Picking tubular locks (WAS : Text encoding Babel. now PICKING LOCKS OR FINDING KEY MFR AND KEY #

[Fred Cisin]

The Chicago Ace (tubular) lock is USUALLY easier to pick (with the right 
tension wrench), since you have access to all of the pins, without having 
to reach past a pin to get to another.

The commercial tools are just a tube with slots and sliders, with variable 
friction.  Almost trivial to make your own (as I did in High School), 
although a well machined one will be a joy to use.
As such, sometimes just sliding that into the lock (WITH THE 
RIGHT AMOUNT OF TORQUE) will get each pin to stop when it aligns.

Bumping seems more hassle for this.
As Dwight mentioned, picking or bumping without a pick tool that stays 
aligned with the pins (like the commercial ones), opens up the additional 
possibility of pins then coming back up and entering some other pin's 
chamber.

The commercial tool ALSO leaves the sliders in position, so you can 
"duplicate" a key from it.  OR measure/read out positions to decode.
If you add calibrations to the commercial tool, then you can use it as a 
temporary key for anything for which you already have the code (suc as 
XX2247!)



On Sun, 2 Dec 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote:

> Looking at how things work, there is a new method used to pick locks that works a little to well. It is a thing called a bump key. To make one for this cylinder lock would be tricky. Still, it could be done.
> The principle is that you bounce the tumbler pins in, while holding light tension. The inertia of the pins pushes the pins in. As they return, the tend to catch were the would normally turn.
> I've seen one on the web demonstrated. They are quite remarkable as to how easy they work. ( way too easy )
> The idea of making one for your lock is to allow the cylinder to only turn part way between pin angles. Once it has rotated that much, you can then measure the pin depth and make the key.
> You could make one from a blank key and use a rubber washer to improve the action. You'd remove the piece that holds the key in the lock and make a holder block that would allow a partial turn so that it would stop, at the right angle, between locations to make measurements for the new key.
> It is not the traditional picking method but having seen it in action makes traditional feeling the pins obsolete.
> Dwight
>
> ________________________________
> From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of ED SHARPE via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Friday, November 30, 2018 6:07 PM
> To: guykd at optusnet.com.au; cctalk at classiccmp.org; cctalk at classiccmp.org
> Subject: WAS : Text encoding Babel. now PICKING LOCKS OR FINDING KEY MFR AND KEY #
>
> Yikes  and I  am complaining   about  trying to pick the  lock on the UNIVAC 422  anyone  have a  key #   for it? That  type on that  8S looks   tough...
>
>
> Ed# www.smecc.org<http://www.smecc.org>
>
>
> In a message dated 11/30/2018 6:53:34 PM US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk at classiccmp.org writes:
>
>
> And now, back to machining a lock pick for a PDP-8/S front panel cylinder lock.
>
> http://everist.org/NobLog/20181104_PDP-8S.htm#locks