The boards should be held vertically (e.g., in a vice or against a wall on a table) when used, simulating a typical door. You will need a small set of cylinders in various keyways, a board or vice to hold them in while you practice, and a small re-pinning kit (extra pins and springs and a "follower" tool). Spend more time on this exercise than you think you need to; most people never learn to properly apply the light touch needed to pick better quality locks. If you're not in my seminar, the references to the lock boards in the lab don't apply, of course; you will need to configure your own training locks to follow these exercises. A common door lock mechanism in Europe uses a standardized "European profile" lock module. While there are literally thousands of different keyways in commercial use in the United States and thousands more abroad, these four give a fairly representative sample of the different kinds of wardings (and pin manipulation problems) you are likely to encounter in common (non-high-security) locks. This keyway is common in commercial and residential locks in the US, and is close in shape and size to a number of other common keyways, including that used by Kwikset, a very popular (and easily defeated) line of US residential locks.

Your index and middle fingers should be touching the edge of the pick close to where it enters the keyway. Angled rails of hardened rubber or synthetic rubber, known as cushions, rim the inner edge of the table. The traditional mahogany billiards table is still in use, but tables are now generally made of other woods and synthetic materials. The game of carom billiards is still played primarily in France and other European countries and to a lesser degree in the United States and has many players in Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and South Korea and in Central America, South America, Africa, and the Middle East. There are numerous varieties of each game-particularly of carom and pocket billiards. Because there are two independent shear lines, there is no way to control, or even tell, at which shear line a given pin stack sets. There are exceptions, however. Many inexpensive locks are grossly misaligned, making them quite forgiving of chaotic picking technique. He said he had jokingly complained to playing partner Webb Simpson that he hadn’t won any crystal trophies this year for making eagle.

The pick handle should not be making contact with the palm of your hand. In particular, you should feel when you set a pin as much in the torque tool as you do in the pick. The numbers on the front of the practice locks indicate the keying codes, from the front-most pin stack to the rear-most. When the pin stack truly sets at the shear line, it will feel like an ordinary set pin. It won't turn, of course, because the cut of the (single) pin stack is still below the shear line and its top pin is preventing the plug from rotating. Now, while continuing to apply torque, insert your pick and find and slowly lift the pin stack. You'll probably find the large hook or deep curve pick works well here. The three hook picks in this kit are sufficient to manipulate the vast majority of pin tumbler locks found in the US. Now (as long as you continue to apply torque) the other pin should be binding. Now apply heavy torque, with the aim of pinching all the bottom pins at the shear line.

While pins are usually set by raising the cut from the plug to the shear line, they can also be picked by first oversetting the cut to within the shell and then lowering it to the shear line. You'll notice that it resists more than it did in the previous exercise because its top pin is pinched between the plug and the shell at the shear line by the torque you're applying. If you're having trouble, you may be pushing adjacent pins up past the shear line as you pick a pin, causing them to be overset even before they start to bind. To neutralize a partially set spool or mushroom pin, reduce torque and push the pin up, allowing the plug to rotate backward a bit as you do. Learn what a pin in that state feels like. It is important to develop a "mental image" of the internal state of the lock, the locations of the pins and your pick, etc, what is billiards as you manipulate the pins. The locks are drilled for up to six pins. You may well have one of these locks on your house.