Which cutter?

[Magic]

I am just gearing up to start trading, having recently completed a course, and am thinking to buy a key cutting machine. Whilst I don't anticipate a need for many cylinder or mortice type keys, I do however, expect to be cutting quite a lot of car keys. My question is: whats the best equipment for cutting car keys? (U.K. market).

[Shrub]

Normal cylinder cutters cut car keys, tibbe cutters cut tibbe keys and laser cutters cut laser keys,

They are all pretty much the same with price and little features being the deciding factor for most,

To cut car keys you will need all 3 machines,

Who is your supplier? as that can dictate what machines you can get,

It may be an idea now you will be asking such things to change your area from 'over here by the keyboard' to your county,

[Magic]

Thank-you for the prompt reply, Shrub. So far, I have only done business with SKS. Are you able to reccommend any specific machines ?

[Shrub]

Well it does depend on your budget,

If its tight the Tempest will do you for normal keys right now with somthing like the Cyclone plus being a lot better and able to cut abloy and double bitted keys with no extra carriage if you get some more money,

Basically you can look through the catalogue and see what works for you,

The Saratoga cuts tibbe as well as normal keys,

A laser machine will be £1000 upwards,

If you want to cut to code you are talking big money,

Personally i dont like semi automatic machines and prefer to cut them by hand and when impressioning a few locks at once can be a time saver if used with depth and space keys,

The best thing to do is look through and see what machines you think will suit your purpose and then get back to us with your ideas and we can either say yes or suggest somthing else,

If doing car keys you should then also look into a chip copyier and maybe a programmer, with those two and careful buying of the right items you may get the two for around the £5k mark,

[Magic]

I was thinking to get a triax-e and AD100. I really didn't want to spend so much but the machines don't have much information about what marques they will or will not cope with. I have seen no mention of BMW, Bentley, Porsche or Rolls-Royce.

[Shrub]

Well i dont know your budget but i wouldnt go out and spend £9k on a cut to code laser machine having never done it before,

The AD100 is good but there are cheaper ones just as good,

[Raccoon]

I'm looking at buying the Kaba/Ilco Universal II for $1675 at discountkeymachines.com. This is mainly because I have over 225 keys I need to cut for a school which I'm implimenting a master keying system at. The next machine up would be the ITL 950c for around $3200, which essentially spits keys out at you.

Both (i hope) are capable of automotive keys, but the ITL is especially geared toward it with a bundle of accessories and all codes programmed in at the touch of a keypad. These are code cutting machines, and are quite good at what they do.

What I'm looking for is a nice duplicator to go along with my code cutter. I'm also curious who supplies a complete range of decoders and depth-spacer keys. I'm having trouble finding decoders for more than 5 or 6 brands, while there should be closer to 30. I have no idea who supplies depth-spacer keys, I don't see them anywhere except eBay.

PS. Shrub, are you saying you use a duplicator and depth-spacer keys? Or is there some mid-range machine that falls between the class of duplicator and code cutter?

[Shrub]

I use a duplicator and depth keys as i dont need to cut to cod much,

I can get any key cut to any code or space, what you should do is ask your key supplier if they cut keys, they will most probably say yes, simply order a set of keys for each lock you want cut at the various heights,

[Raccoon]

Well, if that's the case, I can cut my own depth-spacer keys, but I was hoping for an official set from Ilco so I can make sure my machine is calibrated aswell.

What about decoders?

[Shrub]

Well to use a decoder you have the original key so i would use that in the duplication machine,

I dont get much if any work to cut to code, the only times i do it is for lever locks that i have rekeyed so they all work off one key, the rest is done with impressioning,

You can get the official depths from various places and then you would simply measure them whilst making them so you know youve got the right sizing,

If you have some official pin sets you can put them in aplug and file a key up until they are the correct heights, that way youve got an accurite depth key,