My home made barrel key collection (& how to)

[Lauren]

Phoneman....It's been on my to-buy list to get some of those mail bag locks. The key doesn't look all that bad. I like the half hard brass. It's easy to machine and to impression keys, but just don't drop it. The stuff dents easily. One of these days I'm going to learn to cast bronze.

Hand filing a key blank to work a Medeco lock is something I've done as well. It's a nice challenge.

[Lauren]

I remember a locksmith telling me he could make keys from reading the depth cuts of car keys left on the car seat in a lock out situation. So, I thought I would try reading the depth cuts for a key from a picture on a current listing on Ebay. I got this lock on Ebay for $10.00 and honestly, I wouldn't pay a dime more since these locks are all keyed alike. A $148.00 "buy it now" is insane asking price for one of these locks with an original key.

I made my key from stainless steel bar stock on my drill press. It's nice to have something truly unique that will never rust and have improved strength over brass. Notice how the shaft extends into the key head. This feature was ground out, and believe me, it takes time. This key was turned with a shaft diameter of .270 inch, leaving a .035 barrel thickness. The original keys are probably .260 inch wide, leaving a .030 barrel thickness. I would make future key blanks at .265 inch for optimum fit. My finished key works great and has a nice fit inside the lock. These locks should be used with a rigid U-shaped hasp in order to re-load the locking hasp.

[MrWizard]

That looks very cool with the shaft going into the head of the key with the 2 grooves. Amazing you could do that with stainless steel. I would have thought those locks were made of brass. I have been wanting to get one for a long time. I want one of the US Mail locks with glass window and the 4 wheel counter but always go for too much.

Richard

[Lauren]

I got this "Safe" padlock as an Ebay trade for one of my decoders without a key in the locked position. I wanted to try a different technique to make a working key for this 5 lever lock (this lock has four levers plus a driver lever, totaling five levers). In the past, I used wires. I discussed this process in earlier threads. I picked the lock open while applying tension to the driver lever. Most of the manipulation was done through the bottom drain hole. I decided to give a shot on "impressioning". I have heard of locksmiths doing it for these type of locks, but steel is a rather hard metal to impression. Had I failed, all of my hours making a key blank from cold steel stock would have been wasted.

With the lock picked open, the levers are ready to impression. I observed all levers were of the same thickness, so I merely divided my key into five equal segments. To impression my key, I first started out with multiple trials of aluminum foil tape, as shown below.



The levers really marked well against the tape. I hand filed all the depth cuts to make this key. In addition, these cuts were filed rounded to minimize binding as the key turns against the levers. This "rounding of the bits" was a common manufacturing technique.



To really dial in on the correct depth cuts, I observed little patches of brass material on particular bits. I removed more material where these friction points occurred. The finished key works great. The outer key head was all hand filed. The entire symmetry of the key came out well. The shaft of the key was ground out using a thin grinding disc and arbor using my drill press. The key was hand rotated on its own axis with a drill bit locked in my cross-slide vise.

[MrWizard]

Very nice job rounding the cuts. I have done that on many antique furniture keys made of brass and soft steel keys. The foil tape is an interesting method to see the marks using a hard steel key. Worked really good to see which levers are prominently marking. I like the cut out design on the key head. Was the original key head made like that for these Safe locks?

Richard

[Lauren]

The key head is my own design.

[MrWizard]

Nice to have something like that nobody else has for sure. What kinda steel do you use for these keys. Where can stock that thick be found.

Home Depot doesn't have the Rigid drill presses anymore in the store and the newer model is $500.00 special order only now.. Wish I would have got one when they were 300.00 every day and on sale for $150.00 now and then.

I seen it said the chuck mounts by tapered shaft I would think yours does too has it ever come loose using it for side milling. I seen many reports it has fallen out doing things like milling. And also seen the rack and pinion that raises the table up and down was not the sturdiest especially when it was used to set the chuck as per instruction included it broke on a few people doing it that way. How do you set the chuck in yours assuming it is a taper mounted chuck. And did you do anything to beef up the rack and pinion. Some said they used large hose clamps I believe that help to stop it from moving wildly side to side when cranking up and down the table.

I was looking at the X Y cross slide vise at Harbor Freight during xmas they had it in sale for $79.95 normally $99.00. It was the 6 inch model and looked HUGE! What model is the one you use for your keys is it 5" or 6"?

Wish I had bought the milling attachment for my 6" Atlas lathe it would have come in handy many times. It is hard to find now reasonable and in good condition.

Keep up the good work always looking forward to see what you do next.

Richard

[Lauren]

I like my Rigid drill press; the offer lifetime warranty on parts. I rarely use the shaft adapter anymore for holding my stock pieces. I can get pretty good results by using a drill bit, grinder disc and harbor combination with the slide vise. I'm using the 6" vise from Harbor Freight. When locking your piece at the end of the vise, always using a shim of exact thickness at the other end. Otherwise, you'll get material removed not true (parallel) to the edge of the work piece.

[MrWizard]

Good tip to use a shim stock on the other end of the vise to keep stock from shifting. Let me ask when you need to change the height on your grinding disc small increments are you loosening the disc or grinding tool from the chuck and move it to not disturb the distance away from the work rather than trying to crank the table up and down.

The drill presses I have are old school that have no rack and pinion height adjustment. I think even with the gear adjustment it would be causing distance variation that would screw the pooch each time it is moved.

[Lauren]

You don't need rack and pinion (although, it does make adjustments easier and it prevents slipping of the table). I start the rest position of the grinding disc and arbor just below the key head line. I set my depth gauge (you have to have this) to the bit line. In other words this is the length that represents the shaft (between the key head and edge of the top bit). Each wafer that is removed in the shaft area by the grinding disc is control by the slide vise. The next wafer depth is determined by visual reference of the prior one. Naturally, the disc will become increasing smaller as it wears from wafer to wafer. This is why smaller amounts of material needs to be removed as you get within .010 inches. Careful visual references need to made not to over cut using the dial caliper as well. I like to spindle down as I turn the work piece. Faster rotations with small amounts of depth spindling with blend the wafer edges. Always starting (grinding) below the key head will tend to make a narrower shaft (due to disc wear), and that's okay if this is the result you're looking for. Otherwise, start just about the top bit alternately to balance the wear on the disc and to get a more even shaft diameter. As you get with in .005 inches of your desired diameter, sandpaper needs to by used to clean things up. I like the purple paper Home Depot is now selling. It doesn't rip apart nearly as quickly. Try 120 grit. A buffer is need if you want alto-high polish with the correct buffing compound. I like the "Milwaukie" brand #5 (green stick) sold at Lowes.

Make sure you have at least one vise jaw that has "V-notched" groves to hold the drill bit perpendicular. The one I use isn't even bolted to the vise. I just rest it between the two existing vise plates.

As far as steel is concerned, you need to find an industrial metal supplier. I have a few close to my location. Some suppliers will mail small amounts of product, but they'll nail you shipping costs. Cold rolled is they type of steel I use, outside of stainless. Look up "Industrial metal supply".

[jeffmoss26]

McMaster-Carr is a good source for all kinds of raw materials...but shipping might be an issue if there is not a branch close to you.

[Lauren]

I couldn't resist the Ebay "Buy it Now" price of $12.50 for this Yale padlock, stamped "NC" and "33". Aside from the paint (which I carefully cleaned), this lock appeared to be in pretty good condition. I always look for locks that have some of the original protective lacquer, which this lock had plenty of. In addition, I saw that the lock had no locksmith tampering marks around the key hole cover. Overall, this lock looked like it had been locked and hardly ever used as it was left in the elements for some unknown amount of time. But there's always a catch....

While attempting to pick the lock open with a tension tool, I noticed that the levers (all four) were locked in place. They had very little spring movement. By the way, the levers had absolutely no wear on them. The locking dog would not move either while using my tension tool. The locked levers is state normally found when the fence and the gate combination are engaged with one another after the lock is open. I was very hesitant to any lubricants, which can help picking on some locks and prevent picking on others. Something else was going on with this lock.

Out of frustration, I very carefully applied soft blows to the top of the hasp to try to release the levers. Afterwards, I stuck my tension tool inside the lock with the idea of probing the levers. Before I got my pick in hand, the tension tool turned the locking dog. So, it appeared to me that the lock was in a semi-locked state and the blows to hasp nudged a lever or two just enough to create the correct fence allignment. I thought that this condition was just a fluke.

After machining a key blank and impressioning a key to the locked levers, I tested the key without closing the hasp by manually pressing hasp plunger downward. The hasp plunger released nicely, and I was convinced the I had a properly cut key. But there's always a catch.....

Now, I was ready to try my homemade key with the hasp engaged. Wouldn't you know it, the levers froze just like when I received the lock. So, I applied some blows to the hasp once again. The levers released. This certainly was not acceptable. This next time, I played it smart. I wanted to try and mimic this lever freezing without locking the hasp. I did several test with the hasp plunger by manually tripping it downward. I observed that the plunger would lock at three different points; near the top (just below the locking dog), about 90% downward, and 100% downward (which releases the levers). What the heck , there is no damage to the lock body the would caused friction against the plunger. As it turned out, this 90% downward position was happening only when the hasp plunger was closed slowly, or maybe when the locking hasp was closed slowly.

So, this 90% hasp plunger position allowed the the hasp to lock, but it would also not be enough to release the levers. I have never seen this condition before. Maybe the lock was somehow defective? After careful analysis, I concluded that the nature of the key bitting or lever arrange (creating a stair stepped cut key) was allowing the fence pin to be half in and half out. Combined with all of the other tolerance between the hasp, locking dog, and hasp plunger, this half in/half out arrange was certainly the cause of my freezing lever problem. For now...each time I lock the lock, I snap the lever down quickly to release the levers. I will definitely apply a silicone lubricant to this padlock to resist future lever freeze ups. Perhaps this lock just need some more breaking in. Time will tell.

[Lauren]

I just finished applying some silcone lubricant to my Yale palock. I still get the multi-positioning of the hasp plunger when manually applying pressure. However, I can't duplicate the lever "freezing" scenerio. Perhaps the lubricant helped, but I'm still interested as to why the hasp plunger holds at 3 positions rather than then one . The lock seems to work perfect now, so I can't complain. Not bad for a $12.50 purchase price, unlike the $50.00 and above I often see on Ebay.

[maxxed]

Wow impressive work

[dll932]

Ilco sells bit and barrel blanks, btw. they can be impressioned if you are careful.