FICHET F3D

[greyman]

Is that fifty euros to copy a key, or to replace a lost one with a creditcard ?
The high price will keep this one out of the hands of pickers until they start showing up remodeling dumpsters.

Probably for key copy, although that sounds a bit too cheap for fichet!

Further news: I thought I'd try to get some more quotes for F3D. I managed to get one from a locksmith in LeHavre, but the price was outrageous: 428 euros including tax for 1 cylinder and 4 keys. The guy did mention that there are 5 different cylinder types for Fichet F3D and he asked what type of door it's for and the "star rating" (A2P). I guess Fichet has released the F3D with different levels of protection (eg drill resistance, etc), but I am guessing. Next year I'll try to get some competition happening on these quotes and see what I can get. It's a pity the euro is now worth almost 1 pound (GBP) - that won't help me to find a bargain!

[barbarian]

Has anyone tried Ebay France for used locks ? I just looked and they have a dozen or so Fichet locks there. They have one of those end bitted ones and one of the H profiles. They have some serious looking dimple locks there also, but I didn't see an F3D there.

I just searched "Fichet". You could also search "Serrure".

[Baloopaloop]

Man I wish I knew how to read french That looked really interesting. Well that's what I get for living in the us.

[quintaux]

It mentions that the lock has more than 11 million possible combinations.

15^6=11390625
(14^6=7529536 and 16^6=16777216)

15=5x3
5 angular position and 3 radial position
or
3 angular position and 5 radial position ?

http://www.fichet-pointfort.fr/content/ ... 009379.pdf
15=5x3
5 angular position and 3 radial position

[mh]

six garnitures rotatives en deux dimensions couplees à des pignons?!

Cheers
mh

[mh]

5 angular position and 3 radial position

I also now think that from the 3rd patent (e.g. EP1702125) it looks like there are 3 possible lateral positions (left, middle, right), that can be checked by the moveable ratchet and / or the gear wheels' shapes properly overlapping;
and the 1st patent (e.g. WO03050369) indicates 5 (or 6?) possible angular positions.

I did finally acquire one lock and now plan to take it apart and write my 2nd lock paper about that

Cheers
mh

[quintaux]

http://cgi.ebay.fr/cylindre-fichet-haut ... 2a0b2a5b82

[SnowyBoy]

Thought we were in for a breakdown and some nice pics

[dls]

I have somewhere in the region of 200 fichet locks most are safe locks like monopoles and cobras as i call them and a good few atm barrels i could post a few breakdown pics but there are so many parts up to 100 parts per lock they are so overcomplicated for what they do however they are all fairly secure when compared to other safe locks which do a similar job.
One of the biggest problems with these locks is the tight tolerances and large keyways to allow dirt in and the monopole keys which are very easily damaged and worn especially if held on a large bunch of keys, the f3d looks to me to be a much simpler key than the usual fichet style it has no bits with sharp points sticking out to break or wear but i can still see it suffering from abuse quite badly. the other thing is from the pics it looks easy enough to duplicate by casting or simply a file if you knew enough about them.

[greyman]

What's a cobra? That's not a Fichet model I have heard of. Can you post a picture?

Re: comment about filing a key for the F3D - I think that'd be very hard.

[dls]

Its what i call them its used on the old cobra safe the barrel is about 250mm long and uses a very small pump key there is a set of gears on the back to operate the boltwork typical fichet complexity

Last month i made a brass hinge for my laptop it took about 2 hours but worked fine, i have been filing bits like that for over 25 years now for everything and regularly have to make parts by hand for obsolete locks and safes. Making small complex things like these keep me sane like the way some people are addicted to suduko.

[SnowyBoy]

PICS?

[dls]

Of the hinge or the locks

[dls]

Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached.
ah crap

[chriswingate]

Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached.
ah crap

Upload your picture to photobucket or another external service like that, then link the photo in the boxes that appear when you hit the "Img" button, then it will show.