The "106" surprise...

[Sinifar]

Just another fun day out on the road. SO I need to make a mail box key for an office unit. No problem. Pick the box, get the code off the back of the lock (National Cabinet) and call the office for the code.

Wife reads off the key blank (1069L) and the code. Hmm... something isn't right, but -- pull that key and look at the lock and the key length, looks okay. I guess.... Find the card for the 1200 punch for National Pin, and set up. Hmm...cuts 4 out of 5 fine, 5th is in space. Wife must have read the blank wrong. Try the other one (1069LB). This one cuts all 5, but won't work the stupid lock. Now what?

I am a good 20 miles from the office, so I am not running back there to figure this out on my own, and calling her won't help, as she is not that aware of all the things which go on in the trade anymore. We find another key which works one of the other locks, and this one is 1069L, and there are 5 cuts on it. Hmm.... now what?

I only have 2 key machines in the van which I can cut this thing on, the HPC 1200, and the Foley 200. HPC does not have any other card for National, so ... get my Foley kit out.

Ages ago I really made Foley into a dandy field unit for use in our old unit, which could run off a small inverter, as space is a problem in the new van, I just brought it along. What I did was work out about 85 key specs working from the Framon book, down here, and then cut spacer keys on the Framon, which were EXACT. This unit has saved my butt way too many times to talk about.

Flipping thru the Foley rings, National I have three keys, the regular pin, the disc, and one marked ".106 MLBX" ... now to find the cutting data on the cards. FInally on the back of card 5 there it is. SO Now to set up a 1069L, and cut it with the .106 key, and the data for that key.

This works. So what is up? There are some Auth and Florence mailboxes which have a .072 pins in them and my guess is they are some condensed version of the original. Which is why sometimes I have trouble getting standard mailbox locks to work in the smaller doors.

Just a heads up if you find that the cuts go - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4, it is an .018 drop between cuts, unlike the regular .0125. Both start at .150 but this one has a spacing of .106 v/s .140. For all the screwing around I should not have missed this one, so next time I told her to read off the spacing as well as the cuts when I call in for a code.

SInifar

[billdeserthills]

Wow I am surprised You bother to cut a key by code for these, I just toss them in the trash and put in a new one
in fact I charge $100 to change out the old style and $125 to change the new usps approved ones. I remember when
the post office would charge $5 to change out these rural box locks

[Sinifar]

If it has a code I will cut one, if it does not have one, I toss it and replace.

Ages ago, in the Econoline era of the shop, we used to carry tons of National replacement locks. I don't think I sold more than a few of them. For what ever reason, this type of work seldom comes my way. Now, today I am carrying three types of National replacement locks. One for the inside boxes with the five tail pieces, one for the outside with the shutter on them, and the new PO special locks.

AND I should retract, or correct something I said on another forum posting. The metro has had 164 shootings so far this year, 55 murders. Just to clarify that point. Getting older my mind mixes numbers badly when trying to remember something which is not "shop" ....

sinifar

[jeffmoss26]

I always enjoy reading these stories from the field!

[billdeserthills]

On the new PO locks, I have found that I need to have both the clockwise & counter clockwise rotation locks
You never know which one You'll need until you do

[Sinifar]

Have a few of both in the van, and the new keys.... just another thing which doesn't get called for much, but we carry them.

Sinifar

[cledry]

I'm with Bill on this. The locks cost about $8. Not worth code cutting esp in the field. Pop a new one in, take the old one to the shop cut keys for it and use it next time, or toss it. One of our guys had to replace 48 mail box locks yesterday. Brand new boxes delivered with no keys! He was there about two hours and popped in 48 new locks at $19.98 each, plus a service call and labor. That isn't bad money for a couple of hours, figure $500 in material mark up alone. Theoretically cutting code keys would have been more money but we still have 48 new locks without keys that we can have the shop guy piddle around with when the shop is slow.

One of the best things to carry is the micrometer cards for the HPC machines. Don't need any special cards with those on the truck. Another thing we just started is putting blue tooth printers in the trucks last month so we can print cards as needed from our cell phones. Mainly we did this to print work orders for NSPs.