What Did You Impression Today?

[Jacob Morgan]

Got a lever tumbler lock today, and as luck would have it had a blank that fit. Just had to impression it.

[Jacob Morgan]

An old Slaymaker.

[Smrtz]

I actually just picked up an M530 and some blanks today!

I think I was making progress, but I felt the key start to bend so I stopped. I'm going to do more reading and try again tomorrow!

[Robotnik]

Sargent square pin master keyed padlock. Wasn't getting good results with vice grips, so I bound and marked the key by hand. Very surprised when that worked .

[GWiens2001]

Sometimes with wafer locks binding by hand works better. Like life itself, in impressioning there is no rule that always applies. Except when it does.

Nice job, Robotnik.

Gordon

[jeffmoss26]

Sargent square pin master keyed padlock. Wasn't getting good results with vice grips, so I bound and marked the key by hand. Very surprised when that worked .

Nice work!!

[Jacob Morgan]

Made a key to an old padlock, five pins. Had a lot of tarnish and paint on it, the wire wheel on the grinder cleaned up the outside.



Finally tried out the Vise-Grip style pliers that had the jaws built up by brazing. Worked well. The key in the photo was the one impressioned, and it was burnished some but no Vise-Grip marks.

[Jacob Morgan]

Got a lot of flat keys of eBay a little while back, it came with a few of the key blanks seen below. Had one of those little Master Locks without a key, so just had to impression it. Nothing difficult, but nice to be able to use the padlock.

[femurat]

I finished a key for an old Abus padlock that I started one month ago and left unfinished. I thought I filed too much and since I was tired I put it away for later. Looking at the key with fresh eyes made me see two marks that, once filed, allowed the key to turn. Since it took me just ten minutes to finish it, I decided to impression another padlock.



This is a small 3 pins Yale padlock that I bought at a flea market without a key. It's old but not worn out. A nice and easy padlock to impression.

Cheers

[Ralph_Goodman]

I finished a key for an old Abus padlock that I started one month ago and left unfinished. I thought I filed too much and since I was tired I put it away for later. Looking at the key with fresh eyes made me see two marks that, once filed, allowed the key to turn. Since it took me just ten minutes to finish it, I decided to impression another padlock.

How long did the impressioning really take you, removing the time you left it untouched? And did you do the second one faster?

[femurat]

I finished a key for an old Abus padlock that I started one month ago and left unfinished. I thought I filed too much and since I was tired I put it away for later. Looking at the key with fresh eyes made me see two marks that, once filed, allowed the key to turn. Since it took me just ten minutes to finish it, I decided to impression another padlock.

How long did the impressioning really take you, removing the time you left it untouched? And did you do the second one faster?

The first time I worked on the Abus 5 pins padlock I've been in my toys room for one hour and a half. But I also picked a couple locks so I guess I worked on it for a little more than one hour. I had to put it in a vise behind me and get up from the chair to wiggle the key and then sit back again to look at it under the light and file it on my workbench. Not the ideal situation, but when I started I thought it would have taken me just a few tries...
So total time is 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The second padlock was a Yale 3 pins. Sure I was faster. It took me less than half an hour. I don't remember exactly how long.

Keep in mind that my primary objective is not to ruin the lock. It's not a competition, otherwise I'd shake the key more vigorously, look at the marks much more quickly and file like a mad! I can make a key quicker but that's not how I like to work. I prefer to be gentle with the lock, to avoid the risk of breaking the blank and to file carefully. I enjoy it this way.

Cheers

[jeffmoss26]

Found this Russwin padlock in a drawer at work. Made the key with my pippin file and a bit of help from the HPC 1200.

[Jacob Morgan]

Picked up an old Yale disc tumbler lock, without a key, a while back. Could not seem to impression it. Discs worn and not leaving clear marks, or maybe the die cast body was deforming before the brass key? So tried doing it by sight. Here is the finished key.



Used the otoscope with the ear thing removed. It really showed the discs in the lock. The probe tool was used to start at the back and pull each disc down to see what their relative heights were. Maybe someone with really good close up vision could do it without an otoscope, but it really helps. Got the otoscope for Christmas from here: https://www.homesciencetools.com/product/xenon-pocket-otoscope/. Went with it as the lamp and body are from a common penlight by Pelican. So if anything goes wrong with it I should be able to get a replacement part. There are some cheaper scopes out there, but I wanted something that was not throw-away.



Here is an image of the otoscope's view. In the last photo the first disc is a 3 and the next visible one is a 4. It looked like it was a 3-4-3-1-1 but I was not certain of the exact depth, just which ones were taller than others. Used space and depth keys to cut a 2-3-2-1-1 and it did not open, so then went to 3-4-3-1-1 and it snapped open. It was nice to finally make a key for that lock.

[Jacob Morgan]

An old Corbin. Not too impressed with the bitting it came with.

[adi_picker]

Lockwood 234



Usually wouldn't bother to impression such a common lock, I have at least 30 that I have repinned that I use for practice. This one, although the same model is a much earlier revision than I have come across before, and I needed to keep my impressioning skills up. Have 3 more to be done tommorow, this one was done with just a file, but I am going to try using the Blitz as well tommorow to speed things up.

adi_picker