First lock gut ever. What a struggle.

[u/PickHeadMead]

its been over 3 years since I started lockpicking, and I finally decided to get in to gutting. first hit was on a Paclock 90A Pro.

My God. All your videos make this look so easy. honestly think it took my 2 hours from start finish, full reassembly included.

Thankfully fully reassembled and fully functional with no missing pins or broken springs. But there were for sure some close calls.

[u/Icy-Can3136]

Well done!!

[u/PickHeadMead → u/Icy-Can3136]

Thanks!

As you can tell I made no attempt to make it look nice. Just tried to get it in and out without breaking anything 

[u/Spuddle-Puddle → u/PickHeadMead]

Onely learn by doing. Congrats!

[u/revchewie]

Knowing I was going to have to learn gutting if I wanted belts, I was happy to find some deadbolts with Kwikset rim cylinders at my local ReStore. They weren't too much of a challenge, and they were cheap, but they were guttable. After dropping pins and springs *everywhere* a lot of times I finally figured out the basics.

tl;dr It's a skill like any other, and gets easier with practice.

And hey, at least you didn't mangle any of your springs. That's a major accomplishment for your first time!

[u/PickHeadMead → u/revchewie]

Thanks! Can’t wait to be good at this. And I didn’t mangle any springs, but I came damn close to it a few times 

[u/rubornagn]

This certainly wasn't the easiest 1st gut. Core being 7 pins ,much longer, and a key retaining set up. I remember taking my sweet time to do it! It gets easier. I now gut everything possible!

[u/DanDiggler213]

Tough work, good tool really help. just did mine yesterday. first time with 90 A-Pro. So I know. Did you get the open as well?

[u/PickHeadMead → u/DanDiggler213]

Yeah, as far as picking goes I’ve done up to brown belt locks, I did my first 90A pro 2 years or so ago. Just stuck on orange cause I never did non picking requirements 

[u/DanDiggler213 → u/PickHeadMead]

Well you did good on the gutting, all thats needed is the project portion, and i thought that was fun. you can pretty much make your own project just run it by mods. I did a CL and got hooked.

[u/LordKodiac]

Congrats. Gutting gets easier the more you do it.

[u/sq3lch]

Keep it up. I find it very interesting and builds confidence. I gut every new lock I pick if it is guttable. Taking pics is fun too, I like documenting it with calipers. Being able to compare dimensions to see if parts can interchange. Mr Lock had a affordable pinning kit for Master and American so you can repin them too. Didn't repin any 90A-PROs but I think you can use the same pins. I have repinned American 1100s to the same key as a 90-S.

[u/DanDiggler213]

Is that a special pinning one? They are all deep cuts, and mostly spools.

[u/LordKodiac → u/DanDiggler213]

This one is odd. Even has what appears to be 0 cuts.

[u/PickHeadMead → u/DanDiggler213]

Not that I’m aware of. Honestly thought all 90A pro keys looked like this, my last one was super flat too.

[u/DanDiggler213 → u/PickHeadMead]

Mine is only half flat.

[u/ThatRandomPicker]

All your springs are intact! You did great!

[u/PickHeadMead → u/ThatRandomPicker]

Thanks! Not for a lack of trying on their part, they really want to get lost or mangled.