by nostromo » 1 Feb 2010 23:29
You can make some fairly easy from the same type of KIK 'cylinders' that the manufacturers use. Remove the pins, springs, cam and plug and clamp the sheel in a vise, face and rear touching the vise plates. Make sure that the 'shoulder' on one side or the other is exposed out of the vise. Using a 1/8" or so wide dremel bit, cut / grind a 'window' into the shoulder, removing metal from both the lower round part that encases the plug and the rectangular part that holds the pinstacks until the middle part (2d pin to 2d to last pin) of the shear line is exposed.
Clean up and reassemble. I did up some with angle grinders and warded files which was a lot quicker, but too much metal was removed all along the length of the case, which weakened it overall.
As good as the manufacturers using metal lathes? No way. But not nearly as expensive either.
Try and get scrap cylinders from a local locksmith if you can. Offering the scrap brass price ($1.50 a pound in my area at the moment) is only fair. Beats the heck out of paying $20 for a KIK to pull the cylinder out of.
