Tool Budget

[[James]]

Well i will start saying hello to you all and thank you for all the info you all have gave me.I have been searching this website for about a month now and i thought it was about time i register on 101..

All that done this is what i would like the know if you are all feeling fine about this....

What i want to know is i have a £1000.00 Budget for buying some locksmith tools.If you was starting with a £1000.00 just for locksmith tools what would you buy.
Meaning picks,wires,guns, etc etc...
Regards
James

[undeadspacehippie]

Are you going to be doing only lockouts? If not consider maybe some drills, bits, hole saws, chisels, screwdrivers , hammers, vises, key cutting machine, decoders.

[jordyh]

I am missing a word....

"Picks"

Yours,

Jordy

[[James]]

I have got all the hand tools Van etc etc. I was meaning Locksmith Tools only..
Regards
James

[Shrub]

£1000 wont scratch the surface im afraid, look for a guide by toomush in this section it lists all the tools you need to be a lockie, work down the list and get anything you havent got.

[[James]]

I understand what you are saying.But all i wanted to know is if you had £1000.00 to spend on tools what would you buy with it...


My full budget i will be putting up is £9000.00 but i want to do as much training as possible.Lets say about £2000.00 to £3000.00 on training.Then £3000.00 on stock and the rest on tools etc etc..
Like i have said i have the van and tools all ready etc etc.

Im not someone that wants to make a shed load of money im not in it for the money i am someone who wants to make a difference because there is, as you know shed loads of cow boys out there and if i get a few jobs a week and i stop the cow boys alittle, im doing my part...

Its just a hobbie i would like to take on the road and i have the spare cash..Its only like someone spending £9000.00 on a motorbike or a new car..
Lockpicking is a good hobbie to do and i love it and want to make that difference.
Regards
James

[Raccoon]

£1000 is something like $2000 these days? That's a pretty decent amount of cash for tools. Contrary to popular belief, you can afford a great deal of essential locksmithing equipment.

Before we start buying tools though, lets get an idea of what area of locksmithing you wish to focus on, or start on at least. Do you wish to hang and install doors, install and replace locking hardware, re-pin/re-key existing locks, or just open doors for people? This list covers a wide range of locksmithing abilities from greatest to least.

Do you intend to start as a FULL SERVICE locksmith, or a LOCKOUT SPECIALIST? Note that specialists focus their attention on one specific field, and lockout (opening locks for people who lose keys) tends to be the most popular of these. Depending on your location, though, you may have too many lockout specialists to compete with and might benefit from choosing a higher rung on the ladder.

There are also areas of locksmithing that include home or commercial security systems, and some even dabble with security surveillance. You may find automotive locks a profitable business as lots of people permanently lose their keys and need new keys made from scratch or vehicle locks replaced entirely-- something I personally need to get into. Or, perhaps you'd prefer to be a safe technician or do contracts for bank safe deposit boxes.

The question is, what kind of work do you WANT to do?

For the bottom rung stuff, I can recommend various tools for pin-tumbler lock and automotive re-entry. Changing and re-keying locks is also fairly straight forward and easy to learn from this site. Beyond that, this site doesn't have very much information that a full service locksmith requires.

[Shrub]

CB Curtain picks 5/5.5g , 7g £290 ish

RB Medical 2 in 1 picks range of,

2/3 lever try out keys, £53

Pinning kit, £120

Letterbox kit, £144

Plug spinner, £22

Tubular pick 7 and 8 pin £110 ish

Padlock pick set, £250 ish set of 4

Cross pick, £91

MTL Pick set, £36

Falle pickset, £153

SV 3G114 decoder, £353

SV 3G110 decoder, £470

SV Legge decoder, £412

SV Securefast kit, £318

SV Invincible decoder, £565

Union plastercine kit, £224

Profit plastercine kit, £224

SV Walsall decoder, £647

SV WMS / Avocet decoder, £564

Take your pick (pun intended) these are just all off the top of my head and tools you will certainly need, get very good on the curtain picks and you can eliminate some of the decoders for now but eventually you will need them, the prices are just out the catalogues i have in front of me and ive added vat as i guess you wont be registed yet.

[Shrub]

£1000 is nothing as i said before.

Forget safe work and vehicle work as you need to learn the basics first and have all those bases covered, safes and vehicles need a lot of understanding and you cant jump in at the deep end and expect to learn on a customers car or safe.

A good training course is essential or a lot of time spent at home learning it, that all depends on how good of a learner you are and who will provide you with the correct info, this site is a good start.

[Shrub]

Ive not even gone into key machines but you should at least have a cheap small copier and a set of depth and space keys.

[Raccoon]

It also depends heavily on the original poster's location. Personally, I think the prices you've quoted on many of those items is a bit high-- who would pay £120 (or >$200) on a pinning kit, for instance? Universal pinning kits cost a mere $120 US, or less than £70, and brand specific ones even less. I'm also curious what padlock pick set you're buying for £250 when most of us can make do on a complete £50~100 set and some padlock shims. Tubular picks for £110? You're mad!

Again, it all depends on what field this gentleman wishes to pursue. I would say that safes are definitely an advanced subject, but most well trained start-up locksmiths deal with car openings from day one. They would be foolish otherwise. Yes, key cutting and transponder equipment is pricey, but even a novice can handle these.

[Raccoon]

Optionally, since there are so many locksmiths closing shop in the UK, I would imagine there are some pretty good deals right now for used equipment. Lots of start-ups go belly up in the first several months, and I hear tales of full service locksmiths going out of business because the market is flooded. Certainly many used tools can be had for 50% off or less.

[zeke79]

It also depends heavily on the original poster's location. Personally, I think the prices you've quoted on many of those items is a bit high-- who would pay £120 (or >$200) on a pinning kit, for instance? Universal pinning kits cost a mere $120 US, or less than £70, and brand specific ones even less. I'm also curious what padlock pick set you're buying for £250 when most of us can make do on a complete £50~100 set and some padlock shims. Tubular picks for £110? You're mad!

Again, it all depends on what field this gentleman wishes to pursue. I would say that safes are definitely an advanced subject, but most well trained start-up locksmiths deal with car openings from day one. They would be foolish otherwise. Yes, key cutting and transponder equipment is pricey, but even a novice can handle these.

I paid $315 for my tubular pick plus 45$ x3 for the extra heads that open different locks. Depending on where you buy your pinning kits and what quality you pick up you can wrap up $200 easily on a .003 universal kit. Sure you can buy a BP pin kit for less but try those pins in higher grade locks and see how well they work. I know for a fact that the color codes pins work fine in standard schlage lock but cause hard turning in the primus locks. For the primus locks we always use OEM pins. LAB color coded sets are not quite as bad as the BP sets on this but still get an occasional pin that is off enough to cause problems.

[Shrub]

Just to add to that, you dont really have much of an idea on the uk situation so before you start saying im way out there let me explain a bit,

I added 17.5% VAT on to the prices because until you register you have to pay VAT.

The pinning kit is a standard kit that contains 85 sizes with 144 pins in each size in 5 thou increments.

The padlock picks are for padlocks you can only dream of, shims will not work as they are lever padlocks. The SV padlock kit is £470 so £250 was a good price.

A tubular pick does cost between £50 and £55 here for the cheap ones so yes £110 is around the money.

Doing non standard lockie work like cars is madness when you have only a clue on general locksmith duties as it is.

Yes many locksmiths are going bust and some may sell off their tools but i would hazard a guess that 90% of the ones going bust so soon after start up are the ones that have started on a tight budget without the proper tooling ie a drill and mortice id kit, most the stuff being sold by them will be of not much use as the proper tools will have been left until later due to poor advice.

All the prices i quoted were either from the SV catalogue or my wholesale supplier catalogue ive no reason to lie to the bloke.

You simply can not buy a cheap set of picks and call yourself a locksmith, i know you have tried and maybe doing ok from it but i was answering with tools you would need for just a lockout service in the uk. I missed out a ton of stuff but as the items listed exceed £5k (5 times the original amout) i decided to stop there.

I was not even considering transponders and key programming when i said leave vehicles alone.

[toomush2drink]

If you know your market then you know what to buy, simple really. Are you thinking of doing warrant work ? mainly installing ? mainly upvc ? You need to be more specific because as mentioned by a few of the others it depends what you want to do. I personally have 2 electric pick guns, 1 manual pick gun,hand picks,computer generated picks,extracter kits,various curtain picks,various sv decoders,tubularp icks,jigglers,wires,bump keys,mortice jig,key machines and boards,a couple of different euro snappers,upvc opening tools, etc etc it really is endless.I personally do ok with what i have now but if i was doing warrants then i would probably spend another 3k on decoders, so as you can see 1k is not going to get you much.A wendt gun is about £400-450 i think and a superb tool as is a 114 pin and cam at about £300 so as you can see not much change out of a grand with only 2 tools.Sure you can go in cheap but whats the point as you will probably buy these tools anyway after you come unstuck.A nasty experience with an X5 made me buy the wendt, i only wish i had done it sooner, and that is a lock B&Q sell lots of