A skill known and practiced for years by seasoned locksmiths, impressioning a working key from a blank is a popular new addition in locksport circles everywhere. Get your blanks and Pippin files and get busy!
Is a Kwikset Smartkey able to be impressioned. I understand it’s not a pin tumbler lock but closer to a wafer system. Decoding seems to be the best way to open it without destruction, but with its unique wafer system would impressioning work?
The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep.
No, I don’t have one. I’ve just been curious for a long time.
The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep.
It seems to me that Smart Key locks are pretty fragile where impressioning would come in. Binding that core may do some irreparable damage. I do not know this to be true, but have seen some very bent wafers from these locks. It doesn't appear to take a lot of torque to do damage.
No, impressioning does not work with Kwikset Smartkey locks. This is because the wafer system uses a series of angled cuts that are difficult to replicate with an impression. The best way to open a Kwikset Smartkey lock without destruction is to decode it, which requires specialized tools and knowledge.
What specialized tools? I have a friend who inherited a house with 16 smartkey locks on it and no keys. I would hope that they are all keyed alike so it would be nice to be able to take one apart and be able to code it and make a key verses taking all of them apart to rekey them (I would buy the reset cradle at the point).
I key up commercial locks all day long in a shop setting so I can code and measure pins, I've never delt with waffers or the Smartkey system from the inside.
RedStagKiller wrote:What specialized tools? I have a friend who inherited a house with 16 smartkey locks on it and no keys. I would hope that they are all keyed alike so it would be nice to be able to take one apart and be able to code it and make a key verses taking all of them apart to rekey them (I would buy the reset cradle at the point).
The tool I've heard of people using is pretty expensive -- it's a camera-based decoder with lots of convenience features.
It should be possible to decode a SmartKey cylinder visually using depth and space keys, by observing how high the wafers rise when different depths are inserted, but I'm surprised that I can't find a guide to doing so. If you have the time, watching a few videos on the mechanism and paying attention to the height of the wafers in their unlocking position should give you an idea of how to decode the correct bitting depth one wafer at a time.
RedStagKiller wrote:What specialized tools? I have a friend who inherited a house with 16 smartkey locks on it and no keys. I would hope that they are all keyed alike so it would be nice to be able to take one apart and be able to code it and make a key verses taking all of them apart to rekey them (I would buy the reset cradle at the point).
The tool I've heard of people using is pretty expensive -- it's a camera-based decoder with lots of convenience features.
It should be possible to decode a SmartKey cylinder visually using depth and space keys, by observing how high the wafers rise when different depths are inserted, but I'm surprised that I can't find a guide to doing so. If you have the time, watching a few videos on the mechanism and paying attention to the height of the wafers in their unlocking position should give you an idea of how to decode the correct bitting depth one wafer at a time.
Thanks, Thats about where I was going to start... if I can find the sheer line ill just make a few straight depth keys and figure it out like that. I might swap him out locks for a day so I can take it back to my shop and figure it out.
RedStagKiller wrote:What specialized tools? I have a friend who inherited a house with 16 smartkey locks on it and no keys. I would hope that they are all keyed alike so it would be nice to be able to take one apart and be able to code it and make a key verses taking all of them apart to rekey them (I would buy the reset cradle at the point).
The tool I've heard of people using is pretty expensive -- it's a camera-based decoder with lots of convenience features.
It should be possible to decode a SmartKey cylinder visually using depth and space keys, by observing how high the wafers rise when different depths are inserted, but I'm surprised that I can't find a guide to doing so. If you have the time, watching a few videos on the mechanism and paying attention to the height of the wafers in their unlocking position should give you an idea of how to decode the correct bitting depth one wafer at a time.
Thanks, Thats about where I was going to start... if I can find the sheer line ill just make a few straight depth keys and figure it out like that. I might swap him out locks for a day so I can take it back to my shop and figure it out.
RedStagKiller wrote:Thanks, Thats about where I was going to start... if I can find the sheer line ill just make a few straight depth keys and figure it out like that. I might swap him out locks for a day so I can take it back to my shop and figure it out.
I made a short video today about decoding using the depth keys I have, in case it's useful to anyone.
RedStagKiller wrote:Thanks, Thats about where I was going to start... if I can find the sheer line ill just make a few straight depth keys and figure it out like that. I might swap him out locks for a day so I can take it back to my shop and figure it out.
I made a short video today about decoding using the depth keys I have, in case it's useful to anyone.
Thanks, I finally got to messing with this lock but I forgot about your video. I basically did what you showed but did not know about the +1. It did not work of course so I ended up taking the lock apart further and ultimately while trying to figure the mechanisms out I messed up the code. At that point I was able to reset the code to a 4 bit and after reassembling the lock I just set it to a random key. I am going back the the home owners tonight and will swap out locks so I can do it the right way this time around. I did write the code down that I figured on before I took it apart so I cut a +1 on those and hope that it works.
RedStagKiller wrote:I am going back the the home owners tonight and will swap out locks so I can do it the right way this time around. I did write the code down that I figured on before I took it apart so I cut a +1 on those and hope that it works.
Wish you luck! The video quality isn't the clearest so I hope I showed the wafer alignments well enough to be useful. Thanks for the update and hoping all goes smoothly tonight.
RedStagKiller wrote:I am going back the the home owners tonight and will swap out locks so I can do it the right way this time around. I did write the code down that I figured on before I took it apart so I cut a +1 on those and hope that it works.
Wish you luck! The video quality isn't the clearest so I hope I showed the wafer alignments well enough to be useful. Thanks for the update and hoping all goes smoothly tonight.
Thank you very much. With your instructional video I was able to get the code. The only thing I had to adjust was my cuts were -2 from what I thought was the sheer line verse -1. The lock was also gummed up which may have led to that issue. I hope when I stop at their house this evening the keys now will work the rest of the locks.
Thanks again! This community is always such a big help.
