Terribly Worn Medeco - Picking Advice?
Hoping someone, or many out there may be able to help me with some picking tips for a Medeco padlock I was given as a freebie, locked with no key. I have been picking Medeco, mostly Classic, but also BiAxial when I can find them, reliably for going on 6 months now, and unreliably for many many more months before that The padlock in question has a 6 pin Classic core, which I believe is factory judging from the age of the lock, but has so far resisted all my attempts over tens of hours, given that it is incredibly worn, to the point where it dosent feel or act like any Medeco I have yet encountered. I can pick it to a false set 50% of the time, but only when using incredible amounts of tension, otherwise I will get nothing, and I am assuming the pins have overset. Once at the false set, I have detected one mushroom pin so far, in position 4, but only after manually turning the core back, and checking each pin one by one, oversetting each pin, and resetting the core until I discovered it. Past picking this I can also rotate the pins, and can get it to a point where it feels like everything is rotated correctly, but I never get an open. It feels like there is no spring pressure on the sidebar, as setting rotation also involves manually turning back the core, so I'm assuming that the sidebar springs are well used / used up! I have also tried picking it with a section of tapered wiper blade jammed into the small gap between the core and body at the bottom, to stop it from moving and provide better feedback. It does not impede the core movement at all.
It doesn't feel if anything is stuck inside the lock, as there is no signs of corrosion or rust, I get easy movement back and forth on the core, and plenty of play / movement in the shackle. Obviously, I don't feel as if I have ever passed the false set either, so I cant confirm the above. To be as sure as I can though, I soaked the lock in a bath of kerosene for a few days, periodically running a blank key in and out of it to push the pins to their limit, and also a cut key to get some rotation happening, and both feel fine. After I soaked it, I cleaned out any residual solvent with compressed air, and then lubed it up with Inox, which is a well respected lock lubricant, produced here in Australia. I don't want to get into a lube debate, so I will just say that its definately made all the pins nice and slippery and they move great!
So after trying all of the above, I still have no open, after spending 10+ hours picking away. I have even picked a bunch of other Medeco's during this picking, just to make sure it isn't just my skills lacking.. Hopefully Does anybody have any tips on a good way to defeat this lock once and for all? As Medeco's in general are pretty rare in Australia, and padlocks even rarer, I plan on keeping it and making a key for it once open, and really don't want to have to attempt to drill the core, as any replacement would have to come from the US. That said, If I have it in the naughty bucket for another couple of months, this may be what happens to it!
A close picture of the offending core, you can see the beating it has taken with the ultra-tension I have been applying to get sets.
The padlock itself. After a bit of research here, I believe it to be a fairly old model, apparently Medeco's factory version of the S&G 826 Mil padlock, which it is very similar in size and shape to.
Thanks for any help in advance,
adi_picker