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**BigRed** · 03-22-2023, 05:07 PM

I know somebody on here who is. I picked up a lockpicking set locally for them. I'll let them ID themselves though.

**flyweightnate** · 03-22-2023, 05:13 PM

I dabbled a bit with a friend, who's really into it, and found a lot of locks are mostly there as a fancy "do not enter" sign. At least to him. I can get most cheap padlocks and privacy doorknobs open, but not much else.

The idea of creating hack- proof locks intrigues me, though. When I lived overseas, my door had a total of 12 bolts that all threw when the key was turned, and the keys were drilled on the face, not cut on the edge. Pretty serious stuff. Makes me wonder why Americans are so cavalier about their front doors.

**JeeperCreeper** · 03-22-2023, 05:42 PM

I've only tried a few times, with little success. Usually out of despairation when I used to lock myself out of the house. I've since installed a keypad so I don't have to worry about that anymore.

I've definitely watched the channel before though, down one of those late night YouTube rabbit holes. He makes it look so easy.

**DocsMachine** · 03-22-2023, 05:46 PM

Originally posted by flyweightnate View Post

[...] and found a lot of locks are mostly there as a fancy "do not enter" sign.

-Locks, as they say, simply keep honest people honest. You could have a $1,000 lock on your front door, but of the crook wants in, a rock through a window suffices.

And, if you watch LPL for any length of time, even those expensive locks only add a few seconds. It's common to see replies in the comments like "wow, that took almost thirty seconds! That's a really good lock!"

On the plus side, even as freely-available as picks and books and YouTubes are, 99.9% of people still can't do it or have the tools for it. I mean, I'm pretty mechanically inclined, but if you had handed me a couple tools and a padlock back around mid-January, that lock was as safe as if it'd been welded shut.

The idea of creating hack- proof locks intrigues me, though.

-This, That right there. I've always been interested in small mechanical things (which I'm sure comes as a surprise to most of you

) and one of the many squirrels running around in my brain has been thinking of ways to make a pick-proof lock. Or at least one significantly more pick resistant.

Stefan from Stuff Made Here (an amazing channel if you haven't seen it) actually designed and made a couple of of deadbolt style locks, and sent them to LPL for testing. It's worth noting he didn't actually pick either one, he had to bypass them.

And, as I was planning out the current TWB storyline, I came up with an interesting idea for a lock- not the actual pin-and-tumbler part, but, like, the mechanism to hold a door shut. If it were real (and it's actually real-world possible, I'd love to build a prototype) it wouldn't be pick-proof, but it would be extremely difficult and time-consuming for even an expert like LPL to get it open.

Sine then, I've also come up with at least two other ideas- they wouldn't work as day-to-day use padlocks, they'd be more of a "puzzle lock", but I'd bet that, if they worked like I think, they'd give even LPL a run for his money.

Makes me wonder why Americans are so cavalier about their front doors.

-They are... where necessary. Some of the guys I know online live in "bad neighborhoods", and have had cats stolen off their trucks, bikes stolen after the chains have been cut, and car windows smashed just so somebody could steal a phone charger and less than $2 in change.

Most of America, however, is not that bad. Out in the suburbs or rural areas, you might only lock your car against temptation, rather than against a professional smash-and-grabber.

Law enforcement has a lot to do with it too- we have more cameras and burglar alarms than most other places, and better law enforcement. (As well as insurance, etc.)

And again, doesn't matter how well reinforced the door is, if you still have glass windows.

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 03-22-2023, 05:49 PM

Originally posted by JeeperCreeper View Post

He makes it look so easy.

-Well, he IS, after all, an actual #1 world-champion lockpicker. He's the kind of guy that will buy a handful of some new lock on the market, and literally dismantle one to see exactly how it works. And if you watch his bits on his old antique and 'collectible' locks, you can tell he's a very enthusiastic hobbyist.

Doc.

**Grendel** · 03-22-2023, 06:01 PM

I learned how to pick locks (some) when I worked for Diebold after I left the Navy. It was [is] a useful skill but it is a dexterity based skill as well as a mental skill. You have to stay in practice to be good at it. I never got beyond competent for opening teller drawers and vault cage doors and such (same skill for basic home locks as well). I also learned how to "crack" or attempt to "crack" some combination locks, drill safes/vaults and was a certified timelock smith and I found that more interesting and fun to work with then picking locks. I never got beyond modestly skilled but enjoyed it at the time. Been way too long since I did anything like this on a regular basis not sure I could even pick a basic master lock at the moment.

I watch the lockpicking lawyer fairly often for pure entertainment.

**XEMON** · 03-22-2023, 06:11 PM

Got back into it the last 2 years ...

The Covert Companion is an expensive gimmick imo ... But the standard pick set are good 👍
I sent him a cutaway I made, he seams like a nice guy.

This is now a permanent fixture of my desk 😅
They get used mostly during long/unnecessary meetings or long phone calls with customers 😁

And the "arm's reach stack" 🤣

let me know if you have any questions or needs some locks, I get a few spares ...

**evilfishsticks** · 03-22-2023, 07:49 PM

My union offers a locksmithing class, so I figured why not get another free certificate. While they don't teach you how to pick locks, they teach you everything else about keys and locks. My old boss was really good at picking locks and showed me the basics. I got myself some basic picks and practiced for a while. It's fun to do, and it's a nice random skill to have.

**DocsMachine** · 03-22-2023, 07:58 PM

Originally posted by XEMON View Post

The Covert Companion is an expensive gimmick imo ...

-Kind of disagree. You're talking about his folding "pocketknife" thing- I'm talking about the "Genesis Set", the starter pack of conventional picks.

I've found it a very useful starter set, and it was only $25. Sure, I could have gotten some cheap import sets off Bay or Banggood, but as I understand it, those generally have a ton of more or less useless picks. That is, it may have a dozen in there, but you only wind up using the two hooks and a rake.

Heck, look at your collection- two rakes and a dimple pick, the rest are just hooks.

And for a green noob like me, I had no idea what to buy. You look at the various makers out there, and there's hundreds of different shapes, sizes and thicknesses. It's like going to a Snap-On dealer and saying "I'd like to buy a wrench, please".

The Genesis Set was perfect- two good hooks, two rakes and three decent tension bars. For roughly $30 shipped, and with a case, that's not bad at all.

I've since picked up one of CI's comb sets (and only found one lock so far that can be combed) and got a couple of plain hooks from Petersen, since I have big hands, and my one complaint about the CI tools is they're thin and kind of slick.

I sent him a cutaway I made, he seams like a nice guy.

-I love his April Fools videos. Trying to get into his wife's Beaver (a Beaver-brand candy machine) playing with his 18" long Johnson (a Johnson spare-tire lock) getting into his wife's back door, and so on. Same dry tone of voice, but packed with innuendo. Kind of like Leslie Nielsen in the original Airplane!.

This is now a permanent fixture of my desk

-Pretty varied collection, and in a roll-top desk to boot.

I need to make myself a little rack like that, or find a pen holder or something. Right now I just have everything piled into a small Tupperware tub.

let me know if you have any questions or needs some locks, I get a few spares ...

-I might take you up on that in the near future. I've been hitting up friends and neighbors to see if anyone has padlocks they're not using, or have lost the keys to, and so far, as I said, I have about 30. Thing is, all but like three or four of them are laminated Master locks. They all have the same 4-pin core, the same keyway, etc. Now, for a green noob like me, there's still a range there- a few can be opened by thinking about it hard enough (I actually have one, an import clone, that you can open with just the turning tool

) but there's also a few I haven't been able to open yet. I suspect because there's one or more "zero cut" pins, and any attempt to 'set' it already raises the key pin above the shear line.

I figure once I can reasonably reliably open everything in this particular collection, I might hit up eBay for some better models, or ask reader if they want to donate to the cause, etc.

Not really shooting to become any kind of expert, this is really just to have some inexpensive hobby outside of the shop or the comic. Jack, as they say, is a really dull boy.

Doc.

**OpusX** · 03-22-2023, 09:07 PM

I do enjoy a bit of locksport.

Since it hasnt been mentioned Bosnian Bill on YT and picks from Sparrows.

Always have a set in my bag which has allowed me to save mostly friends and family from themselves.

**moonweasel** · 03-23-2023, 01:16 AM

For profit.

**DocsMachine** · 03-23-2023, 01:31 AM

[/he genesis is the perfect starter kit, the folding multi tool is not solving any issues[.]

-Actually, for some it does. A few guys I've run across semi-regularly pick, when the guy that has the key to the server closet is out on a sales call, or one fellow worked for the NY transit authority, and finding the right guy with the right key could often take hours. A nice, compact "one piece" tool in that case has its uses.

Speaking personally, I can only think of one instance in the last 20 years I needed to open a lock for which we had no key. And it was a tubular key anyway, like on a vending machine. We used a hammer and chisel.

I have no plans to carry any picks around, as far as I'm concerned, this is purely just something to do in the evenings to help relax or reset my brain.

... I do some light pentesting-ish activities at work and I made my own hooligan keyset with the bypass tools I need, much smaller and lighter ...

Do you have some LOTO lock laying around? The master 410 plastic LOTO has an amazing core (the most secure lock the make in the crappiest plastic body 😜)

-Nope. Back in my early oilfield days, when I was still a kid, I probably could have collected dozens of those- they'd lose the keys to them and either couldn't use them (gotta have it open in order to rekey it) or it'd been snapped off with a boltcutter.

As I said above, I have a couple dozen Masters, which I know are considered "comically" easy to open, but for a green noob like me, they still present a challenge. A few open with relative ease, but I've got a couple that I haven't been able to pop yet.

Ho, and remember to not pick locks you are using, some locks can get damaged or totally locked up if manipulated improperly.

-Yep! Only tried one 'active' lock so far, a buddy let me try the one on the door of his glass-front gun cabinet. Pretty low security thing, but the angle, light and positioning were against me, especially considering my severe inexperience. I admit I was worried about somehow damaging it, too.

Lemme as ya one question I've been looking for the answer to: What's the opinion on lube? Most of these locks I was given are used- in some cases, well used. They still turn and all, but I could see them having gotten gunked up over the years. Been thinking of hosing some out with something like Brakleen or Electra- Clean, blowing it dry with compressed air, and then lubing it either with something like WD-40 (which would eventually evaporate) or a light gun oil. (Rem-Oil or the like.) Possibly a puff of dry graphite?

I haven't tried any of that yet- most of these turn just fine. It's just the airsmith side of my brain that wants clean and lube moving parts.

Doc.

**evilfishsticks** · 03-23-2023, 05:45 AM

Originally posted by DocsMachine View Post

Lemme as ya one question I've been looking for the answer to: What's the opinion on lube? Most of these locks I was given are used- in some cases, well used. They still turn and all, but I could see them having gotten gunked up over the years. Been thinking of hosing some out with something like Brakleen or Electra- Clean, blowing it dry with compressed air, and then lubing it either with something like WD-40 (which would eventually evaporate) or a light gun oil. (Rem-Oil or the like.) Possibly a puff of dry graphite?

Doc.

I would only use dry graphite to lube, any oil is just going to collect junk.

**XEMON** · 03-23-2023, 08:07 AM

Originally posted by DocsMachine View Post

Speaking personally, I can only think of one instance in the last 20 years I needed to open a lock for which we had no key. And it was a tubular key anyway, like on a vending machine. We used a hammer and chisel.

I have no plans to carry any picks around, as far as I'm concerned, this is purely just something to do in the evenings to help relax or reset my brain.

Doc.

TUbular lock can be picked (SPP) too, and there is some impressioning tool that works amazingly well on them.
For SPP, you do need a special tensioner, the goat wrench from Sparrow is the best I've found.

In the wild, a jiggler key for wafer is probably what I use the most along with precut keys for keyed alike system.

It is a great, relaxing outlet. And always fun to experiment making wired challenge locks and pass them along.

PS: the LPU sub reddit is a great place to get info and support.

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