Fast Impressioning - Can this work?

[Keyring]

all this talk about impressioning and i cant even get hold of blanks to try it

Items like ->this<- are common on eBay. I also asked in our local hardware shop in he'd sell me a couple of blanks so I could try impressioning. He said fine, 50p, and are you sure you know what depths to file to?

[cjames73]

Though you'll pay a bit much, you can get a few blanks from your local hardware store I'm sure. That's what I did the first time I wanted to try impressioning.

db

thanks DB+Keyring, i'll give them a try monday.
50 blanks is a LOT but if the price is reasonable i may get them from ebay.

[digital_blue]

I wish there were a sort of "start-up" blank set available. (Well, maybe there is, but I haven't found it).

It would be nice to be able to buy a set of blanks that was already basically set up to give you three or so of everything you'll likely want, and more of the most common.

When some little shoe shop or corner store decides they're going to start cutting keys, what do they do? I can't imagine that they buy a box of every profile. Half of those keys will sit there until they evaporate.

db

[cjames73]

I wish there were a sort of "start-up" blank set available.

db

if only

i suppose if a key cutter was willing to sell a few blanks, he wont have a problem selling a few of each profile thereby making a personalised 'blank set'.

[digital_blue]

Yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of wholesale pricing tho.

db

[freakparade3]

In the Foley Belsaw catalog they sell assorted "most popular" key blank packages.

[hippy5749]

You can regularly find boxes of 50 keyblanks on Ebay from reputable people for most of the common keyways for very little per key. I got a box of 50 Kwikset key blanks for less than 12.00 including shipping a few months ago....

Using those to learn impressioning

And the ones that survive intact I'm using to learn bumpkeys

It is pretty hard to see those darn marks from impressioning, but practice makes perfect........

[freakparade3]

I found my catalog. Foley Belsaw offers a house and padlock kit of 325 keys 65 different keyways Schlage, Weiser, Kwikset, Yale etc... for $103.95. Anyone can get a catalog, just go to www.foleybelsaw.com

[hippy5749]

Would most people need 65 different keyways is the question.....

I think it would be more cost effective to buy the key blanks for the needed keyways as needed.

My 2 cents......

[digital_blue]

Would most people need 65 different keyways is the question.....

I think it would be more cost effective to buy the key blanks for the needed keyways as needed.

My 2 cents......

Well.. I think he was more so directing that at me, 'cause I was asking for it.

Thanks freakparade! I'll have to keep that in mind. It would certainly be helpful to know that I would have at least a few of most any key blank I'm apt to need.

I figured someone had to sell a start-up set like that. It just makes sense.

db

[Shrub]

Quite a few suppliers sell key boards which have the most popular blanks on them, you can get them for each type of lock for example vehicle, mortice, window etc,

[freakparade3]

Would most people need 65 different keyways is the question.....

I think it would be more cost effective to buy the key blanks for the needed keyways as needed.

My 2 cents......

For someone like me thats planning to start a small business soon this seems like a great deal. I'd been wondering what I was going to do about key blanks for quite a while, then I found the assorted key blank set. I think it will be a great starter kit, and save me some money at the beginning.

[Shrub]

Incidentally this doesnt work in the way Db and i thought it may, foil simply gets marked or ripped whether the pins are in the correct state or not as does the marker pen and soot,

I stick to my original statement that i dont think this method would work or at least not ecconomically,

[Fredmad]

Well, my knowledge of impressioning is still somewhat limited, but I'm wondering if this would work. If I want to impression a key for a lock, I pull up the key bitting specs for the key, and see that it has 6 possible depths for each pin. I then proceed to make 6 keys, 111111, 222222, 333333.... 666666. I put each into the lock, and look for marks. If a pin makes a mark on the 1 & 2 key, but not on the 3 key, that means it's at height 2. If another pin makes a mark on the 1-5 keys, but not on the 6 key, it's a 5. Would this work? Or would all pins mark all keys? Would I have to do it pin-by-pin and not all at once? Thanks, and I apologize if this info was already posted somewhere else on here, I tried searching but came up empty...

It can't work. When you do some impressioning the key blank push all the pin. Now that is the top pins whisch lock on the shear-line. If a pin is on contact when you turn, you will have a mark. If you cut the key on the right position you won't have any mark. But if you cut to much now it's the bottom pin whisch is locked. That means that you will obtain once again a mark.
Second that is like picking you have to place the first pin (on contact in the shear-line) in the right position so that the second is on contact etc...
I hope you understand me with my poor english.

[BobbO45]

Good point with the second mark. The pins cease to make marks when that pin stack is at the shear line, so cutting a key to a depth below the shear line would theoretically give a mark as well - correct me it I am wrong. HOWEVER, the marks on a key of a deeper depth would be disregarded if a key of a lesser depth yielded no marks, so in that way this is still possible. I don't know about the binding and placing a pin on contact. I hope someone tries this and posts their results.
I think that the original way of impressioning would still work better, with this new method possibly having the advantage of giving you the code for the pin depths and possibly being quicker (if it works).