Picking Pin-and-tumbler Locks?

Question

i am doing some reading on the good ol' howstuffworks website, but there's one thing i don't get about pushing the pins up with the lock pick. when you push up the individual pins, do they click into place, or do you have to push them all up at the same time?

Answer 1

Picking a lock is VERY difficult. Most household locks have a series of 5 or 6 pins barrells. Each of these pin barrells can have several different positions. Each pin must be pushed up into the right position in order to align the pins in the right manner for the lock to turn. The pins are what actually keep the lock from turning. So if you dont push the each pin far enough then the pin above it will block the lock from turning. The same goes for if you push the pins too far.

Answer 2

Back when we were kids (late 60's to early 70's) everyone had the same identical bike lock. Chain to wrap through the tire and frame and three number in line combination lock.

The funniest part about those chain locks was that anyone that wanted to could simply pull gently on the chain and rotate the combination numbers til you felt them click. On the third number, the lock opened.

They were manufactured so poorly that the slightly out of alignment disks inside could be felt to click.

Pin and tumbler locks work the same way.

You use a thing called a tension wrench (some folks call them torsion wrenches) to gently turn the lock barrel itself (just like pulling on that bike chain) and the actual pick to lift each pin in sequence til you feel them click. Lift one til it clicks....move to next one. On the last one, the barrel rotates and you open the door.

It takes some practice but it's pretty easy.

Answer 3

You use two bars at one time. The pick itself, and there are many styles, and a tension-er bar. With the tension-er bar just inside the key slot, put a very small amount of turn pressure on it. Then with the pick( and still holding tension) try to pop each pin at a time into the pin raceway while gently putting more tension to hold the depressed pins in place. Easy to say, tough to do. Even the automatic lock pick guns don't work all the time and they virtually throw all the pins in at once.

Answer 4

Simple:

Bump Key: its practical. For example, one that fits a 5 pin weiser lock will fit all 5 pin weiser locks.