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Some of you may have seen my othere post about this "custom" challenge lock i had made, incase you haven't it is a 7-pin best SFIC 6 spool pins and very agressive key bitting, and after lots of frustration i managed to pick it to the control shearline! I haven't been able to pick the opperating shearline yet.

I also learned that it is very hard to reassemble a best core without the special pinning tool, i had a pin get stuck, so i dissasembled the core, tried to keep all the pins in line where they belonged but that didn't work out so had to use my pinning sheet the guy gave me and lock up the A2 pin codes online and measure all the pins with my micrometer, long story short i got it all put back together using a small pair of needle nose pliers, a drill bit as a plug follower and one of my picks to push the pinstacks down during reassemble, would have been much easier if i had the special Best IC core pinning tool

Nice work, now you know that Best locks are not designed to be worked on without the proper tools

I knew how it is supposed to be done but i dont have access to the special tools and i figured there had to be another way, its not easy and i wont reccomend it, but it can be done without the special tool

Holy shit! You got that beast picked to control, eh?! Nice job!

Very little feedback from this lock, although it contains 6 spools i only recieved counter rotation while setting the last one

That is because Best locks are made with pretty tight tolerances. The better the lock, the less feedback you should get.

Have a Lockwood padlock that I got on trade with a guy in Australia. It has no security pins at all, and is harder to pick than many locks with security pins.

Gordon

I think the two times I have been able to pick it to control were just luck, I really have very little feel for what I am doing with this lock, gonna keep at it and see if I can get the operating shear line

Great picking Twen, the bitting looks wicked.

Umm, special IC core tools? Can someone shed some light on what are these special tools? Pictures would be great. Thanks

Peterson makes some IC tension tools which are designed to grab the holes in the bottom of the core, most people don't seem to have much luck with them.

http://youtu.be/1SeL_pMaNKw
Lab Annex
or pinning/capping block
I think interest was in the "Special" the pinning tools.
I believe papa has a video on making his own IC tension wrenches.

I've heard of the special tension wrenches that are used to apply tension to the control shearline only, I managed to pick my best core to control twice but I can't seem to get it picked to operating, I can hardly feel a single binding pin when I try picking it and a few just feel as if they just lock up even when I apply very light tension, and I when I do get pins to set there is basically no feedback at all

Just picked it to the operating shearline! i had to resort to counter clockwise tension, the lock gave better feedback, i still feel it was a bit of luck, i felt 3 or 4 of the pins set and resorted to "bitch picking" when i counldn't find another binding pin and sure enough it opened!

Great Job!

Great work on that Best.

Harvey I made an IC tool but not a video. Its a good video idea except the tool didnt help.

http://youtu.be/z8U9nVrKz5E
Check out between 1:21 to 1:53.
I thought it was an IC Tension tool. Hmm?
I have the Peterson IC tools and also have some cores I have been able to pick to operating but not to control.
Finally ended up removing the core and decoded the pins to make a control key to remove the others.