I haven’t heard anything from Phillipthelocksmith and even asked a few times if he was going to put something up. Since there’s been radio silence and there’s a demand for class. I’ll be hosting it.
We’ll be using http://a.co/9Ut9YCp as our class material and covering the basic mechanics of a lock and have session time for practice.
I’m down for a Saturday. I literally just bought a set of picks as well for a door in my apartment that they won’t unlock for me (has the water heater behind it).
I’m up for teaching it if the resident locksmiths aren’t. You know, the guy hiding in vaults for a living.
I can bring some of my training supplies as well as field examples.
-Jim
I am interested two. I actually have two things I own that need to be opened. One is a fancy cabinet and the other is an older slot machine. A friend and fellow woodturner owns Laura’s Locksmith in Denton. We might be able to find out where to procure items of the highest quality and fair cost from him.
Jeff
Jim, up for tag teaming on this one? I’ll get the tools and equipment and you can cover the fun stuff?
Sounds good to me
This is such a cool class topic. I’d add special interest for getting keys out of locked cars if that’s in anyone’s skill set.
This is why I keep ly keys on a long lanyard, twice in the past 5 years I’ve locked my keys in the car and twice I’ve been able to fish them out with a wire hook and wedge.
his is such a cool class topic. I’d add special interest for getting keys out of locked cars if that’s in anyone’s skill set.
Knowing a bit of the legalities and regulations behind that one I myself would rather not take that risk at the space.
(ie someone taking the class then telling the cops when picked up for grand theft auto that they learnt it at DMS and quite erroneously “was told by the instructors it was ok”)
or in other words locksport is cool; theft is not and lets not open the space to further safety issues. If someone would like to do automotive locks that would not open us up to the above concern then great i’ll be glad to help get that on the calendar.
Updates:
haven’t found a purchase agent that’s available to rangle in to get the items for the class so my next pay check is coming up and I’ll get the committee to cover it after ordered. Eta for equipment order is about five days, eta for onsite would be about 5 days after that for shipping.
We should have this in time for March’s CTF event.
Sweet! Can’t wait to take the course.
I am ready to take the class also. I’ve done cylinder re-keying and manually filed my own new keys before just to save rekeying my home. (-: That is a big money saver over paying a company to come in and do it.
We actually have a key cutter at the space.
Can’t cut a copy until you have an original one. Unless the key cutter at DMS reads the new pins in the cylinder. (-;
I can provide support if needed. Per a prior post, I worked for 1.5 years as a locksmith running service calls all over the Little Rock, Arkansas area my senior year in high school and a bit after that.
For show and tell I can bring: picks, pick gun, bump key sets, and a padlock with clear plastic body so tumblers are visible.
For anyone interested in 3D printing of keys, the following Hackaday article has links to an SCAD model of a Kwikset key. The Kwikset is probably the most prevalent keyway (the profile when looking at the key end that goes into the lock) for home use. The Kwikset keyway is very similar to that of other popular home locks, such as Dexter and Weiser, so the SCAD file could be easily tweaked for those.
After changing the SCAD file to match my house key, I was able to print a key in PLA on my Prusa i3mk2 that opened the lock - after 6-7 print attempts. And the key started to break when I began to turn it. There are some very thin features in this (and every) keyway, at this point my 3D printer is unreliable at printing keys with either the needed feature resolution or strength.
For anyone who has a Kwikset residence lock and wants to experiment with the SCAD file in the above Hackady link, the following Excel table may be useful.
| Cut height (inches) | Cut # |
|---|---|
| 0.325 | 1 |
| 0.302 | 2 |
| 0.279 | 3 |
| 0.256 | 4 |
| 0.233 | 5 |
| 0.210 | 6 |
There are 5 cuts on a Kwikset key, with the first cut being closest to the bow (the handle end) of the key. Each cut can have one of 6 depths, 1-6, where 1 is the shallowest and 6 is the deepest.
translate([0, 0, 0])
key(teeth=[1, 3, 5, 4, 6]);
Here’s a preview of the above key from SCAD
If anyone tries this, I’d be interested in your results. I’m going to print the same key on an SLA printer and see how it works.
NOTE: It is important to distinguish between the terms ‘depth’ and ‘height’, as used in the above discussion. Conventionally, cut depths are measured from the top of the cutting surface of the key. Practically, an easy way to measure the cut of an existing key is to measure the height from the bottom of the key.
We do? Where?
Back of the automotive shelves, facing the lasers, about eye-height.
I am definitely interested in taking a class. Will someone post an update on here once we get a class posted?
Yes… I’ll be announcing it here and all over the space/twitter/etc… Still waiting on the tools and equipment to arrive at the space.
Guys, Tools came in last night. and looks like we have several locks to play with. I plan on having these locks hung up in VCC for anyone to test thier metal at any time. But for now we’ll get the class scheduled.
@hon1nbo your still interested tag teaming this one right?