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What to Expect from 15 Days Lock Picking

What to Expect from 15 Days Lock Picking

Chris Dangerfield |

What You Can Expect From 15 Days of Lock Picking

You don’t need months to get good. Give it 15 days — just two weeks and change — and you'll go from clueless noob to cracking basic locks with purpose. If you’re curious, driven, and not afraid to fumble a bit, here’s what’s waiting for you on the other side of your first picks.

This is part of a focused, no-fluff 15-day course based on years of experience teaching hundreds of beginners how to pick locks using the Single Pin Picking (SPP) technique — the gold standard of precision and control. All you need is one hour a day and a willingness to learn by doing.

1. Understand the Basics: How a Pin Cylinder Lock Works

Before you can beat the system, you’ve got to know the system.

The pin cylinder lock is everywhere — doors, padlocks, cabinets. Inside, it’s a mechanical riddle made of springs, pins, precision, and a lack of precision!

The Anatomy

  • Plug: The part that turns. Your goal is to rotate this.

  • Pins: Usually five or six stacks, each made of a key pin and a driver pin.

  • Housing: The bulk of the lock — everything that isn’t the plug or pins.

  • Shear Line: The invisible boundary between plug and housing. Get all the pins aligned here, and the lock opens.

How It Works

The right key lifts the pins so that the gap between them is perfectly aligned with the shearline. With single pin picking, you're faking that lift manually, one pin at a time.

Why It Matters

Once you understand this simple system, locks stop being intimidating. You realize: this thing wasn’t built to keep you out. It was built to be opened — you just weren’t supposed to know how.

2. Discover How Manufacturing Tolerances Can Be Exploited

No lock is perfect. Even precision engineering leaves behind microscopic flaws. These flaws — called tolerances — are what make lock picking possible.

What Are Tolerances?

Every pin and chamber has slight differences in size. No two parts are exactly the same, and that means:

  • One pin binds before the others.

  • That binding gives feedback.

  • That feedback gives you control.

The Binding Order

Apply turning pressure (tension), and one pin will seize up — that’s your first clue. You have to learn how to identify the binding pin. Because it's binding, that is, being held between the plug and the housing (because you're applying tension) the binding pin is the pin that offers your pick the most resistance. Think about it: Because the manufacturing tolerances are not perfect, the 5 or 6 pins do not all bind at the same time. We use this to our advantage. We apply turning pressure with our wrench, and one pin binds. The rest are free to move when lifted with a pick. But the binding pin offers a little bit of resistance. That's the one you pick. Once you've picked or 'set' that pin, the plug will turn a fraction of a mm, and the next pin will bind. Identify that pin, pushing all the pins one by one until you find the one giving the most resistance. Remember, because the pin stacks are sprung, there's a small amount of resistance to them all. But the difference between spring resistance and binding resistance can be felt. Learning to identify the binding pin is an essential skill. 

Binding Pin Principle — Key Points for Single Pin Picking (SPP)

  • Apply light turning pressure with your tension wrench to simulate the turning of a key.

  • This pressure causes one pin to bind — it's caught between the plug and the housing.

  • The binding pin offers the most resistance to your pick compared to the others.

  • Due to manufacturing tolerances, not all pins bind at once — only one pin binds first.

  • Use your pick to test each pin — lift them gently one by one and feel for resistance.

  • The binding pin resists more than just spring pressure — it "grabs" slightly.

  • Once you set the binding pin, the plug turns slightly and a new pin begins to bind.

  • Repeat the process: test all pins, find the next one offering true resistance, and set it.

  • Differentiating spring resistance vs. binding resistance is a learned, tactile skill.

  • Identifying and setting binding pins in order is the core mechanic of SPP and the key to consistently opening locks.

Why It Matters

Once you learn to detect and exploit tolerances, you're no longer guessing. You're solving. It’s the difference between stabbing in the dark and flipping on a light.

3. Master the Binding Pin Principle: Tension and Tactile Feedback

Now it’s all about control and feel. This is where most beginners make their biggest leap forward.

Tension First, Always

Before touching a pin, apply tension with a wrench. This is the force that creates binding. It’s subtle:

  • Too much, and nothing moves.

  • Too little, and the pins just drop.

Find the Binding Pin

With tension applied, one pin will resist your pick. That’s your target. Set it. Listen for the click. Feel the give.

Then move on to the next. Each pin you set shifts the internal state of the lock — and your hands start learning what that feels like.

The Flow

Pick. Set. Repeat.

You’re not just opening a lock. You’re reading it — through pressure, resistance, and feedback.

Why It Matters

This is the foundation of real skill. No gimmicks. No shortcuts. Just hands-on, fine-tuned, beautifully analog work. And when the plug turns for the first time? That’s when it hits you: you’ve got the touch.

NOTE: Watch Out for Over-Setting Pins

As you practice Single Pin Picking, you might run into a tricky issue: over-setting a pin.

This happens when you push a key pin too high — so high that it gets shoved into the bible (that’s the part of the lock housing where the driver pins live). When this happens:

  • Part of he key pin is  above the shear line, and is binding due to the turning tension.

  • And the lock won't open — no matter what else you do.

Even worse, the overset pin might feel like it's binding, which can really throw beginners off.

How to Handle It

  • If the lock suddenly feels “stuck” or none of the other pins bind properly, try releasing tension slightly to let that overset pin drop back into place. You'll often hear it spring back into the plug.

  • Then reset and begin again, being gentler with your lift.

  • With time, you’ll learn to sense the difference between setting a pin just right and pushing it too far.

  • Don't rush it. Yes, we'd all like to pick like the YouTubers. But you're a beginner. Go slow and develop strong foundations.

This is one of the most common pitfalls for beginners — and part of the learning curve. Don’t stress it. Recognize it, adjust, and keep going.

4. Open the Majority of Basic Pin-Cylinder Locks

By Day 15, the game changes. You’ll start opening most standard pin-cylinder locks with consistency.

What You’ll Be Able to Open

  • Many padlocks that don't use security pins

  • Many basic Pin-Cylinders

These locks are built for convenience, not security. Once you understand their internals, they give up fast.

Your Hands Know

At this point:

  • You apply the right tension without thinking.

  • You feel the binding pin almost instantly.

  • You can rake, single-pin pick, and reset when needed.

It’s muscle memory. Fluid motion. Quiet confidence.

Why It Matters

Lock picking teaches you to see systems for what they really are — flawed, hackable, openable. You don’t just know how a lock works — you’ve felt it give. And you know how to make it do that again.

The Importance of PLAY!

Please — for the love of all things brass and binding — play with your picks and locks.

This isn’t school. You’re not being graded. Don’t feel like you need to follow rigid rules or only do it “the right way.” That’s not how real skill is built.

While we haven't talked about Raking, there's not much to it in theory. Apply tension, use a rake like a Siusoid or a Bogota (rakes are easily identified as they have several points of contact, rather than just one, like a hook or a half-diamond. Rakes can move in and out, up and down, and can be rocked. Tension tends to work better when 'pulsed', giving you a variation of tension which allows for the changing dynamics after each pin sets. Play with your rakes and learn what they can do!

Remember when you were a kid? Sitting in the sandbox? One minute it was a construction site, the next a moon colony, then suddenly there were alien encounters and killer whales swimming through your imagination?
That wasn’t wasted time — it was how your brain learned to explore, invent, and understand the world.

Lock picking is the same.

Get to know your tools like toys:

  • Feel how your tension wrench behaves with too much pressure.

  • Try a rake, then a hook, then a half-diamond.

  • Pick a lock backwards. Upside down. Blindfolded if you’re bold.

Mess around. Get curious. Break the "rules."

You’d have to be extremely unlucky — or outright reckless — to damage a lock or a pick just by exploring how it all works. These tools are meant to be used. The locks are meant to be challenged.

The deeper your play, the faster your mastery.

Final Thoughts: 15 Days, Real Skill

Lock picking isn’t magic. It’s mechanical empathy. With just one hour a day for 15 days, you’ll go from zero to cracking everyday locks using the exact same SPP technique taught to hundreds of beginners over the years.

You’ll:

  • Understand the internal logic of locks

  • Exploit tiny imperfections like a pro

  • Develop precise tactile intuition

  • Open most basic locks with ease

This isn’t a hobby. It’s a skill. And you can build it in just over two weeks.

Pick smarter. Train often. Respect the craft.

5. Moving Forward

From here I would suggest looking into picking security pins. Spools are the most common these days, with serrated coming in a close second. You may have already encountered a little beast we call 'counter rotation' which is when a spool pin is false-set, and when you try to set it, your tension tool is pushed in the opposite direction to the pressure your applying. But that's for another day. Good luck!
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