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Died anyone else this is a tough pick?
I had resort to raking a false set and keep lifting the same pins over and over...losing false sets...oversetting pins. It was a beast.

The bitting wasn't even that crazy

Yeah they are fun. The pins will trick you and there are two ways to handle it. Just memorize the order and iterate through from the beginning when one drops. You will probably have to reset the same pin or two every time another is set. Or lots of practice, lol. I have a hard time describing the feel, as if different stacks have different binding pressure. You cant compare one against another to find the right stack but compare against what it felt like previously, looking for the greatest change.

Don't know why this is with some shiny-new abus cores. I usually find that problem with really old, broken, or otherwise messed-up locks. Second-hand Corbins I find locally with unevenly degraded or broken springs can be like that.

They are a fun pick and as Josephus says they feel very different, I think it is the aluminium alloy body against the pins, very different to brass or steel, that gives that “sticky” feel.

The way I pop them is to use a shallow twin peak rake and light tension to get the false set and lock on the spools. When this happens you know that some of the pins are at the shear line and that some of the pins are caught in the spools.

Now you need a strong hook (about a medium) and go in and test each pin to find the pins stuck in the spools. This is where the “feel” comes in.

Use a fairly flexible torsion tool and only apply enough torsion to keep the set pins from falling. This requires practice and even then some will drop. Just start again.

The most common mistake is to use too much torsion. After a few goes you will find that one or two of the pins (always the same ones) that are caught in the spools are the ones that need lifting. Keeping the right amount of torsion, lift each one to the shear line.

Again, like Josephus said, it requires practice. So, once you have opened it, close it up and go round again and again etc.

They are quite an educational little lock. Very good for developing the torsion side of your picking skills and developing the “feel”.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice guys. I have been able to get it open a few more times. I'm also going to get 1 or 2 more just to compare. Price wise they were very inexpensive. If I find anything else of note, I will post it.

Ok, lock solved. Normally I start off front to back. With this particular lock the first pin was binding and did turn the core slightly when I set him. Upon further inspection I discovered that pin 6 was also binding first. When I started with him first I can pick this guy in no time
No Tension

Tension

False Set

Open

I have one of these, I haven't gotten it open despite a few hours worth of picking time. I gave up for now, it's now locking my shed!

I have one, I opened it after about 10min of SPP (well worth the money IMHO). it's now on my storage locker

Yea these are fun. Took me awhile and still can give me fits if I get overconfident with it. Light tension with a flexible tool. Pay super close attention to the feedback to avoid chasing pins around that keep dropping. Sometimes two or more pins will go e slight feedback but one will be more than the other set that one.

Picked one of these up at the recommendations of folks in this thread. Great little lock. I'm a little rusty on my picking and I have yet to open it, but I play around with it a little everytime I sit down at my computer. One of these days I'll pop it open. Great cheap practice lock got it for $15 on the bay.

Happy Picking,
Whizdumb

I know this is an old post, but I recently picked up a couple of 80ti/50s. At first they were also a challenge. One had pretty flat bitting, which was disappointing, but the other is fairly wild.



Both my locks it seems like pin 1 is the standard pin, so usually just inserting a hook and rocking up on pin 1 with the shaft lifts the other pins enough and drops both locks into false set. From there, my previous problem identifying the correct spool was that I would tend to let up on the tension wrench a bit as I tested each pin, combined with the decent spring force meant I would sometimes think a pin was the incorrect one.

Now I crank down the tension pretty good, feel for which one gives the most feedback before deciding which to set first. Even with having to set all 6 pins, I've opened these now in 30s. Though sometimes other pins do drop and it can take me up to about 3-4m to crack it open. At least it feels good when it's open even if it took a while.

My bigger problems are now spools on cores without spring action (have one challenge lock pinned up) as I have to twist with the pick the opposite direction and put quite a lot of force, even then half the time the pin over sets. Makes the Abus look easy by comparison.

Also on picks, for me, on the flat bitted lock, the standard hook works fine (mine is a modified Southord), but on the one shown above, a half-diamond works much better allowing it to both set deeper pins, and also rock out of the way of shallow already set pins. I have an offset ball from a Dangerfield set, but they are much thinner in height than the half-diamond so seem to flex much more when trying to set these tough spools.