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Gravity
Picking a lock that has the
springs at the
top is different than
picking one with the springs at the
bottom. It should be
obvious how to tell the
two apart. The nice
feature of a lock with the
springs at the
bottom is that
gravity holds the key pins down once they set. With the
set pins out of the way, it is easy to find and
manipulate the
remaining unset pins. It is also
straightforward to test for the slight give of a correctly set pin. When the springs are
on top, gravity will pull the
key pins down after the
driver pin catches at the sheer line. In this case, you can
identify the set pins by noticing that the key pin is easy to lift and that it does not feel
springy. Set pins also rattle as you
draw the
pick over them because they are not being
pushed down by the
driver pin.