General Lock and key question

[2octops]

Well, nobody ever really answered your question, so I'll chime in.

Yes, a KW1 will go into many different keyways including Weiser and Weslock. However, the lands (not wards) are different heights on some than others. So when you code cut a key by letting the bottom of the key rest in the jaw, it might throw the key higher or lower due to the position of the lands.

Also look at a Weiser and Kwikset side by side and you will notice the shoulder stops are very different. If you try to copy a WR onto a KW by shoulder stopping, the duplicate will NOT work.

Besides, some customers are picky and want the same blank to be used for a dupe as their original.

[Spike666]

Their are many mfg. that used similar keyways to kw as well as today. The depths and spacing are different so making new keys takes skill and knowlege. most like that you could duplicate onto a kw bow and it will work. If I put say a weslock db on someones door and handed them kw keys I would feel like an idiot. not that I would or could since i dont use weslock, but the fact is if you wanna do the job- do it right.

but yes it would work if it fits, and if you go to depot or a hardware/auto store thats prob. what they would do.

[raimundo]

For any lock, there is a finite number of keys, just do the math, number of depths, times number of pins, so that once you fill the entire roster, you either have to change the keyway or the pins spacing or something,

If you have lived for a while, you probably know of someone with an old generalmotors vehicle which has a key that is worn down, and the key to some other vehicle also works in the lock, this is not too uncommon.

every keyway has a limited number of key combinations, and every common cheap lock is reusing those combinations so that any commercial lock is an exact copy of some others, If you tried your keys on every lock you encountered, soon you would find that there is another locks somewhere that fits one of your keys.

[SlingsVaqueros]

There may also be a cost factor involved with having a very common keyway. A lot of these cheaper locks are made overseas and if one factory is tooled up for making one type of keyway, it would be easier and cheaper to use that factory for a keyway that has an expired copyright. Just to add to the growing list of keyblank substitutes:

KW1 (Kwikset), DE6 (Dexter), EZ1 (LSDA), IN3 (Independent), MD17 (Master), HR2 (Harloc/Tesa)

And you could always cut down the 6 pin variants; KW5, KW10, KW11, DE8, etc.

I cut keys all day, everyday, so I use a lot of substitute blanks to give little old ladies an easy time to find the diffenence between their front door-knob, front dead-bolt, back door-knob, back dead-bolt, kids houses, etc. I try to tell them about getting their house locks keyed alike, but they usually can't grasp the concept of more than one lock using the same key.