Learning From our Errors

[LocksmithArmy]

hahaha ive done that on youtube lol. it takes a second to figure it out dont it lol

[Oldfast]

Yep, been there... done that. lol

[femurat]

Tried to pick a lock. Plug turned quite far (a little bit too far for a false set). All pins felt properly set. Wasn't able to turn the plug any further. Reset it and tried again. Same result. After a few more tries I found out that the tail piece hit the vice which prevented rotation.

I did that wile impressioning my very first key... I was going to break the blank, but fortunately I realized why it didn't turn any further

[m0ose]

I've had my fair share of problems in my time of locksmithing. The two that stick out in my mind happened while I was studying Foley-Belsaw.

The first of the two was when I was making my first bump key. I was excited and didn't really understand the mechanics behind making a bump key. What ended up happening is I cut the key in a way that the notches were far to low on the key, and the peaks were far to high. First first, and only time, I was able to get the key into a lock I had to force it in, only to realize I couldn't get it back out. With various attempts at trying to budge the key it finally broke off inside the lock.

The second time I was working away from my bench, over at a family member's house just fiddling with my new Kryptonite lock. I had it all dismantled and was examining it from top to bottom. I ended up removing the core and spun the cylinder, causing all of the pins to fall out onto the ground. In a panic I spun the cylinder back around mistakenly pulling it loose causing all the top pins and springs to fly everywhere, however somehow one of the top pins and springs got lodged in the last hole in the cylinder. Panicing even more I ripped the cylinder the rest of the way out destroying the spring. I always wanted to rebuild that lock, and up until recently I had all the parts, minus that one spring, but during this last move of mine the drawer I kept all of my parts and pieces separated into somehow got flipped around causing me to loose all of my small pieces such as pins, springs, and screws.

[jeffmoss26]

Gutting locks/picking them with the tailpiece off and everything goes flying

[mastersmith]

When I started in the business, I was the "key cutter". Standing behind the counter waiting on customers that wanted copies. That job has lots of spare time. So when one of the locksmith service men dumped their pin kit, it would come to me to sort. We were very cheap at this shop...lol. Three times I put kits back together and vowed I would never do that myself. Fast forward several decades (to about 8 months ago), and I am finishing up a job when I let myself get distracted. I forgot my kits lid wasn't fastened down. When I found it many days and miles later, the lid had been bouncing, the pins had been jumping from where they belong to where they stopped. Needless to say, it is still sitting on my bench, waiting for me to do something with it. Thank goodness for back up kits!

[andrex66it]

well, so far I managed to:

- Pick a lock and rotate the plug 180°...
- mindlessy extract a Primus plug - "Hmm,where are the finger pi-" *SPROING*
- rake a cylinder with a bogota without the tailpiece, it rocketed out of the bible in a cloud of pins and springs
- dremel a finger (one of mine!) with the cutting disk

I just started this hobby, so I think I have room for improvement

[LocksmithArmy]

well, so far I managed to:

- Pick a lock and rotate the plug 180°...
- mindlessy extract a Primus plug - "Hmm,where are the finger pi-" *SPROING*
- rake a cylinder with a bogota without the tailpiece, it rocketed out of the bible in a cloud of pins and springs
- dremel a finger (one of mine!) with the cutting disk

I just started this hobby, so I think I have room for improvement

hey bro you havent done anything we all havent done before... as a beginner your alotted these 4 mistakes... BUT NO MORE... your on thin ice buddy.

[andrex66it]

Uh! thank you for warning me mate, I'll watch my steps from now on! Don't want to swim in cold waters....