Kwickset Safekey Cradle

[dougfarre]

Quite Possibly the Single Greatest Lock Ever Designed? I think so, and the Kwickset Safekey Cradle proves this. So if you loose your key to your safekey lock, but you manage to find a way to get at your safekey core another way, you can still reset your lock, without picking it. Its an amazing little contraption, and I have yet to discover its magic. But i do know it works, and i will show you how.. Although it will be hard to see much....




Step one


TURNING


Stick the Pick in the Smart Key Hole


Take the core out


Put in the new Key


Do a quarter turn counter clockwise


Now it is rekeyed to your new key, reguardless of what the old key was, or whether or not you had the old key.

[dougfarre]

This is whats going on inside the cradle. We have an idea of whats going on with the cradle, but not 100% sure, anyways, you really need to have a Safekey open in front of you to follow along and understand...

[dougfarre]

[jgor]

Now that I've had a chance to think about it, I believe this is what the notches in the opposite side of the safekey's serrated pins are for. The pins are all pushed up to the same height (pretty far up), then the sidebar is pushed in and fits into the notches facing outward on the serrated pins, which are now lined up.

[dougfarre]

Wow... That finally makes sense.. Diagram please?

[kg4boj]

I thought it was the kwikset smartkey? I dunno I wasn't extremely impressed with them except for the pick and bump resistance they do offer.

I cant really get a good idea from the picture how it works, but what I've always done is popped the snapring off the back of the plug, pushed out the plug from the front while quickly raking it, and putting aside the ball bearing and spring that make some kind of positive detent.

Then I take the cover with sidebar still on off of the side of the plug and align all of the pins to an all #7 cut key, and then put all of the sidebar:, serrated pin, driven pins to a position where the sidebar is free to retract. Then simply push the plug back into the lock and pull the key out in unlocked position. Put your key in there, and snap back closed.


The only think Kwikset's new gimmick has done for me so far is made another lock I'll have to figure out signs of picking/tampering/bypass... No one is talking yet... I have a convention in a few months though.

[dougfarre]

I cant really get a good idea from the picture how it works, but what I've always done is popped the snapring off the back of the plug, pushed out the plug from the front while quickly raking it....

Think you can remove the plug without having to rake the pins.. I am pretty sure with this lock you do not need the key to take the core out.. This is the reason why this whole mechanism is possible... Am i not mistaken?

[jgor]

Think you can remove the plug without having to rake the pins.. I am pretty sure with this lock you do not need the key to take the core out.. This is the reason why this whole mechanism is possible... Am i not mistaken?

He's referring to taking the innermost core out, exposing the pin housing / sidebar. It's much easier to do than actually picking the lock because you can pull outward on the inner core to bind the pins on the outer shell without affecting the sidebar, plus you can see the pins themselves sticking out the bottom so you know when you've pushed them up far enough to clear the outer shell.

[jgor]

Oh and I totally made up the names of all the parts of this lock...inner core, outer shell, pin housing, etc. If anyone could correct me on the actual names i'd be much obliged.

[dougfarre]

Ah, sorry. I need to get my vocabulary strait.

[dougfarre]

Bump.

[Beyond]

Single greatest lock ever?

In terms of ease? Security? Innovation?

[dougfarre]

In response to your question: viewtopic.php?p=283912#283912

[raimundo]

I wonder if anyone has tried to make a tool that would aid picking by working in the reset hole, perhaps a comb like tool or a simple L shaped tool to counter pressure the pin you are picking,

the story is use light tension or the pins will lock up, perhaps a tool that is like a comb with teeth that are sort of half round rather than rectanglular, would help to lock the mechanism when you wish to release tension and not drop the pins you have set.

I don't have one of these locks nor do i fully understand them right now, but it seems to me that this hole could be used by pickers to some advantage and that is something to be explored by those who are willing to make dedicated tools. Any time a manufacturer puts a hole that can affect the pins into a lock, pickers should be looking for how this can be used

[jdonnelly]

Kwikset SmartKey Re-key
The information on the package says “Lock cannot be changed without your functioning keyâ€