Well this certainly is somewhat of a new one. our pal machiavel here decided he’d just go ahead and dissassemble a hard drive, a (3-button mind you) mouse, and hook it up with some other stuff and a power supply to create: a lockpicking gun
I think this could be modified pretty easily to be less cumbersum as well as automating the tension wrench. I think the whole idea was to be able to make it easily purely from computer parts.
Posted at 10:43 am on Apr 29th, 2005 by loup
Are you sure he didn’t steal this idea from afrotechmods?
Posted at 11:28 am on Apr 29th, 2005 by brk
curious invent..i’ll try it!!
Posted at 11:34 am on Apr 29th, 2005 by Barnizagaitas
He didn’t steal anything from me. This is a fantastic idea! Although personally I would have used a small unbalanced motor taken from an old cdrom drive, as I did with the ghett-oh. It would make everything much smaller and you could power it from a 9v battery.
can you use any other rpm hdd? ive got some old ones but i dont want to butcher a nice new 7200rpm…
ed
http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?basseddie
“but looks heavy from the video handling (too heavy to be practical in the field).”
I would think the AT powersupply hiding off camera would probably make it near impossible to use in the field.
Not unless you carry a car battery and inverter around with you, anyway.
Posted at 2:28 pm on Apr 29th, 2005 by tj
Looks very cumbersome, yet cool. Why not use a laptop hard drive, smaller.. quite possibly able to run off less voltage? *might try I have a spare lying around
Still a fun idea.
Posted at 3:14 pm on Apr 29th, 2005 by Nineironputt
and where the hell am i supposed to find a 3 button mouse?!?!
Posted at 4:57 pm on Apr 29th, 2005 by Finishing.Law.School
This is old news in the lockpicking community. I read about this about a year ago…
Posted at 8:10 pm on Apr 29th, 2005 by beany
Cant u just attach a 9 volt motor with a weight attached to a screwdriver and accomlish the same thing?
Posted at 11:54 pm on Apr 29th, 2005 by Doug
Yeah, i’d imagine you can, but you cant have too much vibration. same thing applies to 5400 rpm hard drives, just glue something on one of the disks to make it a bit off balanced increasing the vibrations.
Posted at 12:58 am on Apr 30th, 2005 by ending
oh, and you can probably use an array of batteries to power the hd, need a 5v source and a 12v source, just use the power supply connector and cut the wire and sotter the wire to the battery array, not too practicle for the field but still a neat project to do with your old comp supplies and spare time.
Posted at 1:01 am on Apr 30th, 2005 by ending
why not just tape a screwdriver head to a battery powered “massaging” vibrator?
Posted at 1:08 am on Apr 30th, 2005 by dopefish
Posted Apr 29, 2005, 8:10 PM ET by beany
This is old news in the lockpicking community. I read about this about a year ago…
sorry we aren’t the lockpicking community,
why didn’t you create a site and link it?
or maybe invent this hack and claim credit
how about you invented this, and everyone else is just copying you…
Posted at 2:30 am on Apr 30th, 2005 by el man
Posted Apr 29, 2005, 8:10 PM ET by beany
This is old news in the lockpicking community. I read about this about a year ago…
sorry we aren’t the lockpicking community,
why didn’t you create a site and link it?
or maybe invent this hack and claim credit
how about you invented this, and everyone else is just copying you…
Posted at 2:30 am on Apr 30th, 2005 by el man
pretty cool, but could use some heavy modification to make it more useful.
Lockpick guns work on the principal that they are knocking into the bottom pins, causing the pins on the top and the bottom to strike and reflect away from one another, thus widening the shear line and allowing access without a key.
So in all reality, all you need is an object that vibrates a LOT, and a thin peice of metal to attach to the object. Insert your torque wrench, apply slight presure, turn on the gun. Bam, lock is open.
My advice, overclocked toothbrush with the head replaced with that of a tiny screwdriver. I’ve never tried it, but the vibrations should be strong enough to knock the pins all over the place… And cheap!
Posted at 11:18 am on Apr 30th, 2005 by slimfrinky
WOW THIS IS NOT MY HACK!!!
YOu putted my copyrights on it but THIS IS NOT mine… Anyways, I am currently trying this one out but remember all credits goes to this community … not me so don,t send me emails saying I am a lammer, I just wanted to sho this one to you… not steal the credits…
Posted at 9:04 am on May 2nd, 2005 by Machiavel
Well, since the lockpicking community believes in security thru obscurity, I have no doubt of why someone might have seen this a while ago.
And using a electric toothbrush wouldnt be a bad idea, but you need to buy the 10 dollar and up ones. The Dollar store ones are crap. All they are good for is a cheap source of standard hobbyist 12v motors, the same kind they sell at ratshack.
Posted at 9:21 am on May 2nd, 2005 by cde
Has anyone tried those vibrtating razor handles for this? I don’t know if they provide enough vibration, but they do run off a AAA battery and are compact and could probaly be disguised as a pen.
Posted at 9:58 am on May 2nd, 2005 by sammy
considering the action that has to happen inside, the more vigorous the vibration the more likely it will work.
you have two tiny pieces of metal butted up against each other held in place by a spring. you have to hit the bottom piece hard enough to throw the top piece up far enough to clear the shear line. i don’t have any experience picking locks so i’m not entirely sure how well “binding” individual pins works, so to make this work simple constant torsion on the barrel might not be enough. you might have to keep jiggling the entire lock until ALL the upper pins move out of the way.
could take a while. i’m guessing these things can take a few minutes to use, and probably make a lot of noise. not exactly Sam Fisher gear, but he picks locks manually. 
Posted at 7:33 pm on May 2nd, 2005 by Bong Bong Gad
here’s a decent article about it
http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/138/48/
i hope this thread doesn’t lead to a rash of break-ins. i’d rather hear about a boom in the locksmith industry leading to better security overall.
Posted at 7:36 pm on May 2nd, 2005 by Bong Bong Gad
Not amazing if you ask me. The better tool is the 110v powered engraver with a pick attached. Not to mention the lock that he is using (model 700) can be ‘picked’ with a paper clip if you know where to twist. Nice project though.
Posted at 9:04 pm on May 2nd, 2005 by Jib Jab
can we get an automatic denial on all comments that amount to “i saw this long ago because i’m so cool, and this is the crappy version of it anyways”, PLEASE?
Posted at 10:14 pm on May 2nd, 2005 by Bong Bong Gad
Like I said before, locksmith industry believes in Security thru Obscurity. Basicly, if noone knows about it, its safe. Basic idea behind stuff like the hide-a-key rock and placing the key in a plant pot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity
Reveling any obscure secret or pointing out a overlooked inherit design flaw leads to being ostracized.
http://www.crypto.com/papers/kiss.html
http://www.crypto.com/papers/flattery.html
//i hope this thread doesn’t lead to a rash of break-ins. i’d rather hear about a boom in the locksmith industry leading to better security overall.//
Only way to make them enhance products is thru a breaking-in boom. There’s no other incentive to make better common locks, since the current one’s seem so secure. Unfortunate, but that’s reality.
Posted at 5:20 pm on May 3rd, 2005 by cde
This works with some cell phones set to vibrate. Just tape a screwdriver to the side, and call yourself repeatedly. Works best with the hulking motorola cell phones - those thing could knock your heart out of rhythm if kept in a shirt pocket.
Posted at 6:48 pm on May 5th, 2005 by themuffinking
I have the motor, from a harrdrive, but there a 4 pins.
wich one should have current??
Posted at 10:53 am on May 12th, 2005 by flex runess
Heh, its kinda funny, you could make it from anything. But this is odd. I like the style though, shake the lock until all the pins fall into place.
Posted at 8:36 pm on Jun 3rd, 2005 by Matt
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Posted at 11:49 am on Sep 20th, 2005 by al Hasa Musa
Cool idea, wonder if it works. I’ve heard of making lock picks out of an electric toothbrush, but not this. http://www.lockpickguide.com is a good beginner’s lock picking guide, for those of you who are not part of the cult yet.
Posted at 6:50 pm on Feb 5th, 2008 by matt
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cool compilation, but looks heavy from the video handling (too heavy to be practical in the field). Also it would have been nicer to have had the tension wrench be automated and not just the rake.
Posted at 10:22 am on Apr 29th, 2005 by israel torres