Bottom pin colors mean anything ?

[WOT]

not exactly since there are about 50 pin lengths in a .005 kit, maybe 65 or so in a .003 kit, and only 5 different colors they use. There is a fair bit of ambiguity right there, but consider the fact that you don't even know if it's been pinned to the recommended pin numbers (maybe pinned to compensate for key wear) and that you don't know if it's got .005 pins or .003 pins using the colors you could probably narrow the pins value down to about 25 possibilities...

If you know the brand of the lock, you already know the possible bottom pin heights.

[linty]

oh, i was referring to aftermarket pins.

i don't know of any locks around here that use colored pins right from the factory. all the weiser, kwikset, schlage, etc. use uncolored pins.

[maxxed]

The dye does wear off the pins reasonably quick and as the dye fades it becomes harder to tell the difference between the red and purple colors especially when the pins are the llast few cuts

[2octops]

Someone go get a Lab kit and look at all of the bottom pins for Schlage or Kwikset.

Now tell me how many different colors there are for each set of bottom pins

That kinda blows the theory of decoding by color. Besides, what if the person was out of one pin and used one .003 below or above?

On Kwikset, we typically pin them up one step off anyways if we have to use a Lab kit to make it work smooth. Otherwise, it will stick a litle if you use the pins they suggest on their chart.

[maxxed]

No need to go get my kit in a >005 kit the Schlage depths to color are
0 and 5 gold
1 and 6 green
2 and 7 purple
3 and 8 red
4 and 9 silver
The color can give you a starting point and a little creativity can finish the puzzle

[linty]

or you could be working with a lock that was pinned with ESP colored pins, or lab .003, or pinned not exactly to the numbers and you'll spend forever trying to solve the puzzle. I couldn't imagine that this would really work very well on average.

[maxxed]

or you could be working with a lock that was pinned with ESP colored pins, or lab .003, or pinned not exactly to the numbers and you'll spend forever trying to solve the puzzle. I couldn't imagine that this would really work very well on average.

This will not necessarily be the most practical way to do things on the job, but there always situations that come up that requires the opening and relocking of several KA doors. It is easier to have a key then to pick each lock separately ( yes I do some work for a repoman ). This is among the techniques that I use to speed up the task when there is an aggressive person we don't want to deal with( alarms don't trip until the door is opened )

[bboulton]

i have a masterlock door dead bolt that i use for practicing (and re-pinning) and i too noticed that the are different colors (i have 2green 1silver 1red 1brass-uncolored) maybe there is some sort of factory older

[maxxed]

The color coding of pins is really there to help distinguish the length of pins in a kit. When using a .005 kit , if a pin from a 205 bin falls into the 210 bin very few people would notice the difference in length, but a green pin in a bin of red pins stands out.. The colors are repeated every .025 this difference is noticeable to most people. There may be color coding of the pins from the factory for that lock however the dye is not intended to be permanent

[bboulton]

since i am using the lock for practice and taking apart...most of the color is already beginning to come off