German Lock Box
Was asked by some lockie friends to open/make a key for this box. Wish it was mine.
May not look all that exciting, but there were a couple things I liked about it.
First, had to pick it open. Good old music wire to the rescue again.
Open! (Contents of lock box removed for customer privacy)
What is up with that little door on the bottom?
Battery? What does this thing use a battery for? Well, let’s take a look.
Huh? That 12 volt battery looks a little old to me. Well, what does it power? (More accurately, what did it power when it did work? To find out, we remove that ‘false bottom’…
A lock box with a built-in alarm! Not exactly new technology, but cool nonetheless.
Alarm on: (if the battery were any good)
Alarm off: (Whether the battery is good or not)
OK, gotta make a key.
Uh… no blanks like that. Well, from picking, already know the levers are only on the top. So, no blanks… time to improvise. Stainless steel tubing should do the trick.
OK, cut a slot and make a flag. Then bend the rest of the tube around a small screwdriver to fit around the post.
Use a marker, since steel don’t make too good impression marks. Look at the marks. Hey, four clearly defined levers!
Better draw lines to roughly see where the cuts will go.
Use marker, insert, turn a couple of times.
Working our way down.
Once a working prototype key is working, let’s see what is supposed to be happening. Remove the lock!
The last section of the bolt movement is spring loaded. Here it is in the fully retracted mode.
Here are the four levers:
Have a cold, so not feeling like taking all night for the write-up. Shortened story - figured out that could make the lock operate with a furniture lock key blank from a hardware store, cut to size for blade height and thickness, then for the bits. Final key:
This lock was set up for a dual bitted key, so the key has to be turned one and a half rotations to fully lock or unlock. But not a bad ending, and the box will go back to my friends tomorrow, who will return it to their customer.
Have a good one, guys and gals,
Gordon