Picking / Drilling a Lock on Coin Door

[Flake]

So some kids must have run off with the keys to my Cyclone and now I cant find them (if they are even at my house still). So I need to either drill or pick the lock.  Any suggestions.....other than dont leave the keys in the coin door  

Are pinball locks easy enough to pick?  If so what do you use to pick them?

[Flake]

I didnt think to try the keys on my SWT.  I will give that a go before I do anything else.  I did a search on RGP and there must be 30 different opinions on what to try.  All of them making sure to dismiss the suggestions of others before providing their own advice 

[Jeff AMN]

If I don't have the keys, I just drill the lock and then put in a keyless lock later. Just center the drill bit right on the hole, and drill straight in. You only need to drill out the mech, not the entire lock, so the bit you use only needs to be a little bit wider than the keyhold entry itself. Center it on the lock, drill straight in until you hit the back of the lock, and pull the drill out. Stick a flathead screwdriver into the hole and twist. It should turn for you. If not, try stepping up to a little bit bigger bit.

Drilling a lock shouldn't take but a couple of minutes to do.

[Marsupial]

contact a locksmith?

[MonMotha]

I usually do the screwdriver/visegrip trick if I can't somehow get to the back to just remove the screw holding on the cam.  Just make sure you don't care about the screwdriver

Of course, if you have a round key lock, you're in for a world of hurt.

[HaRuMaN]

Of course, if you have a round key lock, you're in for a world of hurt.

I've found that Thermite works pretty well for those.

[RayB]

Can you get in the back door? (ooo, that's what she said!)

Unscrew the lock from the back if so.

[Pinball Wizard]

I usually do the screwdriver/visegrip trick if I can't somehow get to the back to just remove the screw holding on the cam.  Just make sure you don't care about the screwdriver

Of course, if you have a round key lock, you're in for a world of hurt.

I usually do the screwdriver trick only on metal doors (any modern pinball). I highly suggest against that on say a backdoor to a arcade game or a backbox lock since they go into the wood and tear it up where it won't hold a new lock.


The round key locks aren't as bad as most think. You keep pressure in one direction and start to push pins. As you move each pin to the right spot the lock turns and you move onto the next.

[Marsupial]

is there a way to get multiple locks using the same key?

I am thinking it would be great to have all of the locks to be the same.  Unless there's something interesting that I don't  get of looking trough keys for a specific one??

[LLUncoolJ]

Drill it. Make sure you put down some plastic or newspaper to catch the metal shavings, you don't want that crap in the carpet. Start with a smaller bit than needed to drill a "pilot" hole. Then increase to the bigger bit. You can actually drill right through the screw that holds the lock catch if you want and it will fall right off. Just make sure you are centered and level.

If you are ordering anything from a pinball website anytime soon, get a couple of locks from them. Otherwise, you may get lucky and find one that will fit at a hardware store. If you want to pay $10, a locksmith shop will have them.

BTW, most of the time, the games come with 2 keys. Take one key from each game and put them on a chain and stash them in one of your bar drawers. I'll buy you a keychain for your birthday.