Make A ‘Shim Tool’ From A Soda Can To Open Locked Padlocks

There are many emergency and survival scenarios where you may need to get past a locked padlock, but you don’t have the key. To be honest, there are also many non-emergency times you may want to open a locked padlock too. For example, I once lost the key to the padlock that secures one of our sheds. It wasn’t an emergency, but I wanted to get in without damaging the door of the frame.

There are obviously ways around smaller padlocks – smashing/hacksawing them etc, but in an SHTF scenario, these can attract unwanted attention and might not be successful on larger padlocks anyway. Below is an excellent way to hack a soda can to make a tool that can be used to pop open a locked padlock. The video below shows how to make the shim tool and how to open the two most common types of padlocks using it.

How to Open a Padlock with a Coke Can

This technique of opening padlocks has been around online for years. It is not new knowledge, but if you are now concerned about the security of gates and buildings you have padlocked, read on, and find out how to make your padlocks shim proof so they cannot be opened with the above method in the video.

How To Secure A Padlock With A Soda Can (To make it shim-proof)

When we posted the video above showing how to make a shim from a soda/beer can, LOTs of people complained… They said we were showing folks how to access and steal their goods. With this in mind, I searched around to see if there was a method to make padlocks shim-proof. Guess what? There is! And it uses soda/beer cans too.

In a similar way to the original – where you make a small tool (shim) out of the can to pop open the padlock, this time you are making a small insert tool from a can which when used correctly, will stop a shim from working and being able to open the padlock. There we go, the balance of power has been restored!

By the way  – you can use any beer or soda can!