Souvenir from Sri Lanka

[femurat]

During my recent holidays in Sri Lanka I had the pleasure to see many locks, so I took some pictures for you.
I also bought three padlocks to bring home with me. The key in the picture doesn't work, but I got it nonetheless. I'm planning to make keys for all of them.

Cheers

[GWiens2001]

Very nice, Femurat.

You have great taste in locks. That center Yale is exactly like one I picked up in Alaska. Guess it is true that "great minds think alike".

Gordon

[Mitchell S]

Nice finds Femurat!
Shame some of those safes would fit in your overhead storage

[femurat]

Indeed these padlocks are very nice. Mitchell, I bought everything I could bring home. Unfortunately the safes were too big for the hand luggage policies of the plane.

Gordon, I saw your padlock picture a few days before finding mine. I was going to take exactly the same picture with the stick and the sea behind it but unfortunately that morning my phone fell and broke. I'm still trying to pick that lock before I can make a key for it. I hope it works... Is yours without a key too? Let's see who makes the key first

Cheers

[Mitchell S]

Let's see who makes the key first

Cheers

Oh that's a brave thing to say to someone like Gordon. The man is a wizard.

[femurat]

Yep, he's THE brass wizard. I just hope he's busy like me, so we both make the key this weekend.
I still have to find a piece of brass thin enough to enter the keyway... or I'll have to file down a very thick one.

Cheers

[femurat]

So I picked the 8 lever padlock by putting pressure to the bolt with a bristle and lifting the levers with a shaved down key. I suspect there aren't 8 levers inside it because I only felt 3 or 4.







Here are better pictures of the YALE.

Cheers

[GWiens2001]

I'm no wizard, guys. Just a mediocre picker who is too stubborn to give up.

No keys with mine, so let's go for it, Femurat.

Gordon

[femurat]

Since I hadn't a reasonably sized piece of brass handy, I salvaged an old broken cabinet hinge and filed it down until it was flat. Then I inserted it in the keyway and filed down the tip to fit in the hole at the end of the keyway. Then smoked it with a candle to better see the marks and found three wards. I filed the three positions a little, cleaned the blank and took the first picture. The bottom part of the picture shows the marks I got while refining these three wards cuts.
I repeated the process a few times until I got what I think it's a proper key blank. It enters the keyway, turns almost 90 degrees and allows me to feel the actuator springiness. As you can see from the second pictures, the levers leave marks on their positions. I've circled those in red on both sides of the blank.

Before I go on I think I'll copy this blank to another brass rod just in case I screw up. I hope to find one hour to finish this first prototype key during the weekend.

Cheers

[femurat]

I copied the blank on a piece of steel and shaved away the sides. Used it as a tensor and picked the levers. Now the padlock is open. I think I can fit the key better this way, because the levers are locked in their correct position.
Next step: carefully file the brass blank.

Cheers

[GWiens2001]

Was at the same point with making a blank, and have failed to impression it twice. Will have to make another one and then pick the lock as you did.

When opening, did the key turn the full 180 degrees?

Gordon

[femurat]

Gordon, I failed too at impressioning the key. Twice.

The first time I filed the blank to fit the picked lock. I reached the point where I got no more marks and the key turned 180 degrees. I thought the key was ready, locked the padlock and tried to open it with the key, but unfortunately it didn't work.

I thought I filed down too much, so I filled the bittings with solder and tried to impression the closed lock.
I failed again. I think I'll either disassemble the lock by removing the rivets, or I leave it without a key.

And now the good news: after all this practice I can pick it in seconds.
yes both the wrench and the key turn 180 degrees.

[femurat]

I'm very happy I disassembled the padlock. Now I have a working key. During my previous attempts I impressioned correctly the first and fourth levers, but filed the second and third too much.
I started over with the last piece of brass I had, and filed carefully.
One thing I noticed is that the uncut side of the blank interfere with the lever positions. I suspect I screw up the previous attempts because of this.

I took many pictures and will make a topic dedicated to this beautiful padlock. For now here is a picture of the working key, it's the first one.
I noticed there is the number 858 punched inside the lock. Dunno if it's the model number or if it's the bittings code.

Cheers

[GWiens2001]

Congrats, Femurat! Can hardly wait for your write-up.

Gordon

[femurat]

Here it is. Sorry it took so long.

Cheers