paulchin20 LOCKPICKING TUTORIAL



PADLOCKS
Padlocks are the most difficult to pick and should be left to the last.
To help in learning to pick padlocks, I have created a Practice Lock Kit
where you can manually insert the pins to set the difficulty level.
Starting with single pins and gradually increasing the number of pins.
Padlocks require pin pressing technique. Raking is not so effective.
Pin pressing is where you press on the pins one-by-one, or sometimes,
two at the same time. Large padlocks have 6 pins. They are all pin-tumblers.






In the pic above, note that the pressure on the tension wrench is moderate. 
Padlocks require the most pressure on the tension wrench, but this pressure is
still quite light. Remember, it is only about 2 times the pressure used on the
deadbolt locks. Too much pressure will never open the lock - and will bend your
tension wrench out of shape!




From the above pic, note that most of the time, you will be using the pick to
feel for the pins. Not all pins will bind at the same time. They will bind at
different times. The binding sequence for each padlock is different. It can be 24153,
54213, 34521, etc. For a 6 pin lock, it can be 651243, 453621, etc... Your ability
to locate the binding pin is the most important skill in pin pressing technique.

The numbers above refer to the binding sequence of the pins. For example, 54213 means
that pin 5 binds first, after picking pin 5, pin 4 binds, after picking pin 4, pin 2 
becomes binding and so on...

What is the meaning of the word "binding"? If you insert the tension wrench and rotate,
it will not be able to do so. Why? Because One or more of the pins is stuck - preventing
you from opening the lock. The pin that is stuck is said to be binding. If you can 
locate this pin and use a pick to push it to the correct height, it will become
"unstuck".  You will feel a faint click on the the tension wrench.
The tension wrench will rotate a little and then stop again. Why? Because
another different pin is now stuck - i.e. binding. If you use the hook pick and press up
on it gently up to the correct height, you will feel another faint click and the tension
wrench rotates a little bit more. So this process is repeated again and again until 
the tension wrench rotates freely (about 45 degrees) and pops open the lock.







A Pin Stack (usually we just call it a Pin) actually consists of 3 components.
The picture below shows 5 Pin Stacks, ie. Pin5, Pin4, Pin3, Pin2 and Pin1



From the picture above, note that each Pin stack consists of 3 parts:

spring + driver pin + key pin

The trick to opening a lock by pin pressing, is to push each lower pin (keypin) up
to the correct height, ie, at the shear line.  Once it is at the shear line, the
rotation of the plug will separate the upper pin from the lower pin.  We then say
that the pin is "set". 

A pin can be in one of 4 states:

Unset/not-binding
Unset/binding   
Set/not-binding 
Overset/binding

See picture below:



Set means that you have pushed the keypin (lower pin) up to the shear line and 
the plug has rotated a little trapping the driver pin above the plug and thus is
prevented from falling down into the plug again.
Binding means that the keypin is still below the shear line but the driver pin
(upper pin) is jammed at the shear line preventing the plug from turning.
Not binding means that the pins are prevented from binding because another pin
is binding.
Overset means that the keypin has been pushed too high past the shear line and the
keypin is now jammed at the shear line preventing the plug from rotating.

You should only push up the unset-binding pin. But how do you know which one is it?

We need to use the pick to gently rake all the pins to see which one
is NOT SPRINGY. The raking pressure here is very,very, very light - much lighter than the
raking of camlocks, drawerlocks, deadbolts and doorknob locks described above. This
is because we are just feeling for the resistance of each pins, to feel for the one
that is binding.  That is why the hook pick is sometimes called the 'feeler' pick.
Most of the time (about 80%) is spent feeling the pins.


If you feel a springy pin, it means that it is unset/not-binding. If you find a 
NON-SPRINGY pin, this is the unset/binding pin. Gently push it up.

WARNING:

If you have used TOO MUCH force to press the pin up, it will become
overset/binding.  The only thing to do is to release the tension wrench
and start over again. Don't waste your time, release all pins and restart.
This is very common. Starting over and over again is the norm in lockpicking.
Once a pin has overset and is binding - it WILL PREVENT ALL OTHER PINS FROM
BINDING.



Let us consider a 6 pin deadbolt lock below:




When the tension wrench is inserted and turned, one of the 6 Pins will bind at the
shear line and prevent the plug from rotating. Assuming that Pin6 is binding. We
then use a hook pick to gently push it up to the shear line, while maintaining
light pressure on the tension wrench. Once we have pushed it up to the correct
height, the bottom pin (keypin) separates from the upper pin(driver pin).

But in the first place, how can we tell which Pin binding?  Simple, we use the hook
pick to gently rake all 6 pins to find the pin that is "stiff" (NOT SPRINGY). It 
is this stiff pin which is binding.

Let's momentarily pause to analyze the state of the pins.

Before we push pin6, it is:      			unset/binding

After we have successfully pushed it to the correct
height at the shear line,it becomes: 			set/not-binding


Another question. How do we know whether we have pushed it to the correct height?
Or, to put it another way, how can we tell that the bottom pin (keypin) has been
pressed up to the shear line?

Easy, once you reach the correct height, you will feel a very faint 'click' 
on the tension wrench.  The tension wrench will rotate just a little

Now, immediately after rotating a little it will come to a stop, why?

Because another pin has become binding. That is why the plug cannot rotate all the way.
The next binding pin could be anyone, not necessarily Pin5. To find out which
pin is binding, again use the pick to lightly rake. But DO NOT relase the tension
wrench, or PIN6 will become UNSET!

Lightly rub the hook pick across the pins from inside the lock towards yourself.
Feel for another "stiff" (NOT SPRINGY) pin. Let's say the stiff pin is now Pins3. 
Gently press Pin3 up until you feel the tension wrench click. The tension wrench 
should rotate a little more and come to another stop - another pin has now become
binding.

So, you need to repeat the above steps several times before the lock opens.
Theoretically, we need to repeat 6 times for a 6-pin lock and 5 times for a 5 pin 
lock.

The good news is that, in practice you will find that you do not need to do it 6
times.  I have found that 2 or 3 pins will set simultaneously, and you will
discover that after pressing up 2 or 3 pins, the lock will open! 

The next picture below shows a succsessul lockpicking session:



Coming back to the padlock example mentioned earlier above, it is very common
to inadvertently push some of the pins up to the shear line just by inserting the
pick! Thereafter, you might surprise yourself when you find that the lock opens just
after picking 1 or 2 pins!

OK, one more time, just to summarize the pin pressing technique.
Insert the tension wrench. Insert the hook pick all the way into the keyhole.
With the hook pick, feel the pins from the back of the keyhole to the front. 

Upon feeling a stiff pin (non-springy pin), gently push it up until you feel the click.
Continue to move the pick out. And if you come across another non-springy binding pin,
gently push it up. Once you have reached pin1,  move the pick all the way to the
back of the keyhole, and repeat the process all over again.

And if you made a mistake, eg, you push a pin up, but did not feel any click, 
you have overset the pin.  Release the tension wrench completely and restart.

Watch a video clip of me doing the PIN PRESSING technique on a 6-pin padlock:

pinpressing2.wmv
(File size: 613 kB)

BACK TO MAIN