I was looking at buying a tubular key cutter and wanted to know if it would be a valuable tool or would sit on my work bench and collect dust. How much call is there for tubular key banks and keys cut by code?
Where im at the demand is low..So i have a handheld cutter. Im mobile so it works out well and much cheaper than a regular unit. I get more calls now because the harley dealer closed i went around to all the motorcycle shops and gave them cards..Harley charges $40 for 2 keys and may take over a week. If the customer looses them i take a tubular pick and decode it and make one on the spot.
We didn't get too many tubular key requests compared to other types of keys but every customer who needed a copy or a origination seemed very frustrated like they can't find anyone who can do them.
I think that's cos the demand is kinda low so most lockies don't want to spend a lot of money on the tools and machines so there are very few shops who can cut tubular keys. So the way I see it, once the word gets out that you can provide that service the jobs should start coming your way little by little.
Plus those happy first time tubular customers will probably start becoming regular and repeat customers, so I think its worth it to have the necessary equipment for these keys.
If a lock is a puzzle, then its key is the complete picture
I think that if you have the HPC Blitz machine it would be better to get the tubular attachment for it, if not, I agree, the Herty Gerty seems like a reliable little device, I have heard lots of great reviews about it.
Demand isnt that high. I had to call about.... 6 lockshops and only one could make me a copy. I think one or two told me "not that many people use them so we don't do that." Luckily for that one place, I became a regular =)
But there are still a lot of cheap bike locks and fire safes out there that still employ tubular locks. At the shop I worked at, the majority of the tubular key origination/dup requests were for these kinds of applications.
Economy is probably gonna remain in a limbo for a few more years so I'm sure there will be enough people who will "commute" to work on bicycles and then cash their checks afterwards to buy a more affordable bike lock at the closest Target or Wal-Mart.
If a lock is a puzzle, then its key is the complete picture
My target I'm aiming for is the vending machine and atm owners, bike locks and gun cases also have tube locks. So I bought a tube cutter, lets see how much demand there is......
We get a lot of school maintenance staff come in for tubular keys. They fit the elevators in the schools. They usually get 5 at a time, a couple times a school year. We charge $9.50/key. Then there are the odd ones cut for trailer locks, bike locks, safes and vending machines.
We have a Scottsman machine which cuts 3 sizes of tubular keys; standard, small and large;
And this machine, which I use most of the time but don't remember off hand who made it. It cuts only 7 pin center. left & right cuts:
Eyes_Only wrote:I'd get the Herty Gerty. I've heard nothing but good things about it. I'm planning to get one myself one of these days.
The Herty Gerty is a great little machine. I bought one of the originals in the wooden box and it served me for over twenty years, never so much as needing a cutting bit. I used primarily brass blanks and on occasion steel. Most of my friends who have bought the tubular key cutting attachment for the HPC don't like or use it.
If you are doing large volume work, a motorized duplicator/code cutter would be a better investment, like an old Scottsman machine, which appear at locksmith swapmeets from time to time for about 100-200 bucks.
lets see how much demand there is......
