American U.S. brass lock

[Black85vette]

Found this brass lock at an antique store without a key for $2.50. I always like a low cost bargain. I did not shoot a before picture where the brass was really tarnished and dark. So this photo is after some clean up. It turned out to be more of a challenge than I had planned. It was pretty difficult to pick and took quite a few attempts to figure out what was going on. After getting it open I searched online and couldn't find anything about taking it apart but after some looking around I found that the pressed in part under the shackle could be driven out with a punch then the core and other pressed in piece could be removed as well. That allowed me to gut the core and see what was up. I found serrated key pins, 3 serrated spool drivers and 2 serrated drivers. It was more difficult than anything else I have run into but enjoyed the challenge.

[GWiens2001]

The old-school pins in the American padlocks were pretty good at giving a challenge until you learned to listen to the clicks. It took me a while to get the hang of them.

Here is a thread on taking apart that style of padlock that I wrote a couple years ago.

Gordon

[Black85vette]

Gordon;

I should have known you would have a photo tutorial! Yes, that is exactly what I went through and the same solution. BTW; when doing work like this I hold the padlock in my large metal vise and sandwich the lock between two pieces of wood or hardboard to prevent damage but still get it to stay put during the hammering. Sometimes I will put a support under the piece to keep it from sliding down. Were you and I trained in the GABH method??? (Get A Bigger Hammer) I was pretty much shocked to find it was entirely friction fit. The spools were different than I have run into before. They produced very little counter rotation. It was not enough to let off the tension tool. I had to manually rotate the cylinder until the spool set properly. Anyway, it turned out to be an interesting lock for the cheap price.

Thanks.

[GWiens2001]

Like yours, mine came without a key. Now it has one.

The spoorated pins (spool with serrated ends) are tricky at first, but paired with the serrated driver pins it is even harder to pick it by feel. There is definitely a feel element to picking them. What I finally learned is that it is easier to pick them by sound. If you listen, there is a difference in sound between a serrated set and a genuine set. And the deeper cut driver pins are also serrated, so if you overset them, you will still get the click sound.

Gordon