Euro Profile Depth and Spacing guide

[nay27uk]

Hi all I am new here but have been interested in locking systems since about the age of 11 when I used to pick my brothers home built safe lock with paper clips. since then I have gone on to cracking combination padlocks for a few polish guys at work where they found them laying on the floor at the 24h gym they use, Locks just fascinate me.

Anyway I am still interested in locks and how they work and would like to get into properly picking them as a hobby but for the moment I am mainly interested in the Impresioning side of things and require a bit of help.

I purchased a cheap 5Pin Euro Profile Cylinder off ebay to test with along with 10X U5 Blanks from another seller well I have used all of the 10X blanks and then purchased another 5X and used them all and still have not yet successfully impressioned a working key, I don't know where I am going wrong, maybe the tools I don't know but my question is this.

Where on the internet do I find a Euro Profile Cylinder Depth and Spacing gauge? I have googled every term I can think of but can't find anything, just knowing what make and model of lock to look for depth and spacing gauges for would help as my lock is a no name lock. The spacing is not so much an issue as I have an old barrel from a euro cylinder I use to check my cuts are still in line but the depth is what I am struggling with, using a file it is hard to determine how much your taking off and I end up going to low on the cuts.

Any advice welcomed especially if you could point me the right way for a depth gauge as I think this would help me a lot combined with some digital calipers.

Thanks in advance

[Squelchtone]

euro profile cylinders come in many keyways and manufacturer brands and models. each one of these will have different depth and spacing.

what you need is a set of depth and space keys for your particular keyway and number of pins.

As an example: If you purchased a real genuine Yale Y1 5 pin euro profile cylinder, you would want to get a set of Yale Y1 5 pin depth and space keys.
Ebay is a good place to find them: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/YALE-Y1-DEPTH-SPACE-KEYS-LOCKSMITH-ACCESS-CROME-KEYS-/161457759785

I suspect your generic euro profile cylinder uses somebody else's already well known keyway, such as one made by Yale or Abus or another brand. figure out which keyway it uses (you could post a photo of it to imgur.com and then Paste it here to show us, and we can figure out which set of depth and space keys you need to buy.

I believe the Yale blank you need is Yale 1A or Silca YA1E from looking around at some of the U5 key blanks sellers adverts on ebay.

Do your own research, or even email this seller to verify that it will work with U5, and I could be totally wrong, but I *believe* this is the depth and space key set you need: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Depth-Space-Key-Set-Suits-YALE-YA1E-C1-Depths-0-9-/131582838746?hash=item1ea2f2c7da

good luck with your project, let us know how it all comes out
Squelchtone

bonus: here's a seller with a nice key blank chart: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Universal-key-blanks-4-5-and-6-pin-plus-reverse-blanks-choose-brass-or-steel-/181299043133?var=&hash=item2a3643db3d

update: looking at the chart at the bottom of that ebay advert, I suspect I might be wrong to say that your U5 keyway is the same as Silca YA1E, so let's wait for some UK lockies to reply to this with their experience and wisdom.

[billdeserthills]

I think you will find a set of depth keys to be less helpful than you might imagine. One of the things impressioning does is determine the correct spacing & of course when done correctly it will indicate a working depth as well. Why not start out a bit more slowly with your impressioning and learn, instead of trying to begin from the middle? In the past when I have trained people I like to start them out with a simple single sided 'wafer' type of lock, which is more forgiving than a pin tumbler lock is. Even an older Yale wafer padlock can be much easier to impression than the profile lock you have. For example, the type of wafer lock I am talking about will have 5 wafers with 5 depths, your profile lock likely has 5-6 tumblers and up to 10 depths, so you are making it much harder on yourself than need be. Very few of us started in the middle, most locksmiths were trained from the ground up, as it is more conducive to learning, when you can succeed.

[nay27uk]

Thanks both some good info there I will take that advice and look for a cheap wafer padlock. The main reason for choosing a euro profile in the first place was due to YouTube videos on impressioning most seem to say that euro profile are the easiest tobpick and impression.

Again thanks for the advic