Spacers?

[Ophidian]

Hi everybody!

I´m kinda new to this forum and have been picking for about a year mostly padlocks but now I´ve been experimenting with lock cylinders and came over a Assa 700 brass lock that I gutted to learn more about pins etc, at 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th pin there is like small spacers between the pins and I am wondering what these are for?? First time I´ve seen these in a lock, might because I´m a noobie but got to learn sometime right?


By ophidian83 at 2011-03-01

[Wizer]

Those are master wafers or master discs.
They make multiple shearlines so more than one key will open the lock.

[Ophidian]

Those are master wafers or master discs.
They make multiple shearlines so more than one key will open the lock.

Aha! I thought of that but was not sure, thanks for the fast answer.

[raimundo]

small master wafers can fall out of the lock, at the 180 degree rotation when the bottom of the keyway is presented to the the spring loaded pin column.

this is the way that picking can cause a disruption in the function of a lock in use and is one of the principle reasons that people are told not to pick a lock in use especially in masterkeyed college dorms and such.

when the key is turned 180 degrees there is the back of the key that holds them out of the plug, but when it is picked, If you think a lock is masterkeyed, put the straight backside of a pick there to hold those little parts in the pin columns while passing the edge of the keyway.

In the case of your lock, some columns have two of these wafers, meaning that the system that this lock was once part of had both sub masters and masterkeys,

some columns have no wafers meaning the company or person who designed the masterkey system for this group of locks was keeping some of the columns for security.
extra shear lines in the collumn make for easier picking

You might want to look up Matt Blase site for the Rights amplification in master keyed systems paper I think that is the title, its clearly written and very interesting.

[Ophidian]

small master wafers can fall out of the lock, at the 180 degree rotation when the bottom of the keyway is presented to the the spring loaded pin column.

this is the way that picking can cause a disruption in the function of a lock in use and is one of the principle reasons that people are told not to pick a lock in use especially in masterkeyed college dorms and such.

when the key is turned 180 degrees there is the back of the key that holds them out of the plug, but when it is picked, If you think a lock is masterkeyed, put the straight backside of a pick there to hold those little parts in the pin columns while passing the edge of the keyway.

In the case of your lock, some columns have two of these wafers, meaning that the system that this lock was once part of had both sub masters and masterkeys,

some columns have no wafers meaning the company or person who designed the masterkey system for this group of locks was keeping some of the columns for security.
extra shear lines in the collumn make for easier picking

You might want to look up Matt Blase site for the Rights amplification in master keyed systems paper I think that is the title, its clearly written and very interesting.

Thanks for the tip, I´ll make sure to look it up. Right now this lock is a bit to difficult for me but when I´ll start working on it it´s good to know.