this was the sidebar setting. Well when i proceeded to try nd set the pins everything was solid as a rock, absolutely nothing coming back through the pick as in feedback or the tw. But none of the pins would push up to set.

Any ideas welcomed!!!

[barbarian]

Just a guess..

In my experience, when the sidebar sets, it's very little movement. I would say about half what you expect from a mushroom pin. You say your lock moved a bunch, so maybe you got the pins at the shearline before you got the sidebar set. Sounds reasonable cuz you say the pins wouldn't budge.

There is a "feel" to the sidebar that is a bit different than a pin setting. I would try taking out all the pins except pin one and pin six. Put the sidebar in and try to get the feel when the sidebar sets. Keep the pins balanced and keep adding.

Tough locks those classics...

[bouncer965]

Just a guess..

In my experience, when the sidebar sets, it's very little movement. I would say about half what you expect from a mushroom pin. You say your lock moved a bunch, so maybe you got the pins at the shearline before you got the sidebar set. Sounds reasonable cuz you say the pins wouldn't budge.

There is a "feel" to the sidebar that is a bit different than a pin setting. I would try taking out all the pins except pin one and pin six. Put the sidebar in and try to get the feel when the sidebar sets. Keep the pins balanced and keep adding.

Tough locks those classics...

Cheers that makes sense. I did the pins one by one to start with and could get 4 pins with sidebar and i never got the 11 oclock position before.....it totally threw me.

Now if i had set the shear first.......which would not have been intentional........could i then rotate the pins to set the sidebar as you do with the M3. Or would i have to start again?

[barbarian]

.........Now if i had set the shear first.......which would not have been intentional........could i then rotate the pins to set the sidebar as you do with the M3. Or would i have to start again?

Everything I have heard and read tells me you should not set the shear before the rotation. I believe the preferred way is to get the rotation and set the sidebar first. At this point you could even put the lock down and come back to it later because nothing disturbs the rotation of the pins if you are careful.

However after you set the shear the amount of movement you get from the plug jams the sidebar legs into the pins hard enough that they can't be rotated. If you back off on the tension enough to rotate the pins, then the pins start to drop.

Someone else might have some wisdom on this. I would be interested if anyone can set the pins before the sidebar and what methods they find best.