Tag: lockpicking

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What’s on in Tog in December

Lock Picking: Break the bonds of true love, learn to open one or many of the padlocks we harvest from the Halfpenny Bridge. Lock picking nights are on every second Monday, we are meeting on the 10th December at 7pm, taking a rest over Christmas, and will be back in 2019. Basic lock picking sets are available for purchase at the bargain price of 16 euro.

Craft Night: Every other Wednesday, the 12th December at 7pm. Show that irritating / inspirational woman on telly how to really craft Christmas. Or knit, sew, crochet, cut-fold-glue-solder to your heart’s content. We have sewing machines. We also have laser cutting and CNC routing expertise. We may soon have a 3D printer.

Electronics and Micro Controller Night: Runs every non-lock-picking Monday, the 3rd and 17th December at 7pm. For all levels: Arduinos, Raspberry Pis and Intel Galileos, try our introduction to electronics worksheet. Some basic electronics kits available for sale. Bring your own laptop or notebook computer.

Open Social: This month the Open Social will be on Saturday 15th December. Join us for an evening of conversation and pizza. Conor has promised games.

Coding: Runs on the same Mondays as lock picking, the 10th December at 7pm. Come down and work on a project or help others with theirs. Laptop of your own pretty much essential, and bring your own side project.

The Science Fiction Book Club won’t meet in December; on the last Wednesday we will be too scattered over the surface of the planet to rendezvous at Tog, especially since we STILL don’t have access to flying cars, faster-than-light travel or teleportation. We might be reading about one or other or all three, though. We will be taking two months to read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. See you back here Wednesday 30th January 2019.

Wikipedia Editing: No meeting in December.

Finish-a-Thon: we are running an all-day hackathon on Saturday 15th December. Instead of starting yet another world-changing project, finish one of those you’ve had lying around waiting for, well, an event like this. The world will thank you. Breakfast will be provided.

48 Hr Filmmaking Challenge: Writers, directors, actors, DOPs, all filmmaking enthausists are welcome to join us and get yourself on a team for the 48hr filmmaking challenge taking place on the 7-9th December. This is a great opportunity if you want to try out filmmaking and don’t know where to start. All skill levels welcome. We will meet and form teams on Thursday 6th and Teams will get together over the weekend and shoot. THERE WILL BE A SUGGESTED DONATION TO TOG OF €5 PER PERSON TO COVER THE COST OF SCREENING (OR WHATEVER YOU CAN AFFORD). Event page on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/events/351903748909360/

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What’s on in Tog in November: Too Many Events to list in a Header…

November

from Tog’s vast duck collection

This is what we will be up to in November:

Lock Picking: Our lock picking get togethers are on every second Monday, the 12th and 26th November at 7pm. We provide the locks, the tools, and the know-how. Basic lock picking sets are available for purchase.

Craft Night, CAD Night: Runs on alternate Wednesdays, the 7th and 21st November at 7pm. Knitting? Crochet? Embroidery? Getting ready for Christmas? We offer sewing machines, glue guns, expertise and encouragement. We also cover computer-based ‘crafting’ like CAD/CAM software, 3D printing, laser cutting and CNC routing.

Electronics and Micro Controller Night: Runs every non-lock-picking Monday, the 5th and 19th November at 7pm. Arduinos, Raspberry Pis and Intel Galileos are just some of the things you can work on down here, or try our introductions to electronics worksheet. You should bring your own laptop or notebook computer.

Open Social: This month the Open Social will be on Saturday the 24th November at 7pm. Join us for an evening of conversations and games.

Coding: Runs on the same Mondays as lock picking, the 12th and 26th November at 7pm. Come down and work on a project or help others with theirs. Laptop of your own pretty much essential, and bring your own project.

The Science Fiction Book Club will meet on Wednesday 28th November. We haven’t decided on November’s book yet (suggestions, anybody?). But there will be some sort of cake.

Wikipedia Editing: Runs on Wednesday 28th November at 7pm. Ever wondered how to get started editing Wikipedia? Come along and will get you adding to the world’s largest open collaborative knowledge project. All are welcome, no editing experience is necessary and the event is free, just turn up with a laptop to start editing.

Dublin Raspberry Pi Jam: We are hosting the Second Dublin Raspberry Pi Jam on Saturday November 3rd at 12.30 pm. A day where people of all abilities come together to work on or get help on Raspberry Pi projects. For more information and tickets visit https://ti.to/dublin-raspberry-pi-jam/2nd-pi-jam

** Tickets for this event are sold out, but members can still come **

Science Week Talks: Thursday 15th November – A night of short talks on a range of topics with YES (Young Engineers Society). https://www.tog.ie/2018/11/science-week-lightning-talks/

Science Week Family Day in DCC: Family fun day, Saturday 17th November 11:30-17:00. We hope to have a stand with usual demos. https://www.tog.ie/2018/11/dublin-science-week-family-open-day/

OpenStreetMap Mapathon: planned for Saturday 24th November. https://www.tog.ie/2018/10/openstreetmap-meetup-and-mapillary-workshop/

Game Night: **Members only

** – board games, card games, RPGs, a whole lot of sinister sounding acronyms, possibly some online gaming. Scheduled for Saturday 3rd November. With the expected participation of Board Games Ireland.

Make your own Films! Kino Kabaret. A weekend filmmaking hackathon. Weekend 9th-11th November https://www.tog.ie/2018/10/kino-kabaret-filmmaking-hackathon-in-tog/

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What’s on in TOG in October: lock picking, crafting, coding, Science Fiction book club, Wikipedia editing

3D printing machine printing bits for a 3D printing machine

October

A summary of what’s happening in Tog this October:

Lock Picking: We have a huge variety of padlocks liberated from the Halfpenny Bridge, we’ll show you how to open them. We also have more esoteric locks, handcuffs, practice locks, and the tools and know-how to pick them.

Workshops on Mondays, the 1st, 15th and 29th October, starting at 7pm.

Coding: Come into Tog and work on a project, or help others with theirs. Laptop of your own pretty much essential, and bring your own project. We provide the space and the wifi, and some expertise.

Runs on Mondays, the 1st, 15th and 29th October at 7pm.

Craft Night: Ranges from knitting, sewing (we have machines), crochet, and embroidery to 3D printing and laser cutting. Bring along a project, work on something you know, or learn a new skill.

Runs on Wednesdays, the 3rd, 17th and 31st October at 7pm.

Electronics and Micro Controller Night: Learn how to make Arduinos, Raspberry Pis and Intel Galileos do cool and interesting things, or try our introductions to electronics worksheet. We don’t have spare laptops, so bring your own.

Runs on Mondays, the 8th and 22nd October at 7pm.

The Science Fiction Book Club meets on the last Wednesday of each month, the next one is the 31st October. This month’s classic is Neuromancer by William Gibson. There is usually cake, and not entirely coincidentally Science Fiction Bookclub is on the same night as…

Wikipedia Editing: On the 31st October at 7pm, you can learn how to add your knowledge to the world’s largest open collaborative knowledge project, by becoming a Wikipedia editor. Everyone welcome and no prior experience is necessary. There is pizza, to go with the cake.

Open Social: This month, the open social is on Saturday 20th October at 7pm. Pizza, beer, conversation, games, starts early evening and, like the best parties, doesn’t end until the last person leaves.

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Love Locks on Ha’penny Bridge

IMG_20150220_080018_800x600The TOG Lockpicking Group were in the press a few times over the last few weeks. Mainly over the Love Locks removal from the Ha’penny Bridge. At first we got some mixed responses from family members and colleagues but eventually we got them to see us as helping the bridge and not destroyers of love!

If you missed any of the coverage, a TOG member running the @LoveLockNoMore account documented the adventure.

It all started with a quick visit to the bridge to remove 8.7KG of locks:

Then of course Broadsheet.ie pick up on it:

Then the newspapers picked up on it:

Irish Examiner

The Sunday Times

The Hearld

The Irish Sun

We even managed to squeeze in a bit of run with a quiz :

Even getting into the Social Media Column in the Irish Examiner:

And what is the best result of it all? The Dublin City Council visited the bridge with their cutting tools, and cleared the bridge! I job well done if I do say so myself 🙂

 

Update On 98FM talking to Ray Foley from 1:10:25

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RTÉ Documentary on Tog Lock Pickers

IMG_0094
Ronan Kelly of RTÉ’s Curious Ear featured the Lock Picking group on RTÉ Radio 1:

Every other Tuesday, the group meets to pick locks. They have a table full of, mostly, padlocks and they use their picking tools to try to open those padlocks.Some of the padlocks are simple three pin ones, while others are the more challenging five-pin ones with extra ‘security’ pins.

Some of the locks have names and initials on them. These are locks that were put on the Ha’penny Bridge in Dublin by couples eager to display their lasting love.

You can listen to the full 12 minute feature on RTÉ’s website.

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Making Emergency Keys

copy-key-with-coke-can_w240

As part of our bi-weekly lockpicking group we regularly test the security of locks. At next weeks meet we will be making our own keys. Emergency keys are handy if you lose, or bend your existing key. They can be made from proper manufactured key blanks, but they can also be made from old plastic bottles, or coke cans

Blank key

There are various techniques for actually cutting the teeth into the key, for plastic and can keys; a scissors is all that is needed, for proper key blanks a needle file or dremel is best

The usual recommendation is to learn using unused locks as badly made keys can jam or damage locks. The aim of the night will be to learn key cutting using the scissors method, working up to cutting a double sided emergency key for a car. Extra bonus points for those who arrive with a pre-made key for my car made from the photo above! No need to book nor bring anything, just have a look at the 3 videos above and drop by on Tuesday May 7th at 7.30pm.