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So i got myself a nice lockpick set and started messing around with a 100$ yale deadbolt.
After a few hours i got it, then down to mins, and now within 10secs i can pick it.
But i see that now when i attemp to use the key i have issues. I have to push the key in really far and hold it UP.
This has happend on two locks now.
So does picking break all pins? Or is this just a cheap set of locks?
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Repeated picking warps the pins. Which isn’t much of an issue, as you really should only be picking each lock once.
In theory, the best way to practice is to pick up 10 or so of the $5 master locks. When the pins get bent to the point of breaking, you’ve learned enough about picking simple locks that its a good investment. Also, the principals apply to larger and more complex locks.
As a thief or a recovery expert, you will only be picking locks once or twice, and as such you should vary your targets. Also, repeatedly picking a lock leaves evidence of that lock being picked.
I have rekeyed about 300 locks and rebuilt about 3 dozen from a bunch of pins, springs, etc. laying on the bench and I will tell you that there is absolutely no way that lockpicking will bend the pins – they are short and reasonably hard. It is more likely that you scraped away some of the end surface, making the bottom pins slightly shorter and even more likely you have scraped off bits of metal and dirtied up the inside of the lock.
When you are picking a lock, you are moving the pins up and down to line up the split between the bottom and top pins with the outside of the cylinder.
It is, in fact, likely that your ease of picking now is due to the slight damage you have done to the pins in working the lock several hundred times and if you were to buy a new lock or pay to have it repinned (guessing you don’t know how to do it yourself) then it would be harder to pick. Cheaper locks and older locks, both of which have sloppier pin fittings, are easier to pick.
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