Pull up a chair, grab a cold one, and talk about life as a locksmith. Trade stories of good and bad customers, general work day frustrations, any fun projects you worked on recently, or anything else you want to chat about with fellow locksmiths.
by 1mrchristopher » 17 Mar 2015 10:35
Browsing eBay last week I saw an SPK115 with a few extras tucked in for $60.00 and it looked darned near full, but did show that a few of the pins were jumbled. I figured it didn't look too bad, and jumped on it. Yesterday it arrived.... and I have decided that it was a Zen Meditation Pin Kit.
You see, by tucking a pair of retaining ring pliers into the rear tool compartment, the previous owner caused the lid to bow (fortunately the lid didn't bend, it sits firm and tight now that the offending pliers are removed): Thus in travel, the pins and springs were redistributed in new and interesting ways throughout the pockets.
Last night I spent 3 hours in meditation over this fine pin kit, and am down to the last half of the master pins, maybe an hour more to having it completed. This exercise has done wonders for my patience and outlook on the world. If I was the one who had spilled or jumbled the kit, I don't know that I would feel the same way, but getting it already mixed up and sorting it was very relaxing.
The bonus is that I now have a Schlage kit that has a blank pocket where I can put T pins for F series locks. The first Schlage kit I bought was the old Lab kit in the square gray box, and there is room for the pins it was made for, and that's it, no tools, no nothing. Honestly they should have made it half as deep, because the pockets are shallow too.
One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory - Rita Mae Brown
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1mrchristopher
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by billdeserthills » 17 Mar 2015 11:35
Yep, re-sorting out the pin kit sure can be relaxing. I remember when my Dad dropped his full kit and left it on the counter for me to sort out "in my spare time" of course
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billdeserthills
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by nick08037 » 17 Mar 2015 11:50
1mrchristopher wrote:Browsing eBay last week I saw an SPK115 with a few extras tucked in for $60.00 and it looked darned near full, but did show that a few of the pins were jumbled. I figured it didn't look too bad, and jumped on it. Yesterday it arrived.... and I have decided that it was a Zen Meditation Pin Kit.
You see, by tucking a pair of retaining ring pliers into the rear tool compartment, the previous owner caused the lid to bow (fortunately the lid didn't bend, it sits firm and tight now that the offending pliers are removed): Thus in travel, the pins and springs were redistributed in new and interesting ways throughout the pockets.
Last night I spent 3 hours in meditation over this fine pin kit, and am down to the last half of the master pins, maybe an hour more to having it completed. This exercise has done wonders for my patience and outlook on the world. If I was the one who had spilled or jumbled the kit, I don't know that I would feel the same way, but getting it already mixed up and sorting it was very relaxing.
The bonus is that I now have a Schlage kit that has a blank pocket where I can put T pins for F series locks. The first Schlage kit I bought was the old Lab kit in the square gray box, and there is room for the pins it was made for, and that's it, no tools, no nothing. Honestly they should have made it half as deep, because the pockets are shallow too.
I hope you took a before and after photo. The mental picture of this for me reminds me of the quote "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. ~Michelangelo" -Nick
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
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nick08037
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by jeffmoss26 » 17 Mar 2015 12:18
I would have requested a refund for improper shipping...
"I tried smoking a blank once. I was never able to keep the tip lit long enough to inhale." - ltdbjd
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jeffmoss26
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by 1mrchristopher » 17 Mar 2015 18:10
As pictured in the auction (it was much worse when I got it):  After my contemplations:  The person selling it didn't have any idea that those pliers weren't supposed to be in there, or that they were causing the pin kit to get mixed up.
One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory - Rita Mae Brown
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1mrchristopher
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by billdeserthills » 17 Mar 2015 18:13
Probably plenty of room under the white plastic pin kit to hold all kinds of tools
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billdeserthills
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by FarmerFreak » 17 Mar 2015 20:03
billdeserthills wrote:Probably plenty of room under the white plastic pin kit to hold all kinds of tools
We do this with one of our kits at work. Coincidentally it is the kit that gets spilled the most often. Doing this is both a good idea and a terrible idea.
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FarmerFreak
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by Wizer » 18 Mar 2015 5:58
I too had some zen-time last week. I bought on old keyblank stock, 4000 keys. Adding this to my old blanks took a maybe 10 hours of re-hooking 12000+ blanks to 1000+ hooks. What made it more fun is that there are blanks from 4 manufactorers, so different codes on same blanks..
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Wizer
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