u/Fickle_Skill6038

I have a small friend/hobby group in my area, maybe 4 people. I tend to be the one organizing meetups once or twice a week via messenger.

One of the guys whom we've known for 5-6 years got a new job at a fireworks store. Now when I or anyone else messages to get together, he ignores us, leaves us on read and doesn't show up. But later that same night he sends us a ton of videos of him blowing off fireworks. This has been going on for a month or so. The group finds it kind of crappy that we are supposed to respond to him but he ignores us. Then he posts videos of him hanging out with his friend from the store after hours, so it feels like his priorities have changed.

Yesterday he messaged us at the last minute to get together. So I left him on read - and the rest of the group did too. Now he's pissed off at me thinking I turned everyone against him.

If he has to work, I get it. But is it too much to ask for him to say "hey I can't make it"?

Something possessed me to give this lock a try for the first time since buying it years ago, and I feel like I've gotten so close to opening it last night using the Sparrows DD pick, but wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

There is just a spinner in the front, I see no butterfly discs. I'm assuming I'm supposed to be tensioning off disc 1 and the spinner, but I've heard different things depending on if there are butterfly discs.

There is just about NO feedback in the beginning, so I am cranking on the tension at first. The first few discs almost spin freely. The lower ones give the faintest feedback, but once I think I have them set in a gate (false or true), things begin to start binding gradually and the first few discs start binding eventually.

When I start checking for false or true gates, I use the rectangles on the pick to test the wideness. False gates tend to be about 1/2 to 3/4 of a square, true gates seem to be a full square.

Does all this sound about right? I only ask because there are times where I could swear I hit a true gate on say, disc 2, and then when I go to previous disc that was binding, it's moving freely all the way around, so I'm guessing I moved disc 2 OUT of the true gate? idk...

I'm coming from super cheap DD locks that all bind every disc like a mf out of the box, so this feels a little weird. But it's SO much easier to keep the pick on the discs on this lock and not slip off!

This lock is above my skill level but I'm progressive pinning it anyway just to get a feel for it. I've got one sidebar pin and one key pin in and it seems to pick easier counterclockwise, but I'm wondering if I should start with all key pins, all side pins, or one of each like I'm doing now?

Also, when fully loaded, do these tend to be picked all of one row first? Or is it a lot of jumping back and forth between the two?

My father gave me a Best SFIC lock YEARS ago when I first started picking.  No key or anything but it looks pretty old.  I've spent dozens of hours trying to pick this, and only raked it open once successfully - I tried the Peterson SFIC tool but I think that was useless.  I bought blanks for the keyway and tried to make a bump key, but no luck. I soaked it in WD-40 a long time ago as well but nothing seems to help.

This lock is weird.  The pins are MUSHY as hell even without tension, and in order to get a click at all, I have to jam unnaturally hard on the tension. I've got other Best SFIC locks and those pins all feel normal so I don't know what the deal is.

Ideally I'd like to get to control - I have an SFIC pinning kit and annex and have a feeling it needs refurbishing but I can't even get to it.  Any tips would be appreciated - I'm at the end of my rope with this one for now.

I'm working on the Paclock challenge doing progressive pinning and can now do 6 pins in just under a minute - have probably picked it a dozen times today so tomorrow I'll try that 7th pin 😊

However, I notice that sometimes when I pick it, the core needs quite a bit of tension to turn to open, it feels like something is grinding or dragging. 9 times out of 10 it turns with little effort. Curious as to why this is the case?

I sold a smart controller on eBay - it worked fine for me with my Air2S. I factory reset before I sent it to him and now he claims it won't bind with his Phantom 4 Pro Plus, which he claims is 2.0. I'm not sure what to tell him to try since I can't test myself. Am I missing something?

Customer bought a drone remote from me, it's in perfect condition and works great. After hours of trying to help them, now they're complaining that it's not compatible with their drone, even though I listed the compatible drones in the heading of the listing. Am I on the hook for this?

Just received this in the mail over the weekend and can consistently get to a certain point...but after that there's nothing. Hoping to get some tips from those who have picked this baby.

I'm float picking - pin 1 immediately throws the core into a false set (tried setting other pins first to avoid a false set like LPL claims, but no luck). After that, pin 5 will set with some manual counter rotation. Then pin 6 will click and allow the core to turn back to the original false set position, with pin 5 still set. And that's where I hit a wall.

I've watched videos of other people picking this and they all call out counter rotation like they're getting feedback...but I don't feel any pushback whatsoever,, and my tension is like a feather.

https://preview.redd.it/97tdhhdag36h1.jpg?width=2558&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=91342a29a2b3afcc02bb0791ff43c24f45af8f37

Last night I received and picked (multiple times) the Mont Blanc, while I was struggling with other blue belt locks I own. I then noticed on YouTube that people are saying they're brown belt now after picking it...I'm assuming it was downgraded on the lock belt list? Actually a little surprised it wasn't put at green - the keyway is the only barrier on this lock.