Master-keyed wafer locks - how do they work?

[NanoDuke]

At work we have double sided wafer locks for our lockers. Last night I took my wrong set of keys with me, so I told my supervisor, and he gave me a master key to get into my locker.

I didn't know that wafer locks could be master-keyed.

Can anyone explain to me how they work?

Cheers,
Duke.

[Solomon]

When I was still at school, all the lockers had single sided wafer cams and the janitors had master keys for them. I have a rough idea of how it would work but to explain it without diagrams would probably fry my brain at the moment.

[ElAbogado]

At work we have double sided wafer locks for our lockers. Last night I took my wrong set of keys with me, so I told my supervisor, and he gave me a master key to get into my locker.

I didn't know that wafer locks could be master-keyed.

Can anyone explain to me how they work?

Cheers,
Duke.

Most master keyed wafer locks have wafers with two separate heights that contact the key. Obviously two different keyways are used, one key contacts the left side of the wafer, the other key contacts the right side of the wafer. The wafer appears "stepped" at the point of contact to acomodate the two different heights required by the system.

El Abogado

[NanoDuke]

Excellent. So it's still only 4 or 5 single wafers, and no less secure than a non-mastered lock.

Thanks for the great explanation.