Master Lock high security?

[LocksportSouth]

Why is a plastic lock more pick secure than its brass counterpart?
Because plastic is underestimated! The tolerances for plastic mass produced parts are much tighter than the precision of usual (quality) locks. If the injection molding tool insert is produced to tight tolerances it will produce ten thousands of parts with this tolerance.
Tolerances of up to a micrometer can be reached without to big problems for pins.


However, the keyed emergency stop switches, which often serve the same purpose as a loto, are often just ridculiously easily pickable wafer locks. Nevertheless, they serve the purpose of stopping unintentional switching on machines.

That's why I wonder why nobody makes plastic locks. Plastic can be very strong and hard, maybe not as cut resistant as metal but fine for day to day purposes, massive amount of precision engineered parts can be made on a huge scale and the locks would be lighter, not prone to rust, non-magnetic and not be at risk or causing sparks etc.. All-plastic locks could serve a big niche, I reckon - everything from economical tool-box locks to hazardous environment lockout padlocks. Strange to have never seen one.

[billdeserthills]

I have some plastic locks in my shop, I haven't ever sold any, I think they have been hanging there for 20+ years
the maker is uhp, so it's not like they are high quality...

[Jacob Morgan]

Why is a plastic lock more pick secure than its brass counterpart?
Because plastic is underestimated! The tolerances for plastic mass produced parts are much tighter than the precision of usual (quality) locks.

The lock in question is not secure because plastic in involved, only the outer shell is plastic. One of these locks were issued to me where I currently work, although I'm only rarely involved in lock out / tag out there. The reason they are plastic is to make them weak so that people don't take them home, use them on their locker, etc. A person could tear through the plastic shell without much work. No one is going to pilfer one to use outside of work. A problem years ago would be that safety would purchase a box of locks and pass them out and they would all be gone a month later.

The reason for the actually pretty good lock part of it is (my guess) to prevent cross-keying. There might be a dozen maintenance workers who are working on a machine, maybe for days at a time. Each one of them is supposed to put a lock on each lockout point, or at least onto a lockout box that holds the keys to the lockout locks. Each worker is supposed to have their name on each of their locks, but the locks might get greasy and such and the names hard to read. If someone accidentally opened a lock with the wrong key it could end in a fatality. A lock with a lot of pins and reasonable tolerances makes sense. I used to work in a plant that easily had 100+ mechanics and electricians and each one might have half a dozen locks or more. Plus contractors would come in and use their own locks. There could be a thousand locks under one roof. Accidental cross keying with a mass-market four pin padlock could happen and the results could be bad--very serious machinery starting up when someone is still working on it does not end well. I would not be that concerned about someone in a plant picking such a lock, but I suppose anything is possible. Maybe Master Lock put in the good pins to avoid some maintenance man showing off his lock picking skills being blamed on cross keying should an accident occur.

[Lunna200]

Master locks are almost all easily pickable, except maybe for their Proseries and safety lockout padlocks. Some are better than others, but a lock like the No. 5 is generally the cheapest and lowest quality thing they make. Don´t rely on them for high security in general.

[smithjacknew]

I think you need to try some better quality and more secure padlock next time.