neuropulse wrote:I ask because I have read alot about bump keys and there is great detail about the depths but I have found nothing on the peak height. In pictures I can see they are not the heigh of a blank.
The reason you have heard so much more about the depth cuts is because the pins rest in those depths and if one of the pins being bumped has to stay low so that it doesnt shoot up and block the shear line, the maximum depth cut would allow the longest pin to rest all the way down so that wouldnt happen.
As a bump key is made, there is a relationship with the peaks and valleys. As you cut deeper into the key, let's say depth 9 on a Schlage SC1 key, a peak which is surrounded by two 9 cut valleys shaped like this \_/ will automatically be a certain height.
In other words, once you make really nice depth cuts which are at the bottom as wide as a pins diameter, then during the depth cutting and shaping, the peaks will adjust in that process.
oh man, these run on sentences.. it must be 2:30 in the morning.
As long as there is a peak when the lock is bumped, the \ of the \_/ is what hits the pins and makes them ride up. so if anything they all should have the same angle in each valley.
---|
\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_
\
__|--------------------/
hope this helps in your quest.
Squelchtone