u/EntropicByDesignEC

Chickpea is helping.

Anyway. Dumb video showing me take 5x longer than it usually takes me to rake this Brinks. This thing is nigh unpickable (by me) due to its absolutely GARBAGE build quality. Seriously though, I've picked it twice maybe? With a solid couple hours worth of time in the keyway. But it will let go with a raking attack in seconds. I know I don't showcase that very well here, but usually it's 5-15 seconds.

I will say, this lock is good for practicing tension control. Something I've noticed myself doing is while holding tension, I start to unwittingly increase that tension in tandem with how hard my pick hand is working. Like if im working on a pin that's taking a tad more oomph to get moving, it I don't really pay attention, I'll start to crank up the tension in a kind of sympathetic response...and if you give this lock anything more than the weight of a butterflies bowel movement, it's too much.

Why would this be the case? That SPPing feels so difficult, but if you say the word rake in close proximity, it's likely to open.

It approaches security from the other side.. by being so bad it doesn't function correctly in the first place.

Just sat down for a bit and spent some time chewing through some of random stuff I've picked up. I don't know if my progress is "good" , but I'm happy with it. It really feels like almost every time I sit down and pick up a lock and start fiddling, that I'm getting a little better. A little more educated on what I'm feeling and dealing with, a little more savvy with troubleshooting things , a little more better (YES I SAID MORE BETTER ITS MY POST I DON'T HAVE TO GRAMMAR GOOD IF I DON'T WANNA)

It's really interesting that my little Abus 55/40 went from this tricky, scary, "I'm sure I'll get this some day.. maybe.. I hope" kind of lock to something I can reliably SPP cold in less than 10m usually. (When I get it once the muscle memory sticks around and I can usually repeat the pick in a quarter the time). It's just nice to have such a tangible sign of progress. I'm even getting to the point that I can salvage a screw up without having to totally reset.. I'll move on to the 55/50 here soon. When I can cold pick the 40 in 3-5 min reliably, I'll consider that stone well stepped.

Shrug. Anyways. Just enjoying the myself and thought I'd post. The purple lock is as much of a joke as I was afraid it would be, and that gatehouse mortise lock is terrifying pathetic.. to think that's acting as a deadbolt for people. I can SPP pick it in a couple of minutes, but I can take it in literally seconds.

My wife bought me this Brinks from Walmart because she thought the color was pretty. Shrug. I'll take a free lock. 5 pin.. model 164, 38mm, anodized aluminum. Haven't messed with it yet. Im building up a bucket of random stuff to tinker with. If it's anything like the other couple Brinks locks I have, it'll be laughably bad, but we shall see. Watch, I said that and now that lock will kick my ass.

Ed Bean is curious about the photo being taken. Callie couldn't care less and just wants to be left along and Cnut the Great, King of Denmark and all the Danes is just doing what Cnut does... Which isn't a whole lot. I forget how many cats I've posted so far.. 8 different ones? We aren't even halfway.

The mortise cylinder I picked up from work because we found it all by itself behind a shelving unit, and it wasnt in inventory anymore, so they just gave it to me. I actually got it open in the first 10m of fiddling at work, but since then I haven't had a lick of success. Fuzzy Danger is deeply unimpressed with the interruption of his nap. He's an old man, so he sleeps a lot now. We don't battle like we used to, but he can still get spicy when he's in the mood. I don't know the exact age of a couple of my cats, but it's likely Fuzzy, at almost 16yrs old , is the oldest. Livvy MIGHT be older, but I don't think so.

quite excited, my Reaper set (picks and tensioners) should show up Monday. Looking very forward to getting to grips with it. I'm gradually getting a feel for the WHY of various picks, rather than just grabbing and going with whatever mindlessly... I'm also getting a feel for the handles and what I do and don't like.. like my Southord picks are nice looking, they're a shiny chrome, but they slide around in my grip badly, and it makes it difficult for me to hold them comfortably, and I feel like I lose feedback.. I've put heatshrink on some and it makes it 10x better. I do quite like the rubber texture on the picks from the Monstrum set. Shrug. Just gathering experience!