1
00:00:01,090 --> 00:00:03,210
Hey everyone, thanks for joining.

2
00:00:03,210 --> 00:00:11,930
I'm the Greek, I'm the chapter lead for TOOL in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and this is my first DEF CON presentation.

3
00:00:11,930 --> 00:00:23,790
So, even though we're not doing this in the real, so to speak, I do know the tradition, so I'm going to carry it out.

4
00:00:36,530 --> 00:00:37,490
Opa!

5
00:00:43,230 --> 00:00:46,210
Shouldn't drink Lynn Leavitt like that.

6
00:00:50,730 --> 00:01:01,830
Anyone who's familiar with the Fallout franchise of games will know where the title for this talk comes from.

7
00:01:01,830 --> 00:01:04,890
Are bobby pins more effective than lockpicks?

8
00:01:04,890 --> 00:01:07,810
The answer is, you know, obviously no.

9
00:01:08,070 --> 00:01:11,370
But, what if you don't have lockpicks?

10
00:01:11,370 --> 00:01:13,970
Well, you planned poorly.

11
00:01:13,970 --> 00:01:15,810
You should have them with you.

12
00:01:15,810 --> 00:01:24,110
There's only a few states that having them on you is a crime in and of itself.

13
00:01:24,110 --> 00:01:37,470
Now, internationally, I'm not familiar with the laws, but obviously check your state and local authorities to make sure that it's legal for you to have them on your person in the state that you're in.

14
00:01:38,310 --> 00:01:44,670
Like I say, there are some states that they're not legal to have on you at all times.

15
00:01:44,670 --> 00:01:54,690
Virginia, Mississippi, Nevada, which is strange because that's where DEF CON's at all the time, and there's one more.

16
00:01:55,090 --> 00:01:59,010
Mississippi, Ohio, Nevada, and Virginia.

17
00:01:59,010 --> 00:02:04,210
They're considered prima facie evidence of the intent to commit a crime.

18
00:02:04,210 --> 00:02:06,590
So if you're in those locations, don't have them on you.

19
00:02:06,590 --> 00:02:12,490
So if you don't have them on you in those locations, what do you do if you need to pick a lock?

20
00:02:12,630 --> 00:02:14,650
Legally, of course.

21
00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,580
You do what we've always done.

22
00:02:31,580 --> 00:02:34,040
You make your own, right?

23
00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:38,740
You might have started with the paperclip.

24
00:02:38,920 --> 00:02:44,640
You might have actually tried the actual bobby pin.

25
00:02:47,460 --> 00:02:59,040
I don't recommend that you destroy your wife's or your significant other's underwire bra until you get permission to do it.

26
00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:00,580
Just ask permission.

27
00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:05,700
There's other things that you can use as well, like spark plug gappers.

28
00:03:05,700 --> 00:03:13,500
These work very well, but there's a lot of material there that you have to cut away if you want to make this into a usable lock pick.

29
00:03:13,500 --> 00:03:20,720
One of the things that I really like to use is street cleaner bristles.

30
00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:28,140
Street cleaner bristles, if you walk down the street, you can find them after the street cleaner's gone by.

31
00:03:28,140 --> 00:03:30,760
Or you can luck out, like I did.

32
00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:41,750
I was driving home one day, and I was in my truck, and I saw on the side of the road a broken street cleaner head.

33
00:03:41,750 --> 00:03:53,050
And so I stopped the pickup truck, and I got some street cleaner bristles now.

34
00:03:56,290 --> 00:04:06,610
One of the things that professional quality lock picks have over anything improvised is generally the handle.

35
00:04:06,950 --> 00:04:09,590
These are a HPC set here.

36
00:04:09,590 --> 00:04:13,230
These are out of the Tool Tremendous 12.

37
00:04:13,230 --> 00:04:17,690
They have a substantial handle to them, and it's easy to hold on to.

38
00:04:17,690 --> 00:04:20,830
It cuts down on fatigue while you're picking.

39
00:04:20,890 --> 00:04:30,030
And it just feels better in the hand than if you were to just have this and try to pick with that.

40
00:04:30,030 --> 00:04:33,510
So what I'm going to show today is how I improvise handles.

41
00:04:33,510 --> 00:04:36,310
You can do several different things.

42
00:04:36,310 --> 00:04:47,090
These are just swizzle sticks, some sort of a straw that I found to put over the outside of this homemade tension wrench.

43
00:04:47,090 --> 00:04:51,130
I did the same thing with this double-ended pick here.

44
00:04:51,130 --> 00:05:00,130
But these are all picks that I've made by hand using street cleaner bristles and a dremel tool.

45
00:05:00,270 --> 00:05:03,350
And so that's what we're going to go over here today.

46
00:05:04,310 --> 00:05:11,550
The basic idea is just to give some heft to the tool.

47
00:05:11,790 --> 00:05:15,630
Something to hold on to, something to give it some rigidity.

48
00:05:17,010 --> 00:05:20,930
There's multiple different things that you can get from hobby stores out there.

49
00:05:20,930 --> 00:05:24,750
This is a plastic that can be used.

50
00:05:24,750 --> 00:05:27,510
I tend to prefer brass.

51
00:05:27,510 --> 00:05:37,990
But there is also, let's see here, a couple of them that I've used an aluminum tubing on.

52
00:05:37,990 --> 00:05:42,250
And it all works basically exactly the same.

53
00:05:42,250 --> 00:05:55,830
Whether or not you're using a square stock like this, which gives you a little bit more of a feel that's similar to this type of pick.

54
00:05:55,830 --> 00:05:59,850
Or if you're using round stock.

55
00:06:00,070 --> 00:06:03,850
Again, I tend to prefer the round stock.

56
00:06:03,850 --> 00:06:06,490
Just maybe for aesthetics.

57
00:06:06,490 --> 00:06:08,050
I have no idea why.

58
00:06:10,130 --> 00:06:13,510
There is a benefit to using square stock.

59
00:06:13,510 --> 00:06:21,970
And that is that these flat picks and a square handle don't roll away.

60
00:06:24,690 --> 00:06:30,810
So the first thing to do is essentially figure out which one you want to duplicate.

61
00:06:31,470 --> 00:06:35,330
I like to mask things off and hold them in place.

62
00:06:35,390 --> 00:06:37,690
Get a good piece of stock.

63
00:06:37,690 --> 00:06:45,850
If it's rusty like this, I'll take a piece of, again this is improvised, right?

64
00:06:45,850 --> 00:06:48,970
This is actually wood sandpaper, but I'm going to use it.

65
00:07:09,730 --> 00:07:17,650
Okay, now that I have this relatively cleaned up, I'm going to take the pick that I want to duplicate.

66
00:07:17,650 --> 00:07:22,130
I'm going to do this one from the Tremendous 12.

67
00:07:24,810 --> 00:07:27,810
Man, I have the hardest time with that word.

68
00:07:32,670 --> 00:07:33,750
Sinusoidal.

69
00:07:35,370 --> 00:07:37,450
Yes, so sinusoidal.

70
00:07:39,770 --> 00:07:42,170
We're going to duplicate this one.

71
00:07:42,410 --> 00:07:58,650
What I like to do is match it up and then tape it in place with just some sort of tape to keep it in place while I trace onto it.

72
00:08:50,020 --> 00:08:52,820
So that's the basic gist of it right there.

73
00:08:52,820 --> 00:09:00,280
So now it's copied onto the stock and next I'll get out the Dremel tool and I'll cut it out.

74
00:11:44,590 --> 00:11:46,830
So anyway, it's not identical.

75
00:11:46,830 --> 00:11:57,470
I can take more off of the one that I'm fabricating, but at this point in time, it's close enough.

76
00:11:58,190 --> 00:12:05,930
Like I say, I can take more off as needed, but I also want to make sure I retain the strength of the pick.

77
00:12:08,250 --> 00:12:12,470
OK, now for the handle, I'm going to use brass.

78
00:12:12,470 --> 00:12:19,370
I want the overall length to be just about the same size as all of the standard picks.

79
00:12:19,370 --> 00:12:24,130
So I'll kind of measure it and put a mark on it.

80
00:12:34,680 --> 00:12:39,220
That will be the overall length of the pick approximately.

81
00:12:39,340 --> 00:12:44,280
And then as far as the handle goes, how much of that needs to be handle.

82
00:12:47,300 --> 00:12:49,380
Somewhere in there.

83
00:12:49,380 --> 00:12:51,300
It's not an exact science.

84
00:12:53,440 --> 00:13:05,090
We'll cut the pick off with the Dremel, but we'll use a tube cutter for the handle stock.

85
00:13:54,530 --> 00:13:57,050
I ended up making two.

86
00:13:57,350 --> 00:14:08,290
This one here with the round stock, and then I decided to make one with the square stock for the handle.

87
00:14:08,290 --> 00:14:15,190
Go over what I do to secure the pick within the handle.

88
00:14:15,190 --> 00:14:19,590
And that's essentially just some epoxy putty.

89
00:16:44,570 --> 00:16:47,830
I forgot I was working on cardboard here.

90
00:16:48,630 --> 00:16:50,910
JB Weld sets up pretty quick.

91
00:16:51,570 --> 00:16:56,590
Put as much in the handle as you can.

92
00:16:56,590 --> 00:17:01,610
Press it in there, and then press the pick in.

93
00:17:01,610 --> 00:17:04,230
This stuff, I can hardly work with it anymore.

94
00:17:04,230 --> 00:17:07,450
It's almost completely set up.

95
00:17:07,710 --> 00:17:13,610
But you still can do a little bit more.

96
00:17:22,420 --> 00:17:25,520
Oh man, it's not even sticky anymore.

97
00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:26,880
It's done.

98
00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:29,240
It is JB Welding.

99
00:17:40,570 --> 00:17:52,530
So one of the things about working with your own picks is you can make your own designs based off of some need that you might have with a specific lock.

100
00:17:53,150 --> 00:17:56,890
This pick is one that I use quite regularly.

101
00:17:57,230 --> 00:17:59,890
It seems to work fine.

102
00:17:59,890 --> 00:18:01,950
Here's the one that we just made.

103
00:18:02,290 --> 00:18:06,010
I'll probably clean this up over time.

104
00:18:06,010 --> 00:18:11,950
And tighten up the cuts on it a bit.

105
00:18:11,950 --> 00:18:15,310
Let's see how I like the square handle.

106
00:18:15,470 --> 00:18:16,710
It might be interesting.

107
00:18:17,670 --> 00:18:19,630
Here's the one with the round handle.

108
00:18:19,630 --> 00:18:23,390
Basically the same pick, but just with the round handle.

109
00:18:23,410 --> 00:18:26,130
I made that one today as well.

110
00:18:26,790 --> 00:18:34,910
This is a pretty standard cross section right here.

111
00:18:34,910 --> 00:18:36,990
This one I made quite a while ago.

112
00:18:36,990 --> 00:18:43,150
I actually even took solid brass stock and put it into the base.

113
00:18:43,150 --> 00:18:47,470
I think that's probably a little bit too much because they do break.

114
00:18:47,970 --> 00:18:53,910
But like I say, you can make the specific pick that you want.

115
00:18:53,910 --> 00:19:00,810
This one has a larger diameter barrel for the handle than the rest of them.

116
00:19:00,850 --> 00:19:02,710
Again, experimentation.

117
00:19:02,710 --> 00:19:11,650
This is just a very tiny hook pick for a very specific lock.

118
00:19:12,310 --> 00:19:14,190
Same with this here.

119
00:19:14,190 --> 00:19:16,650
This is a very tiny half diamond.

120
00:19:16,650 --> 00:19:19,490
Again, for a very specific lock.

121
00:19:28,420 --> 00:19:44,340
One thing that's important to note is that street cleaner bristles have a tendency to snap when you bend them into a tension wrench like this.

122
00:19:44,660 --> 00:19:45,800
This is similar.

123
00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:55,340
I put a handle on a tension wrench, but you'll notice that the bend is not super extreme.

124
00:19:55,340 --> 00:20:09,640
Like you might find on a mass produced handle like this where it's got a nice bend in there.

125
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:12,960
You can get to that.

126
00:20:13,380 --> 00:20:17,640
I think it does make the metal a little bit more brittle.

127
00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:23,400
But you can make your tension wrenches out of the same material.

128
00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:26,360
You just have to be a little bit more careful when you bend.

129
00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:33,320
I think I showed... these are ones with a half bend in the middle.

130
00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:38,980
And this one in particular is tapered to where it will fit a smaller keyway.

131
00:20:38,980 --> 00:20:52,600
Again, the same thing that I talked about with regard to the specific picks that you can make that are specific to your lock.

132
00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:58,460
You can make a tension wrench that is specific to the lock that you're trying to pick.

133
00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:01,600
Let's see...

134
00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:06,940
So, to the question...

135
00:21:06,940 --> 00:21:21,480
Are bobby pins or improvised lock picks or homemade lock picks better than or as good as comparable to picks that you may buy?

136
00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:24,700
I think that it's very situational.

137
00:21:24,700 --> 00:21:35,280
The specific picks that I have made for specific locks were the only ones that I could get that would work for those locks.

138
00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:38,940
I had to make them and then they worked.

139
00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:49,640
The quality, I think, is better with the professional made picks, obviously.

140
00:21:50,300 --> 00:21:56,480
The reproduction is better with the professional made picks.

141
00:21:56,480 --> 00:22:10,880
But, I guess it's the trade-off between the purchasing of something and being able to make it on your own.

142
00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:18,080
For years, I didn't have access to picks or any place to get them at.

143
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:31,820
So, I made them on my own and I think that's where the fulfillment, I guess, comes in with doing this yourself.

144
00:22:32,180 --> 00:22:35,020
Thank you for your attention to this.

145
00:22:35,020 --> 00:22:46,800
I would ask you, if you're interested in this, to please post some questions in the channel so we can answer them.

146
00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:52,920
We can talk about different materials, different ways of fabricating.

147
00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:57,640
We can poke fun at how bad I am with the Dremel tool.

148
00:22:59,380 --> 00:23:04,620
Also, if you're interested in this, look for a local tool chapter.

149
00:23:04,620 --> 00:23:15,020
Look for others that want to explore this lock sport with you and with us.

150
00:23:15,020 --> 00:23:17,340
Again, I appreciate your attention.

151
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:18,720
Thank you very much.

152
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:22,360
I hope you enjoy the rest of DEF CON SAFE MODE.

153
00:23:23,180 --> 00:23:24,620
This is The Greek.

154
00:23:28,460 --> 00:23:29,260
Yasu!

155
00:23:31,660 --> 00:23:33,600
I'm not going to drink it like I did the first time.

156
00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:34,460
This stuff is too good.