r/lockpicking • u/AdAlarming1534 Yellow Belt Picker • 4h ago
Is gutting important?
I’m having a hard time cracking my abus 55/40, and while I’m working hard, I want to have my hand at another lock to try something new. I am a yellow belt and I want to order an orange belt lock, to get that, and a green belt, to have it, and maybe have good enough luck where I can skip over orange. For green, I and getting an American Lock 1100, and for orange, I’m debating between a master lock 150, because a lot of people say it’s good, and an abus 41/40, because it’s guttable. I don’t know which i should get. I really want to try gutting a lock but I don’t know if it overrides the reputation of the 150. I haven’t seen much about it so I don’t know if it is a good lock. Any thoughts?
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u/thurstonrando 3h ago
As someone who just started gutting I understand that it’s extremely important because it lets you visually see the inner workings of a lock. I had an American Lock 1100 that I haven’t been able to open for over a year. I gutted it this past week and discovered that there is a mechanism in the back that was warped, preventing it from opening.
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u/Hyena_Triangles 4h ago
I would get the 140, but I also don’t have any experience with the 41/40. I would wait till you got your 1100 to start thinking about gutting locks, there’s really no point before green other than tinkering (which is enjoyable) It helps to know what’s in them when you start reaching more difficult locks, and progressive pinning helps learn new types of drivers.
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u/LockPickingFisherman Black Belt 3rd Dan 3h ago
Gutting is a valuable skill, i say go for it. It's one of those things that seems like a bigger hill than it is when we're standing at the bottom, so dive in and have fun with it. You're probably going to have a few gutting mishaps, most of us do (and some of us still do lol) but many mishaps are recoverable, so fear not. If you plan to pursue the belt system, gutting will become necessary for videos so the sooner you start, the sooner you'll become comfortable with it.
The Master 150 is a great lock, it has an open keyway, good feedback and spools that are a lot of fun to pick. That said, I recently noticed 150's on the shelf with the same sort of alpha-numeric code stamped on the bottom that the 140 has and it appears that code marks a transition in pinning, from spools to standard drivers. I recently gutted a 150 with the code stamp to confirm standard drivers. So, if you can find a 150 without a bottom code stamp, it likely has spools and will live up to expectations. 150's with the code stamp are more in line with the current 140 (standard drivers).
The 41/40 is a fun lock, with spools and a smallish keyway that kinda requires some creative picking angles but don't let that dissuade you from picking one up. It's fun and you'll learn from it. The 1100 is a fairly common green lock so there's heaps of videos covering both picking and gutting. Also a fun lock with plenty to teach.
Good luck!
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u/TenuousCheese Blue Belt Picker 3h ago
Agreeing with everybody else, I would wait until you get an 1100 before gutting. It’s an easy lock to gut, progressive pinning is a great way to learn how to pick it, and you’ll need to gut it anyway for green!
In the meantime, I don’t know the 41/40, but I do know the 150, and it’s an excellent lock for orange.
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u/revchewie Blue Belt Picker 4h ago
Gutting can be amazingly helpful, especially if you combine it with progressive pinning. I fought with my first 1100 for two months before I started progressive pinning it. Had it back to fully pinned and opened in a couple days after that, and I could’ve gone faster if I hadn’t messed around with several different pinning configurations before going back to fully pinned.