[rostov]

Sorry, but I think I'm a little bit lacking in description in the way locks are picked. I don't think this is a correct forum to learn how to, so I'll leave it as that : sneak-preview-style in technical details (lacking), but enough to lure whoever interested in this trade elsewhere to look for answers.

My english truly sucks. I always can never be concise enough. Sorry.

[rostov]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('k_semler', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rostov', '
')Add a PO-profile, it can be quite a dangerous (depending on who's side) tool

[k_semler]

As posted by a previous poster: http://www.lockpicking101.com . Sorry, I don't renember who posted it initially, but it is a good forum, at least what I can judge by 30 miniutes of browsing it.

[k_semler]

Thank god I don't have them to commit a crime. Appearently under WA state law, it is illegal to posses them, (lock picking tools), for the purposes of burglary is a gross misdomener. The only crime I have went to trial for before is Reckless Driving, but I got it lowered to ND. To quote WA State law, "evincing an intent to use or employ, or allow the same to be used or employed in the commission of a burglary, or knowing that the same is intended to be so used, shall be guilty of making or having burglar tools.

(2) Making or having burglar tools is a gross misdemeanor."

Yay! I'm not a criminal, because I don't intend to break into people's property, (unless requred to survive). Thank God by the time I ever have to resort to this, society will be on it's last knees as the middle class will have come to be the low class, and a deep depression will have gripped America. I now am little worried about my ownership of these tools, but I will still not carry them in public.

[k_semler]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rostov', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('k_semler', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rostov', '
')Add a PO-profile, it can be quite a dangerous (depending on who's side) tool

[Hawkcreek]

--

[gg3]

A close friend of mine used to say "a door is just a polite way to go through a wall."

Before there were computer hackers, there were phone phreaks, and lockpicking was a standard phreak skill we all figured out in highschool. We'd bring in various padlocks, and practice on whatever other locks we could get our hands on, all for the fun of figuring out the puzzle. (Modern hackers practice at cryptanalysis instead!) I can't recall ever using those skills for stealing.

Came in very handy when I went into the PBX business:

Overnight installations of new phone systems for clients who had to have dialtone by 9:00am the next day. Security guard has gone home, lines have to be cross-connected in a hall IDF (phone closet) for which I don't have keys. Schlage locks on the phone closets. No problem.

New client with PBX formerly serviced by a competitor. PBX has lock on cabinet, competitor is jealous, won't give us the keys. Aaa-choo! Done.

Etc.

By the way, we used to say that Kwikset was an abbreviation for Kwick-to-Pick set.

I used to carry a set of lockpicks and one of those "automatic" tools. And I never worried about the law because I wasn't a burglar, the lockpicks were with the rest of my telecom kit and I had legitimate reasons for having & using them. Unfortunately they were lost some years ago. However one can always use a stiff paper clip and a small screwdriver in a pinch. And one can improvise quite an impressive set of picks (as a friend of mine did in highschool) using commonly available raw materials modified with commonly available household tools.

For going through masonry walls, nothing is quite so impressive as shaped charge explosives. Properly used (as per military training) you can even get aesthetic with the stuff, and blast open a rectangular opening that is quite precise enough that you could install a regular doorframe and door in it later:-). The nicest thing about shaped charges is they don't do collateral damage, i.e. they don't harm anything except the surface you're selectively trying to blast. No, I don't know how, I've just seen a couple of videos and spoken at length with an expert in this field. Shaped charges also have some very interesting potential applications in civil engineering. Think of cases where you need a precise hole in a material that takes forever to drill or burn through.

Windows are the most abused feature in architecture. I never understood why people want windows in their living room that are almost the full size of the front wall. All those strangers walking by, looking in, staring at you & your family, looking over your expensive goodies, and in some cases wishing they had a rock in hand with which to go shopping.

Windows should always be high enough off the ground to prevent casual climb-ins. As for size, large enough to climb out through, is good for a fire escape, but also good for a burglar with a ladder. Windows should never afford passers-by with a "view" of the inside of your home.

A decent way to secure your windows against climb-ins is to set up a strong interior ledge along the inside bottom of the window, into which fits a nice thick sheet of plywood, which is then affixed further via a 2x4 that drops into the usual steel braces on either side of the window. Easily removed if you have to escape in a fire. Be sure to put some kind of fabric on the outside of the plywood so it looks like a curtain. And if it's bullets you're worried about, some kind of steel plate screwed onto the interior side, and of course some handles screwed on there to make it easier to remove the plywood when you want to access the window. You can always hang interior curtains to make this aesthetic.

Bars, of course, are not for windows, they're for jail cells. You don't want to look out your window and see something similar to what your burglar is going to see after you catch him and turn him over to the cops.

House exteriors should always be masonry. Even stucco is a decent deterrent, adds considerable fireproofing qualities, and will stop stray bullets that aren't fired from up close (i.e. if you're in a bad neighborhood where there are random shootings). Brick is nice, cinder block is good if it's filled with reinforced concrete. If you're really paranoid, monolithic concrete is best of all, and if you can afford it, you can order special concretes that cure to a final strength of 8,000 to 10,000 psi. (conventional concrete is 3,000 to 4,000 psi.). A foot thick wall made of that will stop most projectiles short of military ordnance, and is also good protection from atomic bomb fallout.

And of course when installing burglar alarms, use two or more bell boxes and have them interconnected so that if one of them is tampered with, the other one goes off. You also want "duress" switches concealed but accessible in various rooms, and these should trigger an auto-dialer to a security company that can also audio-monitor the place via the alarm system while they're calling the cops for you.

[k_semler]

And where exactly would you get C4 explosive, a blasting cap, 300 feet of wire, and a battery? I could easily come up w/ the 9v battery and the wire, ( I have enough Coax that I could probably make a 3 mile straight run into town), but I could never figure out where to get C4 short of attempting to get it from the local National Gaurd armory that is 18 miles away. The only place where I could even get blasting caps is either at Elk River, or in Orofino. But then the question is, what the hell would I use it for? I have no desire to own anything more explosive than an M1000. That's powerful enough for me!

[Keith_McClary]

I have seen woodframe houses built with some kind of thin crumbly composition board for exterior sheathing, with vinyl siding hung over it.
You could go through those with bare hands (a booted foot might help). Then you would just need to get through the wallboard on the inside.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('k_semler', 'A')nd where exactly would you get C4 explosive, a blasting cap, 300 feet of wire, and a battery? I could easily come up w/ the 9v battery and the wire, ( I have enough Coax that I could probably make a 3 mile straight run into town), but I could never figure out where to get C4 short of attempting to get it from the local National Gaurd armory that is 18 miles away. The only place where I could even get blasting caps is either at Elk River, or in Orofino. But then the question is, what the hell would I use it for? I have no desire to own anything more explosive than an M1000. That's powerful enough for me!

[k_semler]

Dann! But still, what the hell would I use it for? The only thing I use M1000 explosives for is to cram it in a mouse hole, light it and run like a madman to get out of the shock zone. I would hate to be those mice! But what use would I have for C4? That stuff is just too powerful to detonate on my land by my house. Granted, it would be easier to fall a tree, but I can use an axe for that

[gg3]

Most of your homestead construction & agricultural blasting needs can be solved with good old anfo or straight dynamites. No need for high explosives there. For applications calling for a given quantity of a high explosive, you can probably do the same work with a slightly larger quantity of a conventional explosive.

BTW, "high explosive" means "high-velocity shockwave propagation." High explosives are good for fracturing rock, for example a small quantity could be used to break up a boulder when you're trying to dig a foundation. Conventional explosives have more of a "heaving" action than a "breaking" action, and are more useful for cases such as tree stump removal or earthmoving. Another way to think of it is, use a high explosive when you're dealing with a material that has a high compressive strength and low tensile strength; and use a conventional explosive when you're dealing with a material that has higher tensile strengths than compressive strengths.

If you're going to experiment with explosives, I would think that the best thing to do is get good expert advice for your specific application, and then do the application with half of the recommended quantity, just to get a feel for how it works. Then after a few test shots, you're set to go when you have another application case come up.

One thing I would love to have on a rural site is a good natural source of sand and gravel. Ideal case is a gravel bank, i.e. a deposit of natural rounded aggregate that was left by some ancient water movement through the area. That material can be processed by simply screening & washing. However if that's not possible, then a larger rock formation could be blasted using high explosives in small doses, and the resulting fractured rock run through a crusher and screening/washing plant.

If you're going to use explosives in a homestead or community site, you should make darn sure your paperwork is all in order at all times, and that all materials are strictly accounted for, including sign-out sheets with two signatures. Also proper storage in a small shed designed for the purpose and surrounded by sandbags or earth berms, and locked securely. Ideally you don't want to keep any more of the stuff around than you're planning to use right away, and most of these things do become unstable (i.e. seriously dangerous) if they're stored for lengthy periods of time.

You do not want to be in the position of discovering that a couple of sticks of dunamite have gone AWOL after there's been a terrorist attack in the news. Even if the stuff wasn't stolen from your place by baddies (for which I think you would still be liable for criminal negligence, not to mention needing a serious security upgrade!), even if it was just your teenager going off to play Pyro in the woods, you might still be in for a lot of question-and-answer from people in uniforms who don't think your jokes are funny.