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Quick DIY Vibrating Lock Pick

Often when it comes to true invention and discovery, crossing the line of ethics of the day leads to great discoveries. There seems to be several areas of humanity that create social boundaries preventing discoveries of all types. Lets all take a moment to reflect on the nature of humanity.. Ok that was enough of that! Supposed ethical boundaries have often stymied the progression of insight both to our surroundings, but also into our self’s. It is in one of these perceived dark recesses of humanity that I have felt like delving into with this project. Any type of project that effects perception of security and stability of life is never popular. While lock picking is nothing new, for those who know nothing about it, it often shocks and scares people with its ease and sharp reality.

One of my favorite sayings is “all a lock does is keep an honest man honest”. Back in my schooling days I had the opportunity to take the bane of most geek life’s, a course on communications and public speaking. With an attitude of rebellion I chose the topic for the final, I was going to teach the entire class how to pick locks in 5 short minutes. With a couple overhead slides, some hair pins, and about 15 master locks I was successful in demonstrating to the class the extreme ease of picking locks. As the other students passed the locks around the class most of them were eventually met with the new reality they had to live in, for there ignorance was no longer the bliss they lived in.

While there is a decade or more of heated debates on the topic of humanity and honesty, it is with the fore mentioned biases that we are doing this project. I have been actively interested in locksmithing and more over lock picking for several years. Any time a new gadget comes out that speeds up the ability to pick a lock it is often extremely overpriced. One of these types of tools is the vibrating lockpick. 60-120 bucks for a vibrating lockpick was a bit ridiculous in my opinion, so I decided to come up with a cheep way of making a good vibrating lock pick. For about 9.00 and a half hour we have produced a comparable lockpick to the most expensive commercial ones.

Now I feel it important to state that this project in no ways will attempt to teach one how to pick locks. There are so many comprehensive articles out there on that topic that it would be a complete waste of time. But, if you are interisted in learning more on the topic just google search for The MIT guide to lock picking.

The Oral-B Humming Bird:
I am sure that not once in the product testing, and focus groups and marketing meetings did Oral-B ever think that there was a possibility that there vibrating flossier would be the central component of such a potentially questionable project. A very well build and engineered unit, the Oral-B flossier is compact and powerful. Using a standard AAA battery at 1.5 volt battery and a micro vibrating motor. At about 6.00 not to shabby for what you get.

Lockpicks:
Lockpicks are nothing new as we know, and there are a lot of different type available depending on the type of lock your interested in picking. For our project we are going to be building the vibrating pick just for pin and tumbler style locks. The easiest lock pick for new comers to picking is the Rake. With that in mind we chose to use a manufactured lock pick. New picks can be purchased for about 2.00 and tension wrenches for about 1.50. But for those that are interested in making there own there are several materials and methods to make your own. All you need is some strong spring steel and a file. Hair pins work well as does the metal strips in some windshield wiper blades.

9V plug and battery:
After a quick trip to radio shaq and about 50 cents for a nine volt battery connector and a buck or two for a nine volt battery we have our new power source. Now obviously it won’t fit inside of the space for the triple “A” battery, so a longer cord on the nine volt plug is preferred.

So here is our OralB humming bird flossier removed from the packaging. Its about 2 1/2″ long. There is a single momentary push button on the side and it has a nice rubberized grip to make it easier to hold on to. It is a very ergonomic shape and rather comfortable to use. It will make a great lockpick!

With a few twists of the bottom of the flossier / Lockpick and the 2 halfs separate at the water proof seal thus allowing you to have access to the battery and switch and other internal components. Remove the triple A battery and save for something else not nesessarly lockpicking related…

Finally remove the blue plastic collar to expose the wiring to the vibrating motor as well as to the switch. On the shaft of the flossier there is a small black rubber o-ring. Don’t loose this or it will make the unit very loud under operation and helps to make the vibrators pulses more consistent . This concludes our disassembly of the oralB lockpick

Our next step for our lockpick here is to melt a small hole in the bottom of the outer shell as well as the bottom the internal battery holder. You may need to bend the battery contact out of the way to make room for the wires.

With the wire inserted in the hole in the bottom of the lockpick, connect the wires to the terminals for the battery. It doesn’t matter what wire goes to what terminal on this if you dont reinstall the tripple A battery.

Lace the wire through the hole in the bottom of the lockpicks outer shell. If you have left enough extra wire, it would really make life easy for this.

Next up cut the tip off of one of the lock picks you have acquired or made, the hole in the front of the flossier is 3/16th wide, just about perfect to fit the pick into. Use some superglue to affix it to the flossier

Make sure the lockpick is firmly mounted in the end of the flossier and apply a drop of superglue to the bottom of the flossier to make sure the wires won’t rip out.

Summary:
So there you have it. For about 9.00 and less than a half hour of time you can have your own high powered lockpick. Now obviously pumping 9 volts into a 1.5 volt motor means it will ware out quickly, but if you use it sparingly it can really last a good long time. It will pop most popular padlocks open in seconds with very little effort.

So want to see the pick in action? Click the above image to watch it. We have insured this will stay up under extremely heavy bandwidth usage, but it’s a much smaller avi file for now.

UDPATE:
I got a whopper of an email today, let me share it with you all:

Fuck you very much for showing every creep in the world an even easier way to make life miserable for the rest of us. I really do not appreciate helpful projects on lock picking, bombs, or other destructive devices one can make simply at home. Why don’t you back off and delete this piece of crap from your otherwise clever and informative website?

Yours very sincerely,
Jana Olson

Omega Too
2204 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702
Phone: 510-843-3636 Fax: 510-843-0666
www.omegatoo.com

My Thoughts:
I appreciate anyone’s feedback on my site. One of the main themes of the site (as can be found in the about us) is to be a creative outlet for myself. And while I can understand some of the ethical concerns on this type of project, I feel that for some people there scope of reality may be a little to narrow.

You see the genie was already out of the bottle, just as with the atom bomb. And while this is nothing new it is one of my interests and hobbies on my site, I have never personally used this knowledge for anything illegal. And I do not condone anything nefarious or criminal in nature ever.

The reason I have gained this knowledge frankly is that it helps keep me and my family safer. Though granted a criminal is more likely to kick a door down or break a window than risk precious seconds on picking a lock. We can all choose to live in ignorance of the reality’s around us or we can face them to improve our surroundings. But I got bad news for my critics of this project, this is centuries old technology.

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Inventgeek

Inventgeek

I am in many respects the text book example of someone who shouldn’t be successful. I was an outcast in my grade school years, and a poor performer in school, unable to fit the standard mold. Fortunately I found small opportunities that I took advantage of, and coupled with hard work they have guided me to where I am today. I spend my time running several businesses I own, developing new products and sharing what I have accomplished with those that deserve opportunities that they wouldn't get any other way. InventGeek has been a step on a path that has helped bring me success and confidence by the simple act of doing. I encourage our readers to do what they can to better themselves a little each day, because overtime it's amazing what you can do!

10 Comments

  1. Avatar
    S. James
    September 15, 2014 at 8:49 am — Reply

    This is so cool and ingenious just like the posts I read in the technology blog. I am very forgetful so I always have a problem with lost keys and locked doors. In the past, I’ve tried almost everything to unlock a door. I have used tools like laminated ID cards to hairpins to pick the lock. There are times when I get lucky but most of the time I am unsuccessful. And the little luck I get won’t last for very long because the security technology used in the locks are getting better and better. I am seriously thinking of trying to make this vibrating lock pick but I don’t have an electric toothbrush and buying one would be costly, and ruining it would be utterly foolish.

  2. Learn to Pick Locks for Fun and an Increased Understanding of Security
    October 22, 2014 at 8:18 pm — Reply

    […] be tempted to buy some of the cool toys out there. Skip the $100+ vibrating lock pick sets and build your own from around $10 worth of parts—principally an Oral-B vibrating tooth […]

  3. » Learn to Pick Locks for Fun and an Increased Understanding of Security Captain Max The Cat
    December 4, 2014 at 11:04 pm — Reply

    […] be tempted to buy some of the cool toys out there. Skip the $100+ vibrating lock pick sets and build your own from around $10 worth of parts—principally an Oral-B vibrating tooth […]

  4. Avatar
    Dan
    August 24, 2015 at 11:32 pm — Reply

    Typical emotional reaction from a woman in that e-mail you got. I can understand the initial knee-jerk reaction to this for someone who’s not very knowledgeable about locks and lock picking in general. But it’s at that point she should’ve done some research before sending an emotionally charged e-mail. Anyway…

    Nice tutorial. I thought I was a genius when I thought up the idea to use an electric toothbrush as a pick gun… only to discover that the internet is way ahead of me lol. Thanks for the suggestion on the hummingbird model though, I’ll look for it.

  5. Avatar
    Sarah
    June 11, 2017 at 2:41 pm — Reply

    I am a woman who just read your most informative article. I want to try this out this week but I was wondering exactly how do you attach the wires from the 9v battery to the wires of the battery terminal on the lock pick (flosser)? Are they just sticking out under the battery contact plate? Also where can I purchase the lock picks that go into the lock?
    Thanks for all the info you offer. Your site is very interesting, valuable and I applaud the fact that you tackle subjects that are not only unconventional but also somewhat counterculture and dare I say, potentially dangerous?
    Anyway just wanted you to know that not all women are as emotionally reactive as your Berkeley reader. Thanks!

    Sarah

    • Avatar
      Not
      May 20, 2018 at 8:57 pm — Reply

      Try picks from McMaster Carr or one of the many other outlets.

  6. Avatar
    Josg
    July 16, 2017 at 10:13 am — Reply

    Why are you changing the power source from the AAA to the 9V

    • Inventgeek
      August 16, 2017 at 10:59 am — Reply

      more power more vibe. try it.

  7. Avatar
    Nicole
    January 5, 2018 at 6:57 pm — Reply

    I relate with what you wrote under InventGeek. I am hoping that I too will at some point get the small opportunities that only others can grant. Thank you for the video

  8. Avatar
    Dan GJ Manning
    June 8, 2020 at 4:18 pm — Reply

    Excellent hack/hobby.

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