Unlock 4 digit cable lock

My brother's friend found my 6ft On Guard cable lock and promptly reset the combination to something he was too lazy to remember. so I cam up with this method to find the lost combination and save the world (my world)
This is the semi-hard way. it's not the exhaustion method (trying every possibility) but it takes a little brain power and reasoning.
I know there's a lot of stuff on line about how to unlock a cable lock but these methods only work for the drug-store variety of locks that have low tolerances and a lot of wiggle room. (i'll explain why later) This one works on the nicer kind. the ones that have half inch braided cables and much tighter tolerances.

Footnotes:
Don't try to use this to steal a bike. It won't work. you can't put enough tension in the system to feel the shape of the disc using your muscles while rotating the tumblers. If that's your reason for being here, kindly piss off.

This is the lock i trust to keep my Felt safe. i lock it and it's mavic wheels to a bike rack at a community college. it's not too shabby. 

Step 1 Understand what's inside

inside there are four rotating plates with a notch the shackle to slide through. When you scramble the lock, the plates slide to block the shackle from coming out.

Comments

[amitchell13]

YES! Thank you!! I had one of these locks that I put on a year ago and had since lost the combination! Thanks to YOUR tips, I just got it back open! :D

[vkarthikeyan85]

Wow! Thank you so much :-)
I just bought a lock from walmart which wouldn't open with its factory default passcode, but now unlocked it with this instructions.

[shadnlyd]

ding! ding! ding! +1 for use of the word "onomotopeia";