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First Lockwood

PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 2:41 pm
by aerol
Just got this in the mail today from Aussie-land. Haven't had time to pick it yet. What a beauty! Finely machined with tight tolerances.

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 2:45 pm
by GWiens2001
Got one of those a couple years ago. It has no security pins, but is harder to pick than many other locks with security pins because the tolerances are so tight. Harder to feel the sets when SPP, though raking is easier. Very well made. Also like the solid "shunk" sound when the shackle pops up. Sounds like quality.

Congrats on your new toy!

Gordon

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 3:54 pm
by Mitchell s
They do these days Gordon. I picked a new one yesterday and it had 5 stainless spool pins in it. Maybe ASSA have started sending the pins over.

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 4:43 pm
by Neilau
I've got a couple of these. Very hard to SPP but will fall to a Bogota style pick :bogota:

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 4:49 pm
by Doogs
Sounds like a challenge as I don't have a Bogata. I'll have to keep my eyes open for one.

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 5:24 pm
by Anarchy_won
aerol wrote:Just got this in the mail today from Aussie-land. Haven't had time to pick it yet. What a beauty! Finely machined with tight tolerances.


Congratulations on getting such a great lock. :)

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 8:36 pm
by Neilau
Good score, they are very nice locks.

To be honest, I have never been able to SPP it, yet.

However, 5 to 10 seconds with the Bog style pick and it pops open.

I don’t think it is cheating (too much :D ) using a Bog style as there is a technique to using them. Once mastered they certainly feel like magic. I’ve got quite a few LockWoods that I haven’t been able to SPP but all have fallen to the Bog style.

It’s strange, I can feel pins setting when using the Bog but can’t get them when I try SPP.

I take my hat off to anyone that SPPs them, they have very fine tolerances and are not easy.

Doogs, they are quite a challenge to SPP.

LW1.jpg

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 11:24 pm
by DroppedTensionWrench
Just got mine today. Hell of a lock!

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Wed May 20, 2015 2:32 am
by Mitchell s
I added some to my collection a few weeks ago too. I like Lockwood.

Also, plenty of these had spools in them, so they won't fall to a rake ;) especially the Mono-block.

Image

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Wed May 20, 2015 11:55 am
by rerun12
Neilau wrote:However, 5 to 10 seconds with the Bog style pick and it pops open.]


easy pickings when they key is cut just like a bogota :P

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Wed May 20, 2015 5:43 pm
by Neilau
Rerun – not so.

The locks that I have the most access to are Lockwoods. I had a naughty box full of them till I discovered how to use a Bog. Slayed them all with it. Some of the bittings were like 6-1-1-1-9.

I have had a go at all the locks in Mitchell s photo above except the monoblock. The ones with spools I've picked using the standard spool picking technique and the rest by using a Bogota style pick.

I haven’t been able to SPP these locks with NO spools and I haven’t had a go at every LW lock ever made but I’ve had a go at a LOT.

In my experience a Bog style pick will work on most LWs with no spools (and some with spools) no matter what the bitting

I can, if you like, gather up all the LW keys that are not bitted like Bogs, that I have had success with and photograph them but I'd rather that you took my word. :D

PS. Out of respect for Rai I don't call the picks that I make a Bogota but a Bogota style.

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Wed May 20, 2015 6:26 pm
by twenglish 1
I will be keeping my eyes out for a lockwood, i'm always looking for a challenge, hopefully this challenge isn't too far above my level!

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Wed May 20, 2015 8:32 pm
by Anarchy_won
I should finally get a Lockwood for my collection... anyone have a extra to trade? ;)

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 9:36 pm
by DroppedTensionWrench
I have a 301 coming I will keep you in mind if I do trade it. I'm curious to see how they pick without spools vs the 334C45 I had. As said earlier in post I've seen a lot of wild bitted lockwoods fall to a bogota.

Re: First Lockwood

PostPosted: Sat Aug 01, 2015 5:40 am
by aeporia
:D :D :D

German living Down Under, so like Neilau, these are some of the nicest while most accessible locks to me.

I’ve been building a collection, with a few older LWs, but most of it is constituted by the previous gen. and current range. I am a fan of them.

***


(following is geeky LW babble—)

I’m particularly fond of the cheaper middle-range of their ‘high security padlocks’, namely the 234/334B45s (brass body & core) and 234/334M45s (steel body and steel-chrome plated core). (The 234B45 was the previous gen., and the 334B45 is the current gen, for both respectively). They feel weighty, have good tolerances, and a pretty decent quality feel to them all-round. The cam is solid brass (a good couple of mms thick), and use ball-bearings for the hasp.

The previous gen. 234B45s just have standard drivers, but still are a tight pick. I *highly* recommend them for anyone wanting to start out SSPing the higher end current Lockwoods. They do fall to triple and double peek bogies, but radical pinning (MACS 7 IIRC) can make this method considerably harder, given the tolerances and strong springs. (I have learned a lot about bogies, inc. making my own, specifically to better work with the tighter tolerances & springs of these LWs.) I agree with Neilau however on the effectiveness of bogies — if the drivers are all standards and where the pinning isn’t radical bogies can make pretty quick work of them. That said, radical pinning has stopped me short of finishing with a bogie, and having to resort to a hook to finish it off. I also agree that even though bogies can make quick work of a lot of the previous gen. LWs, and probably slightly less, if not the same for the current stock, they’re a decent SPP.

Note: the current gen B45s (334B45) now pack discrete polished steel spools!, and are a heck of a lot harder to get with a bogota, esp. with radical pinning. Otherwise behaves like pretty much anything else that is packed all-spools, but it’s still a decent pick due to the tolerances and springs. My fav. 2-minute mod of this is to throw a standard into the sixth chamber (drilled, but alas empty), which I find makes playing with the spools harder.

The 245/345M45 — and I think some other higher-end LW padlocks feature these too — have a steel core that (I could be wrong?) is chrome plated, and they stick polished steel drivers in them, which combined with the tight tolerances makes it a pain to properly confirm a set with a given pin stack. I quite often find myself ‘setting’ a pin stack multiple time; not because the spring has pushed the driver back any length, but because pin stacks seem to bind, and even audibly click (might be another stack), without fully setting, and then later required to be revisited. This is with standard, polished drivers; not spools…. I’ve found this especially with these M45s, but also across some of the brass cores. I think this is just due to the tight tolerances, and the strong springs?

Over a steady 2 months ended up buying a local tobacconist out of their entire stock of 234B45s & M45s — around 20 padlocks (incidentally, all of the best locks they had). At first I purchased only the ones with cool or more radical pinning, and in the end (once I realised they were previous gen. and harder to find) I grabbed them all.

The pinning was one of the things that actually attracted me to LW. I am sad that LW stopped displaying the key in the clear plastic of the product casing with the current gen. — I really liked not having to ask a confused Bunnings employee over to see if I can look inside at the key (which IIRC involves breaking a product seal). Ah well. (:

Anyway, I’m happy to offer up a trade if anyone beyond Oz wants a LW, either a stock one, or something with a bit more magic thrown in; I’ve recently been turning some of these over into challenge locks (there’s a thread in Homebrew on one) featuring Flywheel’s awesome ‘Pin-in-Pin’ design. ^_-

Feel free to PM if you’re interested.