I Need Help Deciding on What to Do Please Help

[theislandguy]

Ok,, Hopefully someone can Help Me out. First off by saying this is my first post to this Site.
So what i do is a buy and sell stuff. My most recent hobbie is buying and selling vending machines. I have brand new ones, Used ones, and ones that look like junk but i will refurbish them and they will look like new when they are done. I just purchased roughly 25 mechanical ones for roughly 10-15$ ea. Consists of
5 Soda Machines with tubular twist style locks in each one
17 Snack style machines, 15 with tubular twist style locks and 2 of them have regular key style twist lock, there are 2 machines that are totally diffeerent looking then the other snack machines.
3 Soup on the go machines with 4 90 degree cam locks in each one
I also have a used genesis machine and that consists of 2 tubular style twist locks
and by twist locks i mean key turning until thread exits nut.
I have keys for the genesis but they are barely working.
So I have no keys for any of the 25.
So i was lucky one of compartments was open on the soup to go machine so i managed to grab that lock and also one of the locks was open to one of the five soda machines.
I took them into my local lockssmith. He made 2 keys for each lock. So to make 2 keys fit each lock it cost me 91.00$
I was hopping the twist style key would be keyed alike to all the other tubular style locks since these machines came from the same guy. But no
The Soup to Go Key worked for the one compartment on all of the 3 machines, So That one key opened a total of 6 locks. So that aint bad. There is still one compartment locked though on each of the soup machines cause it seems the locks for the other compartment were keyed different
Now the soda machine key was keyed the same for all 5 soda machines which was good but when i tried it in all the other snack machines it was a no go.
Now
It Costs me between roughly 9-10$ per key to get made at my local locksmith, Plus 30-40 to get him to decode lock.
Now i explained that there were 3 different looking types of snack machines with tutbular style locks and some of them have numbers on the machines which leads me to be;lieve that maybe the guy that was running this business has different keys for each machine. What i want to ask is Should a buy a device like the Peterson Pro 1 or Southord Pick and also buy herty gerty. Do you guys think that would be wise or would a guy like myself have a hard time using one. I just hate the fact that i can get a blank for 60 cents and they charge 9$ to cut it. If i was to buy anything like this and i were to use it. Is there a market for it, if i was to resell it. What is the depreciation on something like this. I just want to make the right decision and dont really feel like taking a chance going in and getting a lock decoded and a key made for 50$ and relaizing that it only opens one snack machine. I would also use herty gerty to recut keys for my genesis combo.
Thanks Any help would be appreciated

[Squelchtone]

What i want to ask is Should a buy a device like the Peterson Pro 1 or Southord Pick and also buy herty gerty. Do you guys think that would be wise or would a guy like myself have a hard time using one. I just hate the fact that i can get a blank for 60 cents and they charge 9$ to cut it. If i was to buy anything like this and i were to use it. Is there a market for it, if i was to resell it. What is the depreciation on something like this. I just want to make the right decision and dont really feel like taking a chance going in and getting a lock decoded and a key made for 50$ and relaizing that it only opens one snack machine. I would also use herty gerty to recut keys for my genesis combo.
Thanks Any help would be appreciated

Well, welcome to the forum, I think I can say many of us have been in the situation of buying a vending machine or a payphone or a safe on ebay or craigslist with no keys or combination, so while for us it is fun as a hobby, for you it's probably not much fun.

In defense of the $9 dollars to cut it charge, you're paying the locksmith for his years of experience to know how to decode your lock and cut you a new key and for all the equipment and training he or she has invested in. I just don't see a good return on investment in spending $350 on the Peterson tubular pick and similar pricing on a Herty Gerty, then signing up for a locksmith account at HL Flake or some place just to buy blanks, and then taking a month to learn how to do pick the locks consistantly and make good key copies.

If these machines are a one time thing for you, then probably cheaper to have a locksmith stop by and pick them all for you in person and pay them for a couple hours work. or just drill them out or have them drilled out and get new T Handle cylinders on ebay or from a supply house.

If you do this sort of buying and selling with missing keys all the time, then instead of buying all this specialty equipment, it may be to your advantage to get into a working relationship with a local locksmith and throw them some work in return for a discount.

There's always option 3, get the Southord tubular pick which is much cheaper than the Peterson, pick all the machines, then drop the lock cylinders off on the counter at locksmith shop and pay for the keys to be made.

Did you say you have some 'different looking' locks? Do they say Baton or Abloy on the face of the lock? is the keyhole shaped like a letter C or a letter D ? You can post photos using http://tinypic.com/ then Copy/Paste the links in your reply here.

Good luck,
Squelchtone

[keysman]

There is a learning curve to using a tubular pick .. expect to spend hours practicing before you can reliably open any ace style lock, if at all. Many ACE locks designed for vending machines are not easy to pick either by design or by function. For example the screw down type can be so tight you wouldn’t know you had it picked because it takes so much force to make that first turn.

I agree with Squelchtone the quickest, probably the cheapest and certainly the least frustrating will be to make a deal with your local lockie.. if the guy you previously spoke to won’t cut you a deal, post an ad on Craig’s list .You have the advantage of not needing this done yesterday and the work can be done during someone’s slow time. When I was first starting out I would have been happy to get some experience on vending locks.
So far as replacement locks … try some of the Lock supply houses that specialize in closeouts.. Hawley comes to mind … there are others also ( maybe someone can chime in here).
Good luck.

[theislandguy]

Thank You very Much Guys. I have made the decision and I purchased the Herty Gerty, The southord Pick as well as 30 blanks. My local locksmith couldnt swing a deal with me. And 30 keys would have cost me nearly $275 Alone. It may take awhile to pick my first one but i am up for the challenge. When I am all done i will be reselling the herty gerty for around 250-300 to get back some of the cost so if anyone is interested shoot me a message.
I Know that i pay the high prices because being a locksmith takes years of practice and being a machinist myself after doing this picking thing i always like to find better and easier ways to do things, so i will probably end up designing something myself.