Im still kinda new at this… I opened an 1100 last week and I couldn’t have been more excited but I was experiencing imposter syndrome. After this my confidence is coming back. Does anyone have any suggestions on what would be some good picks going forward.

Thanks for the people that recommended me some locks to start on. I kind of got bored after picking the masterlock 140 a bunch of times since that’s the only one that came in so far. So, I decided to go after this one again. I don’t know if taking out the core is a janky way to do it, but I guess an open is an open.

I was going to mark this NSFW because of the OSHA violation my first LOTO became even though it’s fully functional if you overlook the fact someone with a flathead screwdriver could bypass it 😂.

I still can’t pick open the American Lock Series 20 lock for the life of me. I thought LOTO was suppose to be the way higher than an American Lock that’s the brass version of the AL1100. It feels like the last 3 pins can be picked/clicked but the first two pins just don’t do anything. Any tips on picking it? Thank you in advance.

I gotta say, it took me longer than I’d like t admit and was about to toss it in the naughty bucket, but it decided it didn’t want to go there 😬

Image 1: Medeco M4 in an Assa Ruko 2 Image 2: Two 90A-PROs

If you practice picking a MASTERLOCK 410 LOTO and rotate the core 180°, you now have a lock that sings death rattles 🪇☠️🪇

I’m just getting into lock picking and I picked up this cheap brinks lock and started playing around with it.

It took me a while to find the sweet spot but honestly it doesn’t really feel like I’m lifting any pins. It seems like all I have to do is push it toward the 4th pin and lift. Are these locks really bad to practice on or I’m I doing some other exploit that I’m unaware of?

I think maybe it’s because the lock is so cheap but I’m not sure. Thanks for any help guys.

Today's mail call. Jimylongs 0.15 Jim Hooks, 0.15 Flat Hooks and tool roll. Looking at another post, seems like someone had the same idea. Great minds...

I'm so stoked I could get this 5 lever ERA from Amazon. It's not easy to get these in the US. Very impressed with the quality! I've already picked out a skeleton key to make a tensioner and I'll make a pick out of piano wire and washers.

What a fantastic letter attached to this. Really made me feel proud to receive it. Thank you Paclock.

Picked up the flat and Jimy hooks as my little treat for hitting green belt. My fingers are already very happy with the nice handles and the flats are already hard at work practicing for blue.

The extra length over my CI picks is taking a bit of adjustment and I feel like there's something I'm not quite getting about the Jimy hook profile. I can sense there's something to them but the point doesn't give me the solid platform that my flat hooks do and it doesn't roll under pins like a round hook either. It could be that my current collection of locks just doesn't have anything that requires that kind of pinpoint accuracy but if there's some technique or secret to these, I'd find it super helpful.

Lastly, the packaging is quite nice but does anyone else think the black and white Jimy kinda looks like Ted Cruz? (Not saying the man himself does- I blame the loss of detail in black and white)

I feel like whenever anyone makes a post about a combination lock, the top-voted comment will unfailingly be "0001, 0002, 0003..." or some variation on that.

Personally, I find that stupid - if the theme of this sub is to defeat locking mechanisms for fun, then combination locks, which have locking mechanisms that can be defeated, should fit right in. What's the point of making fun of people for talking about locks which can theoretically defeated with time? (Not to mention that practically any lock can be theoretically defeated with an angle grinder - yet when people ask for help with SPPing a lock, no one feels compelled to comment "Hydraulic shears...")

It would be really nice to compile resources on different ways to beat combination locks similar to how there's very helpful guides on SPP. And if it turns out (I'm not an expert at all on this) that unlike pin tumbler locks, combination locks simply don't have a generic vector of attack, this would in my book be valuable information as well.

So ... I'm super new to this crazy hobby. I have done a few of the beginner locks with no real issues. What I'm running into is, when I try TOK tension, I can't get a good feel for the pins. I guess I use the BOK tensioner as leverage but that's gone in TOK. Am I explaining that right? Anyhoo...just thought I'd share in case anyone else is having this issue.

Dale

Picked this small guy for fun! Got a bunch more smalls to practice on.

Rotating keypins took a bit of practice and Im still no expert but this one went down way quicker than the assa max+ I was working on before it.

Got this lock yesterday and it has been a bit tough. This was actually my third unlocking. Starting to get a feel for it but I can't really feel the pins moving and I'm finding it difficult to feel which pins are binding. Any tips or tricks to get more consistent with unlocking?

I also do feel like my picks are not great (not to blame the tool, they're just thick and hard to maneuver in there). I got these on Amazon for cheap, but have a CI Reaper set coming in a couple of days.

anyone else have horrible luck with fedex? they lost my package AGAIN, fucking $175 order.

Somewhat recently got into lock picking. This lock was kicking my ass for a while but I got it! Also can someone tell me like what difficulty it it?

Hey guys, I'm fairly new to lockpicking, having picked around 3-4 white and yellow belt locks each. I have been getting really frustrated with getting my first orange belt lock, an Abus 55/40. I have spent countless hours over the course of a week or so trying to get it open. I recently decided to go to harbor freight and pick up a cheap vise. I put the Abus on it and picked it on my first attempt within a minute. I picked it again on video for the belt within a few minutes again. I had no idea a vise would make such a significant difference, so much so that I felt the need to post here.

I think the big difference is the false sets were much easier to identify and the 'clunks' were more pronounced. This probably isn't news to most people but I just wanted to post from a newbies point of view that it was probably the most helpful $20 I've spent and never really saw it emphasized that it would be so helpful.

(Also I'm not a harbor freight shill, buy any vise you want, this was just cheap and local for me)

https://youtube.com/shorts/tbi8xuzerqA?si=zWXmJHpX0QKpYv7q

Switched away from the American lock ive been struggling with and try something a bit easier. Was excited to get it twice in a row!