New union cylinders

[kendale]

Has anybody got a method for opening the new Union cylinders on sale for locksmiths, 6 pin cylinder as per standard, however this part of the lock is for the customer, now they have put 4 wafers in the lower left side of the keyway which belong to the locksmith, the 4 wafers operate on a side bar in the lock making this in effect a 6pin 4 wafer lock, the key is a standard key except for the laser cut along 1 side of the key which operates the wafers, when supplied to the locksmith the wafers are already loaded into the lock body ready for the pins to be loaded & to except the key blanks owned by the perticular locksmith who owns that key configuration.
They were asking about a £1000 to own your own keyway on this system.

[frollard]

thats pretty cool

without knowing too much about it - whats to stop a smithy from rearranging his own cylinder?...I guess he couldnt order the laser cut blanks...

[kendale]

You must pay out in the first place before union will supply you with the lock cases & parts etc, as you know restricted keys are only restricted for a certain amount of time, what union have done is built the restriction into the lock case by way of the wafers operating on a sidebar, however i dont see you can vary the amount of combinations with just 4 wafers or maybe im wrong.I did have a couple I should have photo'd them while i had them.

[frollard]

odds are more than onel locksmith would get the same keyway 4-wafer combo. however, in the same city, next to each other, odds are pretty slim. Its just to make it so you have to go back to one locksmith for service.

[Guitar_J]

What happens when that locksmith suddenly goes out of business? all his customers are left with a lock that no other local locksmith is going to have a blank for.

[Romstar]

What happens when that locksmith suddenly goes out of business? all his customers are left with a lock that no other local locksmith is going to have a blank for.

Congratulations, you have hit upon one of the reasons why I do not support this system. There are some other reasons as well. here they are in nop particular order.

1. It locks a customer into a specific locksmith.
2. A closed business results in abandoned customers.
3. An butthole locksmith results in disgruntled customers.
4 Alll of these problems can result in serious and severe costs to the customer if he wants or needs to leave the system. The locksmith IS NOT going to give up a system he had to buy into.

5. It is not a system designed to benefit the customer, or for that matter the locksmith. It is purely a system designed to benefit the lock manufacturer. Despite any upsell they might give to the locksmith, there isn't a huge amount of support for patented and restricted keyways. Further, a lock company can put the same product all over the place while still claiming uniqueness from the different keyways or sidebar systems.
Further, because the locksmith is obligated to buy into the system, they have to make a concerted effort to sell the system in order to recoup their costs.

As a locksmith, I feel it is my duty to be able to assist and service any customer that comes to me. Once I am convinced that the person in question has the authority to duplicate keys I see no reason why they or I should be restricted from doing business with each other. Especially if they are having difficulties with another smith.
Under these systems, even if I have the customers written authorization I cannot get keyblanks. They either have to repalce all the locks, or go back to the jerk who is giving them problems.

Romstar