Locks around my office

[foo]

Bored with the entire contents of the box-o-locks at my desk, I decided to explore my office looking for another pin tumbler lock to pick...

And the only pin tumbler locks in the whole place were these two!
(I appologize for the crappy phonecam picture)



Firstly, it would be silly of me to even attempt picking these (those are Medeco BiAxial cylinders), and more importantly, I'm sure someone would be really stressed if they saw me fiddling around with those locks. They're part of the electronic access control system. The black button is the "push to exit" dealie.

What I can't believe is that those are the ONLY pin tumbler locks in a 4000sqft modern office space. Is that typical with other people's experience? I was sure I'd find something, but around here it's all electronic or wafer locks (filing cabinets, kitchen cabinets, computers).

Is that typical of other offices? Are pin tumbler locks a thing of the past? Wow.

/foo

[quickpicks]

I have seen a few medecos in about 3 offices in my lifetime(eccluding doors) but I am sure they are common in other areas. I see them mostly on wheelchair lifts and for access control. On a side note that setup looks to be rather insecure with those slot head screws holding the plate on. I would think they could at least ue bi-pin screws.

[vector40]

So what are the rest of them? Wafer locks?

[HeadHunterCEO]

$50 cam lock defeated by someone unscrewing the face plate with a screwdrivewr

[TorchBlower]

At my work they have the crappiest singler wafer locks on the registers and only a few pin tumblers on the main entrance and a schlage deadbolt on the bathroom door. The store mainly uses wafer locks to secure about everything.

[digital_blue]

Hmmm... bypassing a Medeco with a flat-headed screw driver, eh?

db

[HeadHunterCEO]

Hmmm... bypassing a Medeco with a flat-headed screw driver, eh?

db

ya you bypass the lock entirely
unscrew the face plate

depress the switch at the back of the cam lock

[raimundo]

I think that he may be wrong in calling these "biaxial" to me they look like medeco cam locks which are entirely different from the biaxial. the cam lock has no top pins, jus lower pins with holes in them that must be rotated and lifted to allow a sidebar with various fingers to drop in.
This may be pickable, and in fact may be one of the few sidebar locks that are pickable. The tensor will pressure the sidebar, and some raking might cause one end of the bar to drop. to get a bar to start in, you need to luck into at least 3 pins consequtive at one of the ends of the cylinder. Three pins in the middle won't fall in. the pins also have false holes sometimes.

[foo]

ya you bypass the lock entirely
unscrew the face plate

depress the switch at the back of the cam lock

...Except that I took the picture inside the office. That's no different from any other locking system. Once you're in you can generally unscrew things with no problem.

The only exceptions I can think of are the Medeco that shipped with extra ball bearings for pounding into the allen head mounting screws, making it difficult to remove the screws, and the shear-off bolt heads found in automotive steering columns.

...Anyway, you can accomplish the same thing by pushing the black button

Somebody asked about the rest of the locks? Well, there's wafer locks in all the Steelcase furniture, and the doors are either unsecured, or have Kastle keys.

[foo]

I think that he may be wrong in calling these "biaxial" to me they look like medeco cam locks which are entirely different from the biaxial. the cam lock has no top pins, jus lower pins with holes in them that must be rotated and lifted to allow a sidebar with various fingers to drop in.

It's entirely possible that I'm wrong about these locks.

Looking into the keyway, I could clearly see the chisel-shaped profile of the first key pin (which also appears to be serrated). Based on the familiar-looking pin, I assumed it is the biaxial design with which I'm familiar.

I'm not familiar with the sidebar-only (no shear line) type of cylinder you describe, but it certainly could be one of those. In fact, it's clearly something new to me because the plug diameter is huge. The springs are inside the plug, and turn with it then?

/foo

[Joseph.R.C]

12 pin tumbler locks in my office ...

It´s easy for me to pass those "dead" hours at work

[raimundo]

springs are in the plug, no shear line, just pins that have to be lifted and rotated, thus the chisel tip, if you see the key to this lock, it will say medeco on it and it will be smaller than other medecos you have seen probably with a round key bow. the pins lift and rotate to present round drilled holes to the round fingers on the sidebar, there are also false holes that are not deep enough to let the sidebar all the way in. These are the medeco cam locks, look for them on pay phones, bill changers, coin op machines generally. The ones you show may actually be switch locks, meaning that the electric circuitry is incorporated in the lock body and there is not an actual cam on the back of the cylinder but the mechanism is the same mechanically. you may be able to pull off the two leads, and cross them or you could jump them with any conductive material. these wires may go into a metal conduit or may simply be romex, in either case, the lock is higher security than those wafer locks, but the system is not high security if the conduit is not cased in concrete. if the wall is sheet rock, A guy with a multitool, (plier, knife saw etc) could open the wall and the romex or conduit and cross the wires.

[HeadHunterCEO]

ya you bypass the lock entirely
unscrew the face plate

depress the switch at the back of the cam lock

...Except that I took the picture inside the office. The only exceptions I can think of are the Medeco that shipped with extra ball bearings for pounding into the allen head mounting screws, making it difficult to remove the screws, furniture, and the doors are either unsecured, or have Kastle keys.

really ...
and how does one rekey such a lock after it has been installed?

[foo]

ya you bypass the lock entirely
unscrew the face plate

depress the switch at the back of the cam lock

...Except that I took the picture inside the office. The only exceptions I can think of are the Medeco that shipped with extra ball bearings for pounding into the allen head mounting screws, making it difficult to remove the screws, furniture, and the doors are either unsecured, or have Kastle keys.

really ...
and how does one rekey such a lock after it has been installed?

I'm not sure which lock you're asking about. ...You kinda butchered my post, splicing unrelated sentences together... But I presume you're asking about the lock with BBs wedged in its allen head mounting screws?

I dunno. It's supposed to be difficult, I guess. I'd like to post a link to a discussion of this phenomenon, but I can't seem to find one now. Who knows, maybe I dreamed it...

Anyway, you underscored my point: Once you're on the "inside", it's generally pretty easy to do whatever you please to most locking mechanisms.

The fact that there are flathead screws in drywall makes this system no less secure than most other mechanisms. Frankly, I think these are key switches (rather than toggle switches) to keep people from mistaking them for a lightswitch!

/foo