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by jjclarkson 4891 days ago
This design is a good visual for why lock bumping is fairly easy on most residential locks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_bumping

1 comments

On residential locks the tolerances on each pin's traveling cylinder are loose enough to allow you to apply shearing force on the pin by holding the lock tight (as if trying to open it) and quickly bump each pin up so they land on the salient edge of the entire cylinder block and avoid dropping back into a locking position.
Wikipedia disagrees with you, albeit without a citation:

"High-quality locks may be more vulnerable to bumping unless they employ specific countermeasures. More precise manufacturing tolerances within the cylinder make bumping easier because the mechanical tolerances of the lock are smaller, which means there is less loss of force in other directions and mostly pins move more freely and smoothly. Locks made of hardened steel are more vulnerable because they are less prone to damage during the bumping process that might cause a cheaper lock to jam."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_bumping