how do icore locks work?

[victorylocksmith]

looking to start getting into icore locks, have a reasonable idea about the theory behind it but i figure, i will never master it until i get my hands on them. does anybody know what kind of equipment/kits i need to get in order to get into this?

i figure i need a pin kit and from the looks of it, some sort of cylinder holder. i see there is something about some sort of pick to jam into the holes which i have no idea what they mean. also, id imagine i need to select SFIC, LFIC, MFIC. which manufacturerd lock should i start out with? id imagine that i would need to invest in that brands pin kit. also, how do i go about cutting the keys?

im still a ways from having lots of money stored up but id figure it would be a good move to acquire this stuff little by little

[cledry]

looking to start getting into icore locks, have a reasonable idea about the theory behind it but i figure, i will never master it until i get my hands on them. does anybody know what kind of equipment/kits i need to get in order to get into this?

i figure i need a pin kit and from the looks of it, some sort of cylinder holder. i see there is something about some sort of pick to jam into the holes which i have no idea what they mean. also, id imagine i need to select SFIC, LFIC, MFIC. which manufacturerd lock should i start out with? id imagine that i would need to invest in that brands pin kit. also, how do i go about cutting the keys?

im still a ways from having lots of money stored up but id figure it would be a good move to acquire this stuff little by little

SFIC have their own pin kits. LFIC use standard kits, Sargent LFIC has some special hollow drivers for the control chambers though.

You can make a holder to start with out of an old mortise housing for that type of core. Each core will need its own holder.

The pick looking thing is shoved through the bottom of the core to dislodge the individual caps and pins from the chambers. You can practice with a SFIC that uses slide on caps to learn with.

No special key machine is required.

[jeffmoss26]

Well, some duplicators MAY work for copying SFIC keys but a code machine or dedicated punch is best (pun intended) for SFIC.

[cledry]

Well, some duplicators MAY work for copying SFIC keys but a code machine or dedicated punch is best (pun intended) for SFIC.

Code cutting is definitely best. However the best machine for SFIC I ever had was a code machine with a copy dog that Ilco made in the 1940s. It could cut a key without decoding it, the spacing would be factory perfect and you could choose the closest factory depth or copy the key to the exact depth of the one you were copying from.

My Silca Bravo machines don't have any issues cutting dups of SFIC, and even my old Curtis automatic can do a couple of generations. The main issue is proper clamping of the keys and a machine that is adjusted properly.

[Evan]

Almost all of my national accounts use SFIC, either Falcon Instakey, Medeco Keymark, Best or Arrow. For us there is no option but to work on them. Generally we get calls that no core key exists or it doesn't work. This is a really nice quick job. We pop the core out, pop a temp core in with core key and then the corporate sends out a new core to the store and they pop it in. The whole job takes 5 minutes and we charge @ $165 for the pleasure.

The Instakey cores always mess up. The Medeco cores seem to usually be broken keys in the cores.

Generally any time we install exit devices we will also try and use an IC core of some sort, it makes rekeying so much faster when we have to go back.

Cledry:

I work for a retail store that upgraded from U-Change to InstaKey about 8 months ago... We have rekeyed using the step keys three times now and haven't found a problem other than if you don't tell the InstaKey people what type of locks the store is using they won't send a control key with the new package of keys each time as they assume your locks can rotate the full 360 degrees and a control key is unnecessary... The retail managers at most of the InstaKey client locations have no idea how these things work until they attempt to use the step key and can't rotate it past 180 degrees with one of their locks...

Such problems are usually made worse by the fact that the local store employees are not the ones to contact InstaKey to deal with these issues but some coordinator of store maintenance or loss prevention is the person doing that and they sometimes have different/incorrect/outdated information about the locking hardware currently being used or the number of keys required for a package set... Add to this the myths and legends about not being able to order an additional key for a specific package set that are passed down by district or area managers to the store level employees and InstaKey can really be fun to deal with...

~~ Evan

[cledry]

Good point about the locks needing to turn 360. On a storefront not an issue. On a lever or knob, a big issue. We have often get calls for jammed step pins.

[Evan]

Good point about the locks needing to turn 360. On a storefront not an issue. On a lever or knob, a big issue. We have often get calls for jammed step pins.

Yup...

I remove the cores with the control key and have them in my hand and can feel the pinstack click as it separates, but the first time there was the drama of opening the sealed pouch to not find a new control key to put the cores back into the two storage function levers and the alarm lock disarming cylinder which don't rotate all the way... Thankfully I had my small pouch of tools with me that day and was able to deal with the problem...

The instaKey directions state that only the step key is required to change the user keys, but I would rather have the screw up in my hand then still secured in the housing if something did go wrong...

~~ Evan