Barrel pins - why aren't they used more?
Posted: Sat May 16, 2020 5:37 am
Hello,
looking for a easy to pick lock I raided our garage and found an old FAB euro cylinder. Unfortunately the thing is far from easy - the warding is quite restrictive, the key biting is also quite nasty (pin 3 is almost zero lift, 4 and 5 are quite the opposite); but the main problem are the driver pins...
They are approximately 0.1mm thinner on the top and they are very frustrating to pick... When the lock is tensioned, one of the pins seems to bind (sometimes more of them), but when you push it, it goes down a bit and turn springy; but when the pick is lifted the pin goes back almost as high as it was before and you have to find the next most binding and repeat ad nauseam...
Then, after several minutes of just pushing pins almost at random the lock suddenly pops open (so far I tried 3 pins and spent several minutes playing with it, before it opened)...
I tried searching for more information on those, but found very little - one LPL's video mentioned them with advice to use "ridiculous" amount of tension, but not much more...
So the question is - why aren't such pins used more? Spools, serrated pins, mushrooms and the rest can cause a lot of trouble, but these pins do rob me of pretty much any feedback on the picking progression, which is very frustrating... Or is there any technique or trick that I managed to miss?
Thank you for your help,
Michal
looking for a easy to pick lock I raided our garage and found an old FAB euro cylinder. Unfortunately the thing is far from easy - the warding is quite restrictive, the key biting is also quite nasty (pin 3 is almost zero lift, 4 and 5 are quite the opposite); but the main problem are the driver pins...
They are approximately 0.1mm thinner on the top and they are very frustrating to pick... When the lock is tensioned, one of the pins seems to bind (sometimes more of them), but when you push it, it goes down a bit and turn springy; but when the pick is lifted the pin goes back almost as high as it was before and you have to find the next most binding and repeat ad nauseam...
Then, after several minutes of just pushing pins almost at random the lock suddenly pops open (so far I tried 3 pins and spent several minutes playing with it, before it opened)...
I tried searching for more information on those, but found very little - one LPL's video mentioned them with advice to use "ridiculous" amount of tension, but not much more...
So the question is - why aren't such pins used more? Spools, serrated pins, mushrooms and the rest can cause a lot of trouble, but these pins do rob me of pretty much any feedback on the picking progression, which is very frustrating... Or is there any technique or trick that I managed to miss?
Thank you for your help,
Michal