Where can I find steel pins?

[Raccoon]

I'm looking for a pinning kit with steel pins. Are there universal kits and brand specific kits that use hardened steel pins?

[bpc293]

i never read anything on hardend steel pins. did you ask your distributer.

[Krypos]

you looking to go magnetic picking or something?

[lockedin]

Why would he use steel pins for magnetic picking? I think he is trying to prevent drilling on one of his locks.

[Krypos]

chill it was a joke. magnetic picking is (i think) just a wild pipedream of someone saying "what if?"

i knew he probably wanted them for anti drill measures.


and no, i dont know anything bout getting them.

[Shrub]

Steel pins are found in some locks, if you are repinning to original standards you cant use brass pins,

I would think they are lock specific kits i dont know of any steel pin only universal kits but im probly wrong on that.

[Varjeal]

Certain locks for very specific purposes (mostly padlocks as far as I'm aware) require the use of steel pins, but as far as I know they're lock specific and priced accordingly.

[keysman]

Medeco uses random steel pins in the cam locks ( no top pins) They may also use random steel pins in the full size locks . (I have to check the pin kit and its not here)

I think Assa V-10 uses steel pins also,


Both use manufacturer specific size pins and are not interchangable across brands.

I am sure there are others ,but I can"t think of them right now, but I don't ever remember seeing "standard " (.118 diameter) steel pins. if you find some I would like to get a few.

[Raccoon]

Are there any reasons why Lab or other makers wouldn't have made steel pins? Are there any drawbacks to their use? Why brass?

[lockedin]

Because brass doesn't rust.

[lockedin]

Oh, and it's cheaper, might I add.

[Raccoon]

How do Medeco and Assa V-10 get around rust with steel pins?

[zeke79]

stainless steel or other hardened high chrome content alloy?

[lockedin]

Yup. It must be stainless steel. It is explicitly mentioned for inserts in this link:

http://www.medeco.com/products/products ... tion_ID=7&

I think price makes the big difference. And the fact that without inserts, steel pins don't provide that much of an obstacle to drilling.

[Raccoon]

thanks lockedin.

I'm curious, what is the defining difference between a universal 0.005" and 0.003" pinning kit. The kits I've looked at both contain the same number of pins, and yet, I would suspect the 0.003" kit should contain more pins.

Furthermore, I would think that, since 3 and 5 are both prime numbers, that you would ideally want BOTH pinning kits in order to obtain the largest variety of pins.

For example, these red pins would be from the 0.003" kit, blue pins from the 0.005" kit, and the few purple pins would be found in both.

.103 .105 .106 .109 .110 .112 .115 .118 .120 .121 .124 .125 .127 .130 ... etc

You can quickly see how there should be almost twice as many pins in the 0.003" kit, and only 1 out of 7 pins found in both kits. So what's the point in the existence of these two different kits, and not 1 complete kit?