impressioning key blanks from cylinders

[brianhopper8]

hello iam a newby to all this , iam a worker for a maintenance company.
and was looking into furthering my skills by learining more about locks,
could any one help me, when impressioning a lock ?
the marks on the key caused by waggling are they on the front or side of the blade of the key. i havnt attempted this yet as iam finding out if it is a difficult skill to master before attempting this.
also i heard burning a candle under the brass blank to cause suit which would help in the making of marks.
thanx you guys for any help newby

[freakparade3]

viewtopic.php?t=1396

viewtopic.php?t=27902

These two links should help you out alot. Any other questions just ask.

[Beyond]

I'd learn to impression via the blade method first. Many places you're called to impression at won't allow burning of any kind. For example, I had to impression a few locks in a walk in humidor today and they made it very clear on the door that you could not light up inside or near the humidor.

Worst case scenario, knowing the blade method can bail you out of situations like these.

[freakparade3]

Using a UV pen and a black light is also an excellent method.

[gstrendkill]

Using a UV pen and a black light is also an excellent method.

how so?

like what do u mean?

[freakparade3]

Cover the key blank with the ink from a UV pen. Insert into the lock and mark as usual. When you hold the blank under a blacklight the marks where you need to file are very plainly visible.

[guest5999]

or if you don't have access to a uv pen/blacklight, a sharpie works well too once you get the eye for it. especially a good dark blue. not black so it won't be confused with grit but still dark enough to contrast marks.

[kg4boj]

I usually blade my keys at first attempt on wafer locks, auto locks etc. The primary reason I blade my blanks is that it is a shortcut and allows me to impression with the least amount of force on the wafers, reducing the possibility of bending or breaking one, especially on sidebar locks, this also reduces the stress on the blank meaning you need only use one or two keys to impression the lock instead of copying the cuts manually from one key to another to continue impressioning.... unless you like broken key extractions.

Pin tumbler locks are another story, I file them straight across and look for the little shiny spot the pin makes on the blank. This method has worked very well for me, if I have the time and some stupid door lock I cant pick for whatever reason, and cannot drill, I do this, even to best IC locks.

Not being able to "light up" can often be the least of your concerns, I work (part time on my holidays) for a fireworks company who lost the keys to everything in their "magazine" or fireworks storage place, (basically a nondescript 50' trailer in the middle of a cow pasture a mile back from a rural road), Guess what, that place is a mess, powder everywhere etc flammable solvents in the air. They cannot allow even power tools to operate in the enviroment, that rules out using my cordless dremel to cut off the high security padlock on the inner security cage. Fortunately all the other locks were stupid Y11 drawer camlocks which were easily impressioned and defeated, but what if they were ALL say a Y6 keyway.
Am I the only one that has trouble impressioning them and AB1 keyways?

[gstrendkill]

Cover the key blank with the ink from a UV pen. Insert into the lock and mark as usual. When you hold the blank under a blacklight the marks where you need to file are very plainly visible.

or if you don't have access to a uv pen/blacklight, a sharpie works well too once you get the eye for it. especially a good dark blue. not black so it won't be confused with grit but still dark enough to contrast marks.

ohhh thats really cool. i see what your saying now