It can be the same tools everyone has just with a higher quantity or quality for the price. Or it can be a unique tool that is a brand's one "star product" that they have.

I am very new to the trade, but it seems like (aside from the big companies like Sparrows and CI) there is more guidance and whatnot for the locks than there are the tools. So I just wanted to make this post so that people can share lesser-known tools or brands to spread awareness, that way everyone can gain from it.

Okay finally got a set of these for those very tiny key ways. Super excited to mess around with em! Thanks for all the recommendations peeps ☺️

Picked my 5-pin Kenuard today. Used the Multipick #05 for most of it. After the big false set, had trouble feeling the inner pins. Had a half-diamond on my desk, gave it a try, and 10 seconds later it was open.

Really liking picking dimples so far. Nice distraction from the 90A Pro that keeps laughing at me. Have to read up on the DeGuard Interactive clone now.

Id really like to see a review on the 1Mil Apex set. I didn't catch if they were made from Rhodium with gold handles, or maybe some Unobtainium from the spaceship McNally arrived to earth in. Of course I took this screenshot while working earlier and now I can't find it again to post the link. I'm not that good at editing...

The raffle has come to an end! We hit a major milestone this year, blowing past our expectations and raising $53,745 from 197 unique donors for some amazing charities. A new rafl record!

If you missed the livestream and would like to watch, you can find the replay here: https://youtube.com/live/5ZCMkFkv_Rc

Huge thanks to the crew that keeps the raffle running, and a particularly big shoutout to mgsecure and the LPUbelts team for crafting an entirely new web presence for us from scratch! Big thanks as well to Naswek for supporting our drawing program, and Red Wanderer and LoganIsOnDiscord for maintaining our charity list! And of course, the 59 prize contributors who made it possible for us to have 70 prizes this year: 44 Delta, 4550, amvgaert, Badger, banditobrandino07, Bare Bones Lock Picking, Bonx, BurnB1, CollateralTech, CorrectJeans, Craig 3.0, D.Q, Pudes, Deadhammer, Doktor Weasel, Don, DWeb, elocksmith, escape goat, f-eq-ma, fabianoh130, Fireshaper, Gorg the Blacksmith, Granny, H.J, hunson, HVLogic, imaginary_unit, Joey69692568, kiridashii, knowthebird, lockpickersbench.com, LockpickingDev, Lockpickwebwinkel.nl, locksmitharmy, LPUbelts.com Team, MarkUK, MelBrooksKA, Moki, Mugatu, NCR, NKT, PeaceWeapon, PickSmith, Pyrolock, RakSMT, Ratyoke, Reckedx, rwb yan, Sarius, SasPes, Sidepicks, thatonenottrollguy, todd, Tsubaki, V Pinball, ViceGrip, Wyte, Yabende, and Yagias!

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Instructions for winners

If you won a pot, congrats! Please contact me (u/CorrectJeans) through DM on Reddit or Discord with your address so that we can relay that information to the contributors for the pot you won. If you connect with the contributor on your own, please let us know so we can mark you down as good to go!

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Instructions for prize contributors

If you contributed locks to a pot, you are welcome to reach out to the winner on your own, or wait for one our team to relay their info to your. If you do reach out on your own, please make sure to let us know so we can mark that down on our records.

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Winners

The full prize list, statistics, and winners are also available on our raffle website: https://lpubelts.com/#/rafl

This 410 with 401 keyway is kicking my rear. It feels as though it has 3 serrated pins and 3 spools. Seems contrary to the gut pics ive seen 🤷‍♂️. Binding seems 6-1. Set the serrated pins, 6,5,4 then can feel the spools with conter rotation. 3,2,1. Everything feels set but no joy, into a deep false set. Only feedback after this is some counter rotation on 1, and if try to set that farther, seems overset and core is almost back to start even though pins remain set.... Any advice, or thoughts? Shouldn't be this difficult

after going at it on cheap low security locks that i can basicaly unlock just by looking at them my father gave me an Abus 65/40, the pins are hard as nails, there is a lot of counter rotations i keep oversetting them or not setting them at all (huge click and then... what ? it's still binding ?)

i have a slight clue as to what i'm doing since i can unlock basic locks but "higher" security locks seem like a huge jump in skill to unlock, i unlocked it by sheer luck like 3 times in like 4-5 hours

any tips would be nice lol

(there is a very deep dent on the 2nd and 4th pin when i look at the key never seen anything deep like that --obviously deep hook but even so i'm pretty sure there is spool or something i keep F-ing it up. so much so i go back to the low security ones just to check if i became an idiot because of this one padlock lol)

anyway just venting my frustration and hoping to learn something as well i guess

I already knew this wasn’t going to work. But is there anybody more industrious than me that could make an apex-system type tray to fit 4 JL picks into the apex system?

I knew there was a risk in buying this expensive setup, but I like to treat myself. I gotta say, the apex picks are my least favorite. The super long shanks don’t give me the kind of feedback I’m used to. The system is brilliant, but I’d rather have a reaper set with molded handles than the current offerings.

Anyway, just throwing that out there. Anyone else feel the same? Are you guys happy with your apex picks?

Newish lock picker here. I recently bought this lock of the shelf at Home De’Pot. I wanted to try door locks instead of padlocks all the time. I wasn’t surprised when I opened it first time. I figured it was cheap and didnt offer too much security. So I went on the take it apart to add some security pins to make it more challenging and holy chit, it has two in it. I never felt any counter rotation (but I’m still learning so maybe it was subtle) but the spool pins didn’t seem to do ANYTHING in so far as making it harder to pick open.

Hello. I am totally new to lockpicking, just looking to learn and have some fun. I've tried ages ago before with really flimsy picks and felt massively discouraged so looking for a better set. I have no idea what I'm doing. My budget has allowed for either of these to get started with. Any help please? Thank you

1. https://www.ukbumpkeys.com/products/sparrows-kick-start-beginners-lock-pick-set?srsltid=AfmBOorPvwUw-GMZJioeFEFyiJQn5MjoE1J4YNmpVJ0JMqDAn1bntGQn

2. https://www.ukbumpkeys.com/products/tuxedo-royale-euro-lock-pick-set-015-case?variant=41485207567

Got into picking locks a while back, loved the concept and it was also somewhat meditative. Legit earned my Orange belt and was really excited when that lock popped open. Had to quit because we had a lot of life emergencies in the family on top of an unexpected job change. I recently retired and decided to restart. I had given all of my locks and picks to my adult son so I just bought the full Covert Apex system set of picks and tension tools and got a variety of locks from white to orange belt level to "relearn."

I realized, though, that I have always felt like I was somewhat randomly pushing up pins, trying different order, until the lock popped, even with my Orange belt lock with some security spools. I see people in the tutorial videos systematically feeling the pins, feeling the binding pin, setting it, then moving to the next one, etc. I honestly feel like I'm doing more "poke and hope" and I'm pretty sure this will prevent me from advancing.

Is it just me? Is there a trick to moving from "poke and hope" to truly doing it the way good lockpickers do? I just opened my Orange Belt lock again, the Abus 55/40 I believe, but I really don't feel like I was as systematic about it as I should be.

Thanks! Oh, and this is by FAR the friendliest reddit I've ever seen! Most reddits have immature kids that love to downvote every post.

I spend about 15 minutes of every hour I work sitting in my car waiting for the next job, so I'll grab a half dozen different padlocks every day. I'm not a CI shill or anything, but rather than getting out my pick case everytime I just stick my go-to's to a magnetic phone holder. I can probably just keep the #4 in my case because of how versatile the #2 is ...

I got out to pasture from my trade and can't work a W2 anymore due to health issues, so until I jump in front of a train, this is probably as good as it'll get for me again...

New modified Dom Rn eurocilinder Made for Blue belt and higher😈 It had Some flaws and was pickable within an hour so I made Some extra modifications

• modded key
• homemade keypins except the first one
• homemade security pins
• all different springs
• couple of tapered pinholes

Available for European fellow pickers Blue belt or higher💪🏻 🥋

4th Dimple lock I've picked (1 Green, 1 Blue & 2 Purples), Tessa Assa Abloy T80 is next on the list. Accidently speed gutted the Mul-T-Lock JR this morning and reassembled, so will be making Purple Belt video soon but need to knock out that Challange Lock to qualify. Also knocked out the 2 new ABUS colors after opening them, gotta collect them all 🌈 hahaha.

I've been picking padlocks and door locks for awhile now but have been having issues with this disk locks. I've tried attacking from the top and bottom of the key way and have gotten the pins to align but can't seem to get the cylinder to turn.

Any suggestions on tackling this Masterlock magnum disk locks?

I recently found this lock and was wondering if anyone has a method to finding the combo for it, i’ve been searching for hours but nothing i seen online seems to have work

I made a thing. It’s a left handed pinning tray. This was something I always wanted. Hopefully this helps someone else out there. At the very least it’s yet another 3D printed pinning tray out in the wild.

https://makerworld.com/models/1059292

After struggling for quite a while tonight with a Master Lock 150, my first 150, I remembered a holiday post by u/Brummie-Lock-Picker and pulled out my cheap snowman to SPP at it. That did the trick. Just the right shape with TOK.

The American 1100 and Abus 72/40 opened with the Reaper set, I haven’t tried them with the snowman. That’s next.

I put my security pins in before my springs lmao