First Cutaway Lock

[sfodd]

Hey all,

As you can see I joined about 6 years ago back when I first made some lock picks and picked a few cheep padlocks. The hobby sort of fell away for a while until about 2 years ago when I ordered some lock picks online and picked a few more locks but again I never really got that into it. Until a few months ago when I really got the bug and have since bought and picked a wide variety of locks. A few weeks ago I bought a cheep $5 lock at a hardware store, took it down to the machine shop on campus and made a cutaway. I made this one mostly for demonstrating how a lock and lock picking works to explain it to friends. I've been lurking on the forums for a few months too and it's about time I started contributing. I'd like to make some more cutaways in the future if I have the time or locks to spare. Right now I have an Abloy Profile that's ready for the chopping block but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Here's the lock without a key in there. You may notice the silver pin across bottom pins, I epoxied that in because the bottom pins kept popping out.



Here it is with the key in.


Here's a closeup of of the pins from the first picture. You can see tooling marks and scratches made afterward. (Just as a warning this picture's a bit bigger)


I forgot how soft brass can be and I clamped the plug of the lock a little too hard in vise and deformed it a little bit. It doesn't turn quite as nicely as it did originally, oops


I hope you guys liked these, I took many more pictures than I posted here and if anyone is interested in full resolution versions, feel free to shoot me a PM. These forums are a treasure trove of info and I've found them very helpful and I look forward to contributing and communicating with a great community.

Regards,
Andrew

[NanoDuke]

That's probably the best first-timer cutaway I've ever seen. I'm very impressed

Do you have a milling machine?

[Squelchtone]

Nice!

I like in that close up how you can see the pins at rest on the warding inside the plug.

Good work, and welcome back to the forum!

Squelchtone

[rx6006]

Very nice work. I appreciate the level of detail we can see in the mechanism.

[sfodd]

That's probably the best first-timer cutaway I've ever seen. I'm very impressed

Do you have a milling machine?

Thanks guys!

Yes I used one of the milling machines on campus. Gotta love having access to a full machine shop.

[NanoDuke]

Campus eh....?
I only have access to corrosive and toxic chemicals

[SnowyBoy]

I quite like the concept of showing off everything so well, but the only problem is the quality of the lock in this case.

You will find that machining top quality locks in this way will give a lot straighter lines when you're milling in this fasion. Will be interesting to see how you progress with the machine, like was said, this is pretty good for a first, but give it some time and you will find your method

[SnowyBoy]

Oh yeah, forgot to say, the more flutes on the cutter the cleaner the cut will be. I'd guess this at a 2, maybe a 3 flute.

[sfodd]

I quite like the concept of showing off everything so well, but the only problem is the quality of the lock in this case.

You will find that machining top quality locks in this way will give a lot straighter lines when you're milling in this fasion. Will be interesting to see how you progress with the machine, like was said, this is pretty good for a first, but give it some time and you will find your method

Oh yeah, forgot to say, the more flutes on the cutter the cleaner the cut will be. I'd guess this at a 2, maybe a 3 flute.

Yes you're right, most of the cuts were done with a 2 flute. I was in a bit of a rush with this one so I didn't get a chance to do any finishing cuts. It was mostly just a test of the concept. I'm use to milling things like chromoly steel or high quality aluminum so it was fun to cut something so soft, like a hot knife through butter

Thanks for the input, I do admire your work.

[ElAbogado]

I'm use to milling things like chromoly steel or high quality aluminum so it was fun to cut something so soft, like a hot knife through butter

Now you know why some like the rotary pick so much, it doesn't care how much the lock costs or what keyway it has, it just works....