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MBI wrote:Nice job!

To pick Medecos I made a tension wrench to fit those insanely wide keyways, then I dumped all the pin stacks but one. I learned to lift and rotate the pins with a hook pick, and how to tell the difference in the feedback when the sidebar is set in the false groove of a pin and in the correct groove.

Once I had a feel for the false groove and learned to have good control of rotating the pin, I added another pin stack, learned to pick it that way, and continued adding pin stacks up until I could pick them with all six pin stacks. I found a pretty big jump in difficulty between five pin stacks and six pin stacks. Not totally sure why, although I have some vague ideas about it.

The original Medecos gave me the most difficulty since the keyways are narrower and the pin tips have a different shape so they are a bit harder to turn with a hook pick. Biaxial and m3 are very similar to pick except with the m3 you just have to reach in and poke the slider with the tip of the pick when you think you have it picked. If everything is set correctly it'll open when you poke the slider. If it doesn't open, you have to go back over the pins and check again if any are set in the false groove or hung up on a spool or something. Just keep poking the slider every time you think you might have everything set. Doesn't take much effort so don't push hard, if it's correctly picked the slider will drop right into place and the plug will turn.

For checking the pin rotation to see if it's in the false groove or the correct groove, I found it can be a bit helpful to file a small groove in the tip of the hook. You can cup the tip of the pick to one side or the other and wiggle it (rotationally). If it's set correctly it'll have a tiny bit of play in it. If the rotation is bound up tight it's probably in the false groove. Or else you're not wiggling it properly to be able to tell if it has some play in it.

One final thing I try when I'm pretty sure I have the shearline set correctly and I HAD thought the rotations were correct but it still won't open, I take a Falle curve and stick it all the way back in the keyway. I'll use very light tension with the tension wrench, tilt the Falle curve left or right, and gently rake it over the tips of the pins as I withdraw it from the keyway. I'll do that several times, alternating between tilting the curve right or left to try to dislodge a falsely set rotation into the correct sidebar groove. Occasionally that'll work and it'll open. If it doesn't, I drop the pins and start over.

It's been years now so I can't remember exactly how long it took, but I kept an m3 in my pocket while I was learning to pick it. I worked on it for a few minutes here and there in my spare time, might have taken me around two weeks to learn to pick them, but I can't remember for sure. I didn't really keep track exactly. Learning it progressively like that sure made it a lot easier for me.

davesnothere11 wrote:Nice additional info MBI. I've been contemplating making or finding a maker of a .015" Hook similar to your description.

MBI wrote:

davesnothere11 wrote:Nice additional info MBI. I've been contemplating making or finding a maker of a .015" Hook similar to your description.

Not terribly hard to make yourself. All you need is a needle file and 30 seconds to carefully file the groove where you need it.
If you like to sand your picks so they give better feedback (I highly recommend it) then I'd wait to file the groove AFTER you sand and polish the picks. That way the groove has crisp edges so it grabs the pin tips more securely.

You don't really need the groove in the tip of the pick for picking Medecos or setting the pin rotations, but I found it to be somewhat helpful to me when wiggling the pins after I set them, to see if they're set correctly in the real groove instead of the false groove.