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The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

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flywheel

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Post Fri Jul 18, 2014 5:38 pm

The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

...begins with a single pin. This thread will record my efforts in learning how to pick Medeco biaxial locks. Starting with one pin and ending with all six pin chambers filled I estimate a thousand openings are needed before becoming "proficient" with Medecos.

So I started with one pin in chamber six. And opened it quite a lot. When I lifted the pin on the bottom right side the lock opened as soon as the pin cleared the shear line. When I lifted from the middle or left it was a mixed bag. Sometimes a touch to open and sometimes starting over. At this point ~5% of the time I could feel pin rotation. The rest of the time I was poking at an obstruction until something happened. But, the openings were so frequent I decided to put in a second pin.

Now two pins with filling chamber five and six. Talk about being slapped back to reality! The lack of feel for pin rotation was suddenly very important indeed. Things were weird though. All of a sudden I had a bunch of openings. Sort of like all I had to do was pick the last pin to open the lock. This was followed by not being able to open the lock to save my life. Then open. Then nothing. Through this the second pin didn't feel right. It wasn't turning and wasn't springy. When the plug was turning it wasn't a big deal. Finally, after more difficulties I decided to go back to one pin and practice pushing the pin out of place and rotating it back properly.

Opened chamber five and noticed I hadn't installed a spring. :???: What a maroon! In locks with poor tolerances this wouldn't be a big deal. However, I noticed right away that Medeco tolerances are much tighter and the pins are quite snug in the chamber. Most likely there was enough friction in the chamber to prevent the pins from falling freely every time leading to confusing results. For now I have two properly filled pin chambers and am developing my feel.

Supplemental: The distal thumb joint of my picking hand is not happy. I think it is a soreness from overuse. I picked at the lock for quite a bit yesterday. The second thing I noticed is I have polished the lock to brilliance with the amount of time I have been holding it. Notice in the picture the grime in the corner of the lock? The lock had a nice layer of that when I first received it. Now it gleams once again.
20140718_153631 (1).jpg


Until next time...thanks for stopping by and have a great day :D
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jharveee

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Post Fri Jul 18, 2014 7:02 pm

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

Hey when your done with the lock let me know..........if you haven't picked it to death.
Picking a Medeco is on my list.
Good Luck on your journey.
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femurat

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Post Sat Jul 19, 2014 1:00 am

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

I did almost the same when I first started to play with medeco. The only difference is that I started pinning from the front. Your approach is much better!

Enjoy the journey :-)
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xeo

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Post Sat Jul 19, 2014 6:26 am

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

Put the lock in a vice.

Scramble the pins with your pick before picking.
Image
The code is hidden in the tumblers. One position opens the lock, another position opens one of these doors...
http://www.youtube.com/xeotech1

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shadowlock

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Post Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:06 am

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

Good luck on your Quest!!!
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mister sour

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Post Sat Jul 19, 2014 9:56 am

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

xeo wrote:Put the lock in a vice.

Scramble the pins with your pick before picking.

I learned from xeo. Take him seriously. Putting it in a vice will get you trained on how an actual medeco rests in the wild. Unless its a padlock. In which case you may have to pick it upside down and in an awkward manner.
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rerun12

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Post Sat Jul 19, 2014 11:54 am

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

agreed^ xeo has done a great write-up on biaxials (among others) that helped me greatly when i first started to go at em. i dont think i would have been able to open my first without it.

also, i dont know what kinda picks youre workin with but, for myself, the peterson slenders are a must for picking biaxials. im totally lost on those locks with a really stiff pick but, that's just me. good luck on the journey, its fun to follow along :)
Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand.
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Neilau

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Post Sun Jul 20, 2014 3:53 am

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

I’ll be following your thread with great interest.

Several months back I started on the same journey. OldFast kindly sent me a MEDECO Biaxial.

I started with one pin in the one position and gradually moved up to three pins. Each additional pin increased the difficulty exponentially.

Four pins is as far as I have gotten and by this time I had started to damage the chisel tips on the key pins so I have put it away for a while.

I’ll tell you what I have learned so far.

First read Xeo’s excellent article.

There is also an excellent article and a description of a tool that makes it a bit easier. I made one and it definitely helps. You can download the PDF file from http://www.ndemag.com/issues/nde4.pdf ---- A clamp and the thickest unwound guitar string will do.

For those that don’t know of this site, they have four excellent pdf mags on Non Destructive Entry [url]NDE.com[/url]


Back to the MEDECOs, I think putting it into a vice is absolutely a must. I was holding the lock in my hand – not the best.


Once you can pick it, mix up the pins and try again because you will become VERY familiar with THAT one lock and translating what you have learnt to other MEDECOs is not as easy as with other locks.

Lastly, don’t give up hope. BosinanBill spent well in excess of 100 hours getting the hang of them (and mashed up a lot of key pins in the process) and XEO says that he put in several 8 hour sessions before he got the hang of them.


When you can do four pins you have reached your first mile stone as MEDECOs do come in four pin models.


Good luck and keep us informed of your progress. :akimbo:
Clark's Law (Arthur C)

For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.
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flywheel

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Post Tue Nov 25, 2014 8:42 pm

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

A legitimate 6-pin medeco LFIC picked to control. No keys so you know it's good. I'm not a certified medeco picker yet but I don't mind a little heavy handed picking good luck.
:hbg:
I have a bunch of these I'm hoping to get open so wish me luck.
2014-11-25 18.26.55.jpg
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VancouverSpecial

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Post Tue Nov 25, 2014 8:59 pm

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

Damn, that's amazing! :)
Congratulations, that's one difficult milestone.
Cheers,
Sean
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faygo6

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Post Tue Nov 25, 2014 9:38 pm

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

How about adding some pics of the picks you are using.
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flywheel

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Post Wed Nov 26, 2014 11:56 am

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

I thought picks used for medecos were all the same. Here are mine. Their function should be self explanatory.
2014-11-26 09.25.56.jpg


Below are the backup picks I use when the above fails. I started with the gem a while back but it has been out of service ever since I mangled it. The deforest diamond has opened the LFICs.
2014-11-26 09.29.40.jpg
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flywheel

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Post Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:52 pm

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

Another success. I have picked 2 of these LFICs to control and now this third one to operating. I'm trying to remove a bunch of these from their housing.

I kind of went from practicing on 1, 2, and then 3 pins in the beginning to the full 6-pinner in a fit of "why the hell not?" I'm getting a better feel and ear when the sidebar is engaged in the majority of the pins. There is a particular click felt through the tensioner when setting a medeco pin properly. It is exquisite. I can't get enough!
2014-12-07 21.30.06.jpg
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xeo

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Post Mon Dec 08, 2014 4:44 pm

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

I see you've honed your senses for Medeco. Very well done! The feedback is fantastic when a rotation clicks into place isn't it? Picking LFICs are definitely harder. Try getting at control, it uses the middle two pin stacks. Try pushing them higher (forcing).
Image
The code is hidden in the tumblers. One position opens the lock, another position opens one of these doors...
http://www.youtube.com/xeotech1

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

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Oldfast

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OldddffAASSTT the Spin Master Extraordinaire and American Lock Slayer
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Post Mon Dec 08, 2014 11:20 pm

Re: The journey of a thousand Medeco openings...

Hell yeah, well done indeed!
" Enjoy the journey AS MUCH as the destination."

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