u/EntropicByDesignEC

Walmart sells these. I've had it for a while, and originally I didn't care for it much. It rakes pretty easily and it's totally unsprung, limp and floppy lol. As far as I can tell it has spools - shallow spools. Mine seems to have them in at least chamber 2 and 3.

The thing is, I realized I've learned from this lock and I still do after a couple weeks. I thought I'd post this for my fellow newbies as a recommendation.

This is a crappy lock. It's sloppy and loose.. but that has helped me get a lot better at managing tension on the fly, and getting better at feeling what's happening. Mine SPPs a couple different ways, but it's usually setting p2 - small core movement, set p3 - false set, set p4 (honestly this doesn't seem to be necessary about half the time lol), set p1 - open.

However, to get p3 and 1 set, I have to play a little game where I'm letting tension down, pushing up with my pick and rotating the pick counter to rotation. The core in this lock does nothing,.so any movement in any direction has to be actuated by me. It's a surprisingly delicate balance to get everything right without losing, usually, p3. P1 binds hard and won't move, but none of the pins seem to cause counter rotation themselves, you just have to work at it and do it yourself.

Unfortunately, the lock is so limp and sad that when you get the open it's not that nice satisfying pop or snick or anything, it just.. turns and the shackle flops out (if gravity allows, otherwise the core turns and literally nothing else happens lol).

Anyway. wanted to recommend this lock for fellow newbies. It's absolutely helped me get better. This isn't a difficult lock by any stretch. I had it open within maybe 10m of first opening the package, but it's 100% helped me get better at feeling what I'm doing and dynamically tensioning and all that. I want to say it was 13$ at my local Walmart.

Butter Bean is not happy about my attempts to focus on the picks. Second pick actually shows what all was in the box, and all that.

I might do a review of these - along with my Reapers - in the next few days. I just need some time with them first .

I will say, they seem fantastic. The handles feel great and give the picks a lot of heft. I don't know if that translates to any actual increase in control, but they feel great in the hand, and it lends a sense of confidence and control. The rake profile seems nice as well. I don't have a ton of experience with a bunch of different rakes, but it popped all rakeable stuff extremely quickly. General quality seems great as well.

Anyway, just wanted to share and give a quick pic or two.

Title says it. Just curious what makes them such a beast of a lock to get an open on. Mine is...sharp? I guess that's how I'd put it. I also some how get counter rotation no matter what I'm doing.. standing near the lock and drinking coffee? Counter rotation. Lock in my backpack omw to work? Counter rotation.. or maybe my car just pulls to the right. But my point still stands.

Smeem (black w/ both eyes) and Kiwi, the ginger in my lap.

Cough.

Yessssssss.

Effin finally. It shouldn't have taken me this long but whatever. I got it. Abus 55/50 I've had for a few weeks. I opened this thing entirely by accident within the first 15~ min after unboxing it, and when I say by accident I mean I was basically just jiggle testing and getting a feel for where the pins where and it popped open randomly.. then I never got it open again. Until now. Sitting here on lunch tinkering and popped it.

So, I took the advice I got here and left pin 1 for last, because whenever I set it early I got a false set, but that locked up the cylinder. I couldn't get anything else to bind without backing off tension enough for p1 to drop.. and that's a tightrope I tried to walk MANY times. This time I started on p2 and worked back with VERY LIGHT tension. I got p3 to bind, and I added some more tension since nothing else wanted to stick, this caused me to drop into a false set. Set some more pins, p1 being one of them, got counter rotation on 4, set that, reset 1 and popped the lock..

In fairly happy with this open since I feel like I was expecting it. Like I had a plan and was actively working on it, it wasn't just a case of randomly pushing pins and unexpectedly the lock popped. Now, that's KIND of the case in that I didn't realize p5 was set. My plan was to get 1 situated and hit p5 again, but meh.

Ofc now I have to get the thing open again,.and again and again, but progress is progress. Ive gotten numerous opens on the 55/40s.. I have one, but at work I also have a shelf of them and will occasionally grab a random one during a break or something, and I can usually get them open inside of 10m for one I've never messed with before... But this 55/50 has just fought me tooth and nail.

Anyways. Just quite happy with that. It gives me some vague hope that the 1100 is, infact, possible one of these days

Repinning an Abus 83 series Titalium. I have a few Kwikset keys from various things, and some have their bitting printed on them, so easy to just key the lock to that..

But I noticed when doing that, some of the pins are exactly flush and some seem very slightly recessed. I almost bricked this stupid thing once because of the detent, and I'm afraid to screw it up from some new angle.

Is what you see in the picture acceptable? It's not a great shot, but you can see how the first couple pins sit exactly at the line, and but some are very slightly below it. I tried other keys with different bitting but there's always a pin or two that sits low.

If it matters, this lock seems to have some pretty stout springs and rather tall spools. I included a shot of the springs and spools next to the spools and springs from my KW repinning kit.

Abus 55/40 off the shelf at work, and this random masterlock.. 185? I'm not entirely sure.. it's been locked on a shelf at work since I started. No one seems to know anything about it and it's not used for anything..its shackle ran through a hole in the shelf's scaffolding - it wasn't securing anything, shrug. I raked it open to get it off the shelf, then picked it 3~ times. Got the Abus once. I own and have opened an identical Abus a few times...now I own this one...and the 185 for whatever that's worth.

Octorake when I popped the 185 the first time. BoK with a wiper insert from my Monstrum kit. Tok with reaper tensioner, and both picked with the reaper #3, and the 185 once with the little hook from the Monstrum set

Shrug. Just a random post. I've been... Frustrated with my progress lately, but it felt nice to get a couple opens.

Just an interesting lock I picked up. I can't pick my nose with any reliable success, so this isn't something I can do much with at the moment, but something neat to add to the pile and tinker with.

If anyone has ever messed with these or knows anything or has any tips, let me know!

​

Im.. 3\~ weeks in, there-abouts, and this is what I've cobbles together in that time. I've bought some, some I've found or had given, etc. I've opened some. The Ace, the a1100, that puck lock (that thing is odd), the Abus 75 dimple, and both of those disc locks I have never opened. The Abus 55/50 I've opened once, and it was just dumb luck, so it doesn't really count. My focus has been on the a1100 and the 55/50. I have a feeling I am bad at this lol.. but I am enjoying myself.

Reaper kit, Southord c6010 kit and just barely off screen, Sparrows Monstrum XXL kit.

The cat is Delilah. She doesn't have any nicknames oddly enough. Delilah is super friendly to people, and a ball of absolute murderous rage towards other cats. She's probably middle aged. She was abandoned by neighbors and we found her in the parking lot and took her in several years ago.

Think this is a good lock to start learning on? Lol

Kinda wanted a dimple lock hanging around just to mess with. Where do these fall on the "I'm bad and don't have dimple picks but have an assortment of random crap I can try to use" scale of picking?