impressioning

[AJD15]

hi guys;
i am in need of help impressioning. let me date back a litle. I took the belsaw locksmith course back in 1981. due to having a family I was un able to get any practical experience, all the lock shops wanted you to work in shop for free while you learn. I understood this but due to having a growing family I couldn't afford this. 2 jobs plus was all I could handle, you all know this so on with my problem. I need all the help I can On impressioning. I have smoked,filed, and thin bladed the blank but still am un able to get a key that works right. I go to the junk yard to practice opening cars and removing ignitions. impressioning still has me stumped. it is now a hobby .

any help
thanks
tony

[The Lock Artist]

Have you read this?

[lock2006]

Impressioning as you know is not easy task it take time and you can easy get frustated
but if you have patience you can get it done
i have some info here maybe this can help you

There are three commonly used methods for making the marks. They are called wiggling, tapping, and pulling. In each of the methods, the blank is inserted in the keyway, then turned hard to bind the pins. Usually turning pressure is applied in the direction you want the lock to open, but you can try both directions to see which leaves better marks. It is important to make sure that the blank is evenly seated on the bottom of the keyway before applying turning pressure. If you are holding it tilted, some of the pins will already be pushed up and won't leave any marks.
When impressioning, you will need something to hold the blank because of the repeated hard turning tension used
The rule for filing marks is simple. If you see a mark, you file there - if not, you don't except when using the pull-out method in which case if you see a mark, you file where the pins are see . Whatever you do, don't be tempted to guess ,if you're not sure if you have a mark or not, don't file there. Work on making and seeing the marks first.

[Squelchtone]

From what I learned at LockCon which was hosted at Lockmasters this year, forget all the 1970's smoking and thinning of blanks, no need to bother. The only thing that was stressed to me (thanks for dougfarre and jgor), which helped me impression my first lock ever, on the first try (Schlage SC1 in under 15 minutes from blank to smooth working key) was to have a clean flat surface on the blank (and to pre mark the blank where the pins are by using a 0 bitted blank. I also bought the $65 dollar #4 medium Pippin file, which makes the correct shaped valleys, and helps a lot. It takes longer to impression than a #2, but I'm not at the point of making half cuts or full cuts in 1 swipe of the file. If there is a key gauge or depth and space keys available for your keyway, use them to see how you're doing so you do not file too deep. To go back to what I said about starting with a clean surface on the uncut blank, a couple reams of the Pippin file gave me a nice flat even surface to start with and cut down on some of the gloss. I had the modified vice grip to hold the blank, I wonder if it would have been easier to have one of those fancy Framon handles or the one A1 sells.

For any of you who have not tried impressioning, at first I thought it was going to be one of those mundane locksmith chores, but it turned out to be really fun and exciting, so I encourage everyone to try. =) AJD15, keep trying and have fun with it, maybe go back to the basics and impression a KW1 Kwikset, then a Schlage SC1, then a Master padlock, then move onto something fancy like a car lock or institutional Corbin Russwin 6 pin.

Squelchtone

[raimundo]

reading squelchys post I got an idea,
there are various tools for gripping the blank some of the are purpose made, I still use the four inch petersen/irving vice grip,
but I often put the edge of the keybow into the wire cutter at the back of the bow, and clamp hard cutting into that edge.

The idea is to make it so the grip will not move or rotate in the vice grip, Impressioning gets a little forceful sometimes and it doesn't help if the key bow is turning and smearing in the vice grip

a dedicated too with maybe 6 points a millimeter or more in height of hardened steel and integral to the jaw of the thing made to just force those points into the brass keybow, would be excellent, the points should not be too close together, but spread over the width and length of the key bow.

with these divots forced into the keybow you would have a very solid grip on the key currently pliers have cross cut lines on them for gripping nuts and things, but an impresioning tool needs a different treadmark

keys that have been impressioned using one of those impressioning handles often have a circular scar where a flat screw has force into the metal, I have never used one but forcing that screw in must take a lot of force and leverage. perhaps two or three 'set screws with the pointed tips would be a better idea. three of them in a triangle over the width of the keybow would make it secure.

You can often tell if a key has been impressioned, the first clue is that the key has none of the usual 'teeth' those little tips between the pin positions, and often there will be marks on the keybow. I can also tell if a key was impressioned by me, by looking for the very obvious mark of setting the wire cutter of the four inch vice grip into the edge of the keybow,

I use four inch vice grips because the larger the tool, more weight, and that reduces your feel for how hard things are being forced.

anyway thats what works for me.

[sandplum]

Excellent advice, Squelchtone, except maybe this part:

AJD15, keep trying and have fun with it, maybe go back to the basics and impression a KW1 Kwikset

I'm afraid that someone trying to impression a factory pinned Kwikset will become quickly discouraged. Think about the pins.

My advice? Try a simple furniture wafer lock with a Y11 key. An easy confidence builder!

[raimundo]

about that post of mine above, I dissavow those typos, where the=them and too=tool,
I blame the internet for causeing them, I think my fingers did hit that key, but the bitsandbyted got tumbled.