jharveee wrote:....Sometime I fear I will never get the hang of Manipulation....
Very exciting times starting out, but it's also easy to get discouraged. Don't be. You're doin' great my friend!
I'm sorry I've not chimed in a whole lot. But you can bet I've been keeping an eye on your progress.
I've read & re-read your first two manipulations, and the start of your third. And I
WILL say this.....
Many of the difficulties you're having mirror that of mine when I started.
Perfectly normal learning curve 
Manip #1... You did great fining a gate w/ an all wheels rotation, honing in on it, and tagging it to w3.
Then, running wheels 1 & 2, you found another gate.... but then had some troubles with hi/low testing.
Femurat's comment - placing w3 on it's known gate during your test configurations hopefully made since?
Manip #2... Tricky! It's no surprise you had some trouble finishing that one up. By the time you were searching
for a second gate you encountered some shadowing. More than likely, w1 had a slightly higher area which kept
the fence from touching w2 as its' gate passed by - hence it didn't show up on your graph. Solution would be to
'park' w1 in an area that DOES allow 2 to be read. So you'd park w1, run w2 around & place w3 on known gate.
This will come with time though... no worries. Nice job.
Manip #3... Mercurial said it all! Took the thoughts right outta my head, lol. Your AWL graph has produced enough
to where I'd be temped to run some trial combos. However, I'm with Mercurial... keep it simple and focus on your
best indication first. Amplify the area, find true center, and tag it to a wheel. THEN investigate the other areas.
Also, not a major concern, but I too am surprised with the amount of fluctuation you're receiving from the LCP.
In some cases it seems to be even more drastic than the RCP. Normally it's the RCP that gives us more info.
I echo the suggestions given by others.
Wheel positioning as well as
consistent readings are
crucial & worthy of your time.
Do you find you're lost within the wheel pack at times? Wonder if you need to take one more turn? Or took one too many?
If so, spend some of your sessions on just this. Move through the wheel pack until it requires little thought and no doubt.
Your touch for contact readings is still developing and will get more & more refined over time.
Here, just as Gordon eluded to, is the drive cam gate with two very differently shaped sides.
People use varying terms, but for
me the lever nose is currently touching the RIGHT CP.
ie. In order to take my RIGHT contact reading... I turn the dial LEFT (counter-clockwise)
So on the lock you're currently working with, 13 is what I would consider your RCP.
You can see why this more gradually sloped side would offer the most fluctuation / information.
If, as you mentioned, your dial is drifting back slightly after contact, then you're still a little heavy handed.
Consistency, by far, is key though. You and I may have slightly differently looking graphs for the same lock -
but as long as we each maintained a very particular approach for every reading, our findings will be the same.
A great way for
gauging your accuracy, as you've already found, is to compare duplicate graphs.
However, for
improving your accuracy, you might consider working through a mirror. Is this cheating?
No! You are TRAINING. You're training your mind, hand, and eyes. Spend some hours with the mirror.
When the cover plate is back on, your
mind's eye will take over & I guarantee your touch will have improved.
I can't even begin to guess just how much time I've spent peering through this mirror, lol.
And it's actually more than just a great tool for beginners. I've used it to peek up the skirts of
nearly every one of the locks in my collection. Yes, the interaction between the drive cam and
lever are basically the same for most locks. But you'd also be surprised to find some of the very
subtle differences exhibited from one lock to the next. Even locks of the same make and model.
it's probably been mounted correctly and functioning properly. But learning manipulation is difficult enough as it is...
the last thing you want is to tryn' learn on a faulty lock. When you push & pull the dial, is there much in & out play?
How's the drive cam? If you hold it stationary with one hand & turn the dial lightly back & forth with the other.....
is there any play between the cam & spindle? Be sure the spline key is solidly holding the two as one solid unit.
Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:52 am 
