American Locks (Australia)

[Mitchell S]

Hi all

I'm a fairly new entrant to the world of lock sport,and have been developing my skills nicely on standard pins. I've picked every lock in the house along with numerous others. Now I'm looking to get some practice on serrated pins and as such want to get my hands on an (or a few) American locks.

Being new I have spent much time learning from boanianbill on YouTube and am a little confused about these locks and his video about them becoming rubbish after being bought out be master lock. So my questions are as follows:

How can I find an American lock on eBay or similar that is still of the high quality/high picking challenge variety? If there are a few different models I should look out for please let me know. Links to products would be awesome the catch as the title suggests is that I live in Australia so any seller would need to ship over here. Nobody sells them directly in this country...

[GWiens2001]

Do you have some stuff to trade? It might be more fun that way. Some of us (myself included) enjoy trading for locks not available in my area, as well.

Gordon

[Mitchell S]

I don't really have a collection to trade yet, but that's what I'm trying to work on!

Can anyone tell me if the attached have good quality cores? Ie the American lock company design with security pins?


http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 1512249256

[GWiens2001]

This post should answer your questions.

The blue search button at the top right corner of the page is your friend!

Gordon

[Mitchell S]

Thanks Gordon, you are obviously a proper expert on these!
From your post (and remember utter amateur here), I can surmise that the locks on the eBay link are the old style due to the key shape?

If they don't show the keys is there a hard and fast way to tell from the manufacturing date codes stamped on the back?

[Mitchell S]

Wait no, they are new style keys aren't they. !

Also, does the "key shape test" apply to the 1100 series locks too?

Sorry for the dumb questions.

[cheerIO]

Keep in mind, Gordon's post and BosnianBill's video is on the 5200 series of US military locks made by American.

From what I have found there is no compromise of the cores in the civilian lock models. Every 2000, 1100, 1300, and 700 series I have is a standard, re-keyable, cir-clip, 6 pin cylinder with 5 pins in it.

[GWiens2001]

Keep in mind, Gordon's post and BosnianBill's video is on the 5200 series of US military locks made by American.

From what I have found there is no compromise of the cores in the civilian lock models. Every 2000, 1100, 1300, and 700 series I have is a standard, re-keyable, cir-clip, 6 pin cylinder with 5 pins in it.

Good point, cheerIO. But yes, if those are 5200 models, then those are the new style.

Gordon

[Mitchell S]

And all of the civilian models are full of security pins I hope?

[cheerIO]

And all of the civilian models are full of security pins I hope?

From what I have seen, Yes. The civilian models always have serrated pins and occasionally serrated spool pins.

Not only are the drivers serrated, but the key pins are too, on all but the 2 shortest lengths.