Modding Key pins for repinning.

[074KU]

Some time ago I was given an old Lockwood oval lock to suit a commerical mortice lock assembly. It had a C4 keyway in it but did not come with the key (the reason it was given to me), I wished to repin this lock to accept an old house key I had with 5 bittings, as luck would have it (or not) I had some keypins which fit this lock and bitting combination... apart from one pin.

After a bit of thought on the matter I took a longer keypin, placed it in my mini vice squared it off in relation to the jaws of the vice and took to it with a fine single cut file bit by bit untill it fit flush when placed in the plug with key, then I run a chamfer around the top edge with my file to mimic what I have on the other 4.

The final finish while homecooked in 5 mins has been flawless operation and has a better top face to it than some other key pins I have scrounged. I cannot feel any difference in lock operation to one with (initially) correctly sized pins or while practicing my SPP on this lock.
In short this may be useful to anyone who wishes to repin a lock, does not have a repinning kit but does have some pins from broken or disassembled locks.

[too-picky]

My stock is a pin desert (i.e. pins are few and far between). I'm a newbie and I've derived I can spend a total of $70 on all the equipment I need combined. The cheapest pin kit I've found after a couple quick searches is $65. Doesn't leave me much.

My first two rekeys are from salvaged pins and keys. Thanks for the info, as it lets me know somebody else is doing this on the cheap.

[averagejoe]

A lot of people do this on the cheap

If you are looking for spare pins, there are several people on the forum who could sell you a small baggie or 2 of them.

[074KU]

A lot of people do this on the cheap

I did a bit of searching for anyone who was doing this on the forums prior to attempting it myself and couldn't find anything. Makes a bit of a case for the original thought debate .. but thats not for here.

Just glad that it helps out a few other guys like myself who dont have all the 'propper tools' and don't mind making a few.

[MacGyver101]

Absolutely... and good job!

There's a strong DIY culture in lock picking: you can now buy just about any tool you want over the Internet, but this certainly wasn't the case 10 or 15 years ago... so there's a strong tradition of making whatever you need (lock picks, pins, plug followers, etc.) from whatever you have (hacksaw blades, street sweeper bristles, wiper blades, piano wire, etc.). Even now, with lots of good materials a few mouse-clicks away, a lot of people prefer making their own tools -- and there are many folks here who are truly artists at it.

With pins, in particular, I've had a few occassions where I've had to hand-file my own. Most recently, I had to hand-fit two odd-ball pins into one of these locks over Christmas:

Someone had lost two of its original pins and replaced them with some from a generic repinning kit... and the result was that the original keys required a lot of jiggling to work. Those pins are unique enough that I couldn't find a match in any of my commercial repinning kits: I had to hand-file two replacements, both to the proper bottom profile (to properly fit the cuts on the key), and the proper height.

Looking forward to hearing about your next DIY locksmithing adventure... keep it up!