We've had a batch of new keys cut for work, where we have a door between the private & public areas which all staff need access to. The new keys looked perfectly fine with the teeth lined up, but if you inverted the new & old keys in relation to eachother you soon noticed they'd all been cut a whole millimeter shorter along the whole length! All we can assume is that the key used to originate the cuts had been pushed too deeply into the tracer, or the prace point itself was misaligned. Caused some headscratching for a while, too!
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
That's not even our brand! Stop trying to return it!
Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
-
Quoth Mytical View PostMaking a copy of a non working copy really doesn't work that well. If the thing you are copying is bad/wrong..then whatever comes out is going to be bad/wrong. For instance..
You what copies of a flyer that says "First house on the left.", but the flyer you bring in says "Last house on right" when you copy it ..it is not going to magically say "First house on the left."
Ah, moon logic! Accept no substitutes- They say nothing good happens at 2AM, they're right, I happen at 2AM.
Comment
-
Quoth Mr Hero View PostCall the locksmith!
I also wanted to reply to this thread with "Are you the Keymaster?"PWNADE(TM) - Serve up a glass today! | PWNZER - An act of pwnage so awesome, it's like the victim got hit by a tank.
There are only Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because I choose to walk!
Comment
-
Quoth Merriweather View PostHad to be a scammer wanting a free key (possibly to someone else's place). I mean, seriously, who could not understand that if a copy of a key doesn't work, it's a bad copy, and if you copy the bad copy, you just get yet another bad copy. Someone with the IQ of a goldfish could get that. And speaking of IQ's, I think mine went down a couple of points just reading about that guy.Human Resources - the adult version of "I'm telling Mom." - Agent Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo (NCIS)
Comment
-
Quoth ShadowTiger View PostThat's actually pretty easy to do. Not all blanks are the same, apparently. I've had some Schlage keys that match an SC1, but are just an eighth of an inch too long, meaning my SC1 would have to have its shoulder shaved off a little. It happens anyway but it's nerve-wracking to do, because you have absolutely no leeway in the lock. It's either in all the way and it'll work, or it's in 98.5% of the way and it won't turn.
Quoth Stryker One View PostJust curious. Is there a spec to how far off a key can be and still work? How many times can you make a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy... before it just won't work?"Man, having a conversation with you is like walking through a salvador dali painting." - Mac Hall
Comment
-
Quoth ShadowTiger View PostSo I cut keys at a slightly lesserly (It's a word now, nyahaha!) known Hardware store. We actually have our own brand of almost all of the blanks. It's very obvious when you look at a key and see whether or not it was made in my store or at some other store. Very obvious. (snippety)
Customer: "This key doesn't work! Make me a new one!"
Hardware Guy: *Looks at it* "Hm. Doesn't look like one of the ones I made."
We are NOT to copy a key onto a blank that the customer brings in themselves. Period. Liability issues.
(OK, one exception. NY-area Pepsi distributors used Mercedes-Benz 1117 trucks whose key blanks were only available from Börkey (#1477), and were nickel-plated steel. We cut them, but very slowly, and only on one particular machine. Silca also made a (nickel-plated brass) key for these locks (#CR4R) but they didn't export them to the USA. I finally called their local rep and asked them why not, given the popularity of these trucks here; he said he hadn't even known there was anything using them in the USA. Next catalog they printed, guess what showed up.)
Quoth Stryker One View PostJust curious. Is there a spec to how far off a key can be and still work? How many times can you make a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy... before it just won't work?
Quoth Mytical View PostMaking a copy of a non working copy really doesn't work that well. If the thing you are copying is bad/wrong..then whatever comes out is going to be bad/wrong. "
Quoth underemployeed View PostWell, I have copies of copies that work, but it is true that the more original the key is the better it will work, especially since I have had a few people copy keys and mess them up where you have to partially insert the key to get it to work. I guess I can understand the make the key thing if your a locksmith that had the tools to figure out what the "code" is and recut a perfect blank, but im pretty sure most hardware stores only have the machine that traces the original
If you have to partially insert a key for it to work, then either the spacing is messed up (oriignal key wasn't inserted far enough into the jaw, so the cuts are too close to the tip) or the depths are messed up (cut too deep, so you pull the key back out a smidgen and the pins ride up on the slope of the cuts, raising them to the shear line).
Quoth ShadowTiger View PostI've had some Schlage keys that match an SC1, but are just an eighth of an inch too long, meaning my SC1 would have to have its shoulder shaved off a little. It happens anyway but it's nerve-wracking to do, because you have absolutely no leeway in the lock. It's either in all the way and it'll work, or it's in 98.5% of the way and it won't turn.
I'm constantly afraid of these little unexpected varieties.
Comment
-
Quoth Shalom View PostWe didn't like to do that either. The only time I would do it was if it was a blank that I didn't have and couldn't get, and there were very damn few of those. Even then, I'd check it on the magnet first, and if it stuck, you're out of luck. We didn't touch steel blanks, as they'd wreck our cutters: brass, nickel-silver or aluminum only, thank you.Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.
Comment
-
Why not just use an SC4 then? Easier to shorten a 6-pin blank than lengthen a 5-pin blank.
I could sometimes make a working key from a non-working one, but you had to let me know in advance. If a key was very worn down, I could shim it up with a couple folds of paper under it, giving me an extra 0.005" or so; if it was cut too high (you can see impression marks on the cuts), I could leave the copy on the wire brush a few extra seconds and take it down by 0.005". Or if it was really messed up, I could crank up the HPC1200 and originate one from scratch. But I couldn't just slap it in the duplicator and copy it as is, unless you wanted a non-working key for some reason.SC: "Are you new or something?"
Me: "Yes. Your planet is very backwards I hope you realize."
Comment
Comment