by lockout » 9 Mar 2008 13:11
Retrofitting a Medeco for this purpose isn't really practical.
Medeco locks, even used ones, are expensive, and the keyway warding is quite a bit more complicated for an amateur to contend with, compared to the relatively simple warding of a Schlage C. Furthermore, Medeco pins are somewhere between fifteen and twenty percent larger than standard .115 pins found in regular locks.
These locks might be a useful intro tool for a new picker, or might make for an interesting curiosity for a collector, but an experienced picker/locksmith, with real tools, ought to be able to break down a cylinder like this by removing the cap, cap-pin and spring, and shimming it open, in less time than it would take to fiddle with 5 or 6 set screws.
I made a couple for my own amusement, by the way.
I thought about selling a few on ebay myself, but its not really worth my time.
Incidentally, You need 6/32 set screws, cone (or concave) ended. 1/8" is ideal, and you're probably not going to find them at Home Depot, but rather at an industrial fastener place like Brofasco here in Canada.
Cost about 12 cents each, call it 80 cents with tax.
Any dollar store will probably have crappy Allen keys to fit, so add another buck.
Say another 25 cents for six spool pins, assuming you can get them, and about eight bucks for a key-in-knob cylinder at dealer cost. A new KIK is going to cost a civillian perhaps twice that.
Since the second ebay guy is including a mount that he charges ten bucks for, he's only marking up the actual lock by 100% and he's got to invest about five minutes or or so to make it, and time spent listing, answering questions, packaging, and a trip to the post office.
It's easy enough to tear off the brass strip exposing the chamber holes, and run a 6/32 tap into the holes, but as I said, the price for a ready made isn't unreasonable.
One problem with the set screw version that I noticed, is that even by only partially screwing in the set screws, just a turn or so, and you put a little extra tension on the driver springs, and thus change the spring tension. Too much, and the plug won't turn at all.
The maker of the set screw lock, reccommends using shorter screws for sets with long bottom pins, and longer springs for stacks with short bottom pins.
Thats too fiddly for me, so I suspect the slide-on removable bible cover version is a superior product.
