Got metal working skills and tools --Cash 4 U.

[mh]

I am more interested in making cut aways then grinding picks. Never made a cutaway yet. Any guides on making them? If i get good i wouldent mind selling some cutaways...

There's lots of such guides in lp101.
Some are here: viewtopic.php?t=13478

mh

[Wolfman]

I am more interested in making cut aways then grinding picks. Never made a cutaway yet. Any guides on making them? If i get good i wouldent mind selling some cutaways...

There's lots of such guides in lp101.
Some are here: viewtopic.php?t=13478

mh

Much appreciated! Thanks

[NKT]

The problem with the cutaways I made were twofold.

Without a milling machine, they don't always look the best, they take ages, and it's just not worth it. £100 worth of labour on a £5 lock isn't going to sell.

With a milling machine - oh, that's the second problem, I don't have one.

[Krypos]

i think id be interested in sending away some money (SOME...not a whole paycheck) and getting a decent homemade pickset w/ wrenches or something like that.

mostly cuz i dont have a dremel, benchgrinder, file or even anything of the like. so i could dig having someone else making me some picks. although from a person standpoint- i wouldnt want any frilly plastic handles.

[Raccoon]

What is it about making cut-aways that is so difficult to warrant a £100 ($185) pricetag? Wouldn't a bench grinder or dremel make short work of most cylinders?

I'd like to know if there's a machine one could attach a flat file to, sliding the file back-forth at high speed. This would make straight edges much easier.

[Shrub]

Hmm a needle file in a jigsaw perhaps, power files tend to be a very narrow belt sander but not much good for this purpose,

Just a steady hand and a hacksaw with a clean up with needle files is more than sufficient for cylinders,

Padlocks will have to be ground but its not hard to get a decent cut if you mark out first,

[mh]

What is it about making cut-aways that is so difficult to warrant a £100 ($185) pricetag? Wouldn't a bench grinder or dremel make short work of most cylinders?

I guess that simple cylinders would be faster to make and thus be cheaper. That pricetag would be for a complicated lock, where you want to see all the nice high security features.
And of course, mass production would rectify more expensive tools, templates, etc., and ultimately lower prices per unit.
But then again, the market is not that big...

I'd like to know if there's a machine one could attach a flat file to, sliding the file back-forth at high speed. This would make straight edges much easier.

There are electrical saws on the market. You could modify one, or use it as is for that matter, if you only need thin slots.

Cheers,
mh

[LockNewbie21]

If you want picks or ones that i posted or an idea write the demensions pay shipping and i will make you one, I dont have a machine shop but it never stopped me PM me. even though this thread appears to be going down the crapper.


Andy

[NKT]

It only justifies a £100 price tag if you are making a single one. Do you know how deep to cut on that £30 lock, so you don't destroy a bit too much? I thought not. So you buy one or two, and you get grinding, and it takes all day. And odds are you still mess it up.

If you do it with a milling machine and an easy lock, then it won't take nearly that long, but you have to offset the cost of buying a milling machine. A carbide mill is £25-ish, and you won't want to use steel for anything with carbide or hardened steel pins in it! Even if you are only thinking about making $10/£6 an hour, you easily reach $100/£60 before you have that first one fully set up for destruction.

Of course, if you already have a great machine shop, this isn't such an issue, but with a Dremel, forget it. You won't want to spend all day making one for the few pounds above the basic lock price you can charge.

You also need to consider that for a good lock, you are looking at £30 a time for a MTL cylinder, for example, and you have those fussy pin-in-pins to reveal, too. So that's yet more work.

At £10 to £30 a lock basic, you have to drop £100 to £300 on the stock you are going to chop up, and then hope you sell enough of them to make that back, and not be stuck with 7 of them. And you can't make them as you go along, since the setup time is so long, and you want to make money from this enterprise so you want to do them quickly in a batch...

I've done it, I have more cutaways upstairs, but the basic Yale rim cylinder, for example, isn't what people want cutaways off. I've got a half cutaway Union euro here right now. I never even bothered finishing it off.

[NKT]

Oh, as regards that ERA lever padlock, I could do that easily. I even have something like it in stock. But how would I destroy that carefully so that the cuts were in the right place, without one to destroy first?

[pie muncher]

i have access to a high quality machine shop and some of the best toolmakers i have ever met, millers, surface grinders etc?

[Shrub]

So do i....

Me

[pie muncher]

[pie muncher]

sorry maybe i should clarify myself,...

Ok i am not hijacking this post but i have few q's first.

Why cut away a medeco biaxial?
Is it something that will benefit me later in my picking career?

If so then i will happily buy one and ask the tooleys at work to cut it away for me, if sucessfull i will quite happily put a how to guide and plans on here for all to read?
I know im not a respected member but maybe one day i will be so i am willing to have a go?

[mh]

Why cut away a medeco biaxial?
Is it something that will benefit me later in my picking career?

Some people like to see "how things work". That's one reason for cutaways.

Another one is - if a cutaway is well made, picking still feels the same, but now you can see what's happening inside while you pick it. So you know what a certain feeling means. That does help to improve picking skills.

mh