ASSA rant - and a lesson

[Solomon]

Got this ASSA 600 oval that I've had for years and never managed to pick. Been watching JJ's videos and he absolutely fucking slays them (and ruko as well which I never got along with either), so I wanted to make him proud. The master plan was this: take it apart and gut that bastard to see what was in there, and do progressive pinning with it to learn how to deal with whatever crazy pins it had holed up inside. It's time, god damnit. No more putting it off.

So I pried the brass cap off the back, spent ages looking for my repinning shit, and finally got to work. Regular key pins, that's normal. Countermilling in the pin chambers... no? Alright... first driver pin comes out... standard... ok so the rest must be those crazy ASSA spools, and for once in my life I can't wait to see them... but the next one was standard as well! The fuck?

You guessed it. ALL of them were standard pins. No crazy ASSA spools, no countermilling, nothing. Maybe the tiniest bit of milling at the bottom of the drivers, but it's literally microscopic. Yeah, I used a microscope. And what? So I figured, there's no way that could possibly affect picking in any way, right?

Only one way to find out. Fuck progressive pinning for this regular ass shit.

So I put the plug back in and crrimped the clip back on. Maybe I was over thinking things in the past because I "knew" what kind of pins it had and I didn't know how to tackle them, when unbeknownst to me it was full of standard shit. So I figured I'll just pick it like I did with that sargent earlier.

AND THEN GUESS FUCKING WHAT.

Not even 2 minutes later with a short hook, job done.

So let that be a lesson to you all, new and experienced alike. Never assume anything. Forget what you think you know about the lock and just trust your feely fingers. I failed an EASY lock, for hours. HOURS. Because I was treating it like something it wasn't.

I will be doing a video on this as soon as I'm back from the gym, leaving now so I'll be back and have it picked on cam within the next 2 hours. Watch this space...

[Solomon]

Video as promised... only home half an hour ago as well! Getting shit done like a boss today.



Took 5 times as long to upload than it did to fucking pick it lol... and considering this bastard put me through hours of head scratching that's really saying something. Heed my words god damnit, and never get stuck again! Well, maybe.

[Deadlock]

Ah, that's one of those ASSA Matrix locks.

There is no spool.



(Yes, this has been said before. )

[Doogs]

Done exactly the same thing, expecting spools and oversetting. Thanks for the small comfort of knowing even the pros can make the same mistakes as this noob. So much to learn still so this thread gave me a bit more confidence and a different approach going ahead.

Thanks again Solomon.

[Neilau]

Solomon, I totally agree with what you are saying.

I have/had a bunch of Lockwood disk locks that I fought with for literally a couple of years with no success.

I sent one to Oldfast as a challenge lock and he got it in a few minutes.

Just knowing that it could be done (and feeling a bit of a dill) I sat down and started again, approaching it with a fresh mind and no fear.

In a few minutes I had all five of them opened. Closed them up and did them all again.

The difference was that I “listened” to what the lock was telling me and not the little thought that said that they were impossible.

From that day onwards my skill level and confidence went shooting up.

Not to say that I still don’t have a few locks in the naughty box but they are a Keso dimple, BiLock. Duo etc. and one BUGGER of a Best core than Old fast sent me.

So I think that your “rant” is instructive and as you say

“So let that be a lesson to you all, new and experienced alike. Never assume anything. Forget what you think you know about the lock and just trust your feely fingers. I failed an EASY lock, for hours. HOURS. Because I was treating it like something it wasn't.”

An excellent post.

[Solomon]

Ah, that's one of those ASSA Matrix locks.

There is no spool.



(Yes, this has been said before. )

Haha, I like that. Yeah, I'll definitely be approaching these differently from now on. I wanna find one that actually does have those fucking pins in it though so I know how to deal with them, that's what I was hoping to get out of this one ffs! I have an assa ruko 2 padlock here which might have them so I'll gut that some time over the next week when I have time and see. Fingers crossed!

Done exactly the same thing, expecting spools and oversetting. Thanks for the small comfort of knowing even the pros can make the same mistakes as this noob. So much to learn still so this thread gave me a bit more confidence and a different approach going ahead.

Thanks again Solomon.

Thanks mate, yeah everybody makes mistakes and it doesn't matter how long you've been picking or how good you are. I've been at it almost 7 years god damnit and I still get frustrated and let my technique go out the window when I can't make sense of something. Maybe some day I'll get completely zen and shit, who knows.

Solomon, I totally agree with what you are saying.

I have/had a bunch of Lockwood disk locks that I fought with for literally a couple of years with no success.

I sent one to Oldfast as a challenge lock and he got it in a few minutes.

Just knowing that it could be done (and feeling a bit of a dill) I sat down and started again, approaching it with a fresh mind and no fear.

In a few minutes I had all five of them opened. Closed them up and did them all again.

The difference was that I “listened” to what the lock was telling me and not the little thought that said that they were impossible.

From that day onwards my skill level and confidence went shooting up.

Not to say that I still don’t have a few locks in the naughty box but they are a Keso dimple, BiLock. Duo etc. and one BUGGER of a Best core than Old fast sent me.

So I think that your “rant” is instructive and as you say

“So let that be a lesson to you all, new and experienced alike. Never assume anything. Forget what you think you know about the lock and just trust your feely fingers. I failed an EASY lock, for hours. HOURS. Because I was treating it like something it wasn't.”

An excellent post.

Excellent post right back at ya... sounds exactly the same as my experience with this thing, I was expecting it to have all this crazy shit inside and for it to be super difficult, so my confidence was away on holiday. The second I put it back together thinking "this is easy shit, the fuck am I doing?", it popped first try in no time at all. It was a "fuck yes" moment but also a "god fucking damnit" one at the same time lol cos I couldn't believe how easy it actually was after all that time. Interesting how much a change in mindset can really affect your picking. Cheers!

[j-j-80]

Awsome picking nicely explained sol

[Oldfast]

Indeed, a fine lesson for us all I know I've mind-fucked myself on more than one occasion.

[jeffmoss26]

It happens to the best of us!

I had a Schlage LFIC without keys that I wanted to get out of its housing. I ended up cutting the housing so I could extract the core. Afterwards, I went to check the keyway with a blank, only to find that the lock was 0 bitted and I could have used a control blank to remove it in about 30 seconds...lol

[Papa Gleb]

Solomon, great thread, story and video. I too have learn the same lesson. American 2000 puck that I could not pick and started to think it must be all of the dirt in the lock because it was pretty old and dirty. Finally took it apart to find all standard clean pins, lol. Put it back together and picked it easy like a regular lock without security pins. I expect the usual American security but got fooled by standards. Sucky feeling having standard pins laughing at me, hahaha