Some of my homemade locks

[Lauren]

I made this 2 pound brass padlock using the parts from a boron alloy Master lock shackle and a Best 6-pin cylinder. The trick is drilling out the holes for the shackle and cylinder. There was little margin for error. I can't find the keys though. I guess I'll just have to pick my own lock. This was a good exercise for lock making. The lock worked great.

[Lauren]

When Ace type locks were considered high-tech, I wanted to make a cylinder for a padlock that was of truly unique size and one of a kind. I never did finish it. I was very happy with the tolerances I was able to maintain.

[raimundo]

wow, lauren never ceases to impress.

since you can plow through that brass, I will tell you about a thing that I once saw around bogota col. way back in 1980, it was an insert that fitted into a padlock shackle, and defeated the bolt pinchers,

it was shaped to fit inside the shackle of the padlock, but it was slightly larger than the inside of the shackle, and twice as wide, it had a round channel on the edge that the shackle fit into so that the middle of this thing did fit inside the shackle, so that when in place it completely filled that area and had flanges over half the diameter of the shackle,
there was a small 45 degree angle cliped out of it to allow the edge of the padlock to pass when at the open shackle side when putting this thing on, and for whatever application it was used for, a bite was taken out to let the haspshackle fit in, this could be at the top or along one of the edges. someone local was plowing these out of solid brass. and they completely defeated the pincher.

i have since thought about how to make such a thing without the milling machine, and my best ideas involved a stack of fender washers, with some fitting interlernally inside the shackle and some really large ones on the top and bottom of the stack to create the flanges over the edges of the shackle, these would have to be ground off straight on the edge to fit the body of the padlock.
the thing could also be made from two stampings one for each side of the thing and riveted or welded to meet in the center, where the punch press would draw them together.

they could then be ground to fit the application where the haspshackle passes through.

the only slightly weak point would be that fourtyfive degree angle that has to be cut to allow the padlock body to pass when putting it on. this is not a big weakeness, as the insert would not allow the pincher to get very far on to the shackle, only the tips would touch it. pinchers do not work very well at the tips of the pinchers, they only work well when the barstock is deep in the jaws,

Of course a dedicated pincher could be ground down to fit but that would not be commonly available.

[gilduran]

Those are pretty cool. Is the padlock made the same as other padlocks, with the two ball bearings to lock the shackle in place? If so, how did you machine their cavity?

[Lauren]

Ray-Sounds like a cool idea. Make it.

The lock was drilled like a conventional American padlock. Depth control is important to prevent the ball bearing from falling out.