Cool Coin Bank

[GWiens2001]

A childhood friend of my wife told her she had a handmade coin bank, but lost the key years ago. She said local locksmiths could not help her. My wife told her to send it down when her parents came down for the summer. It has now arrived.





New(er) post office box door/lock. It is 35 years old, and was a post office door from when they stopped making combination locks, but had not redesigned the door without the combination lock letters.



Reverse Yale keyway, and I had a few five pin blanks.



Well, needed to figure out how many pins, so I stuck a flashlight in front, shining light through the window, and looked into the keyway.





OK, try the blank.



Made in 1980



And no pins in the core.



So, without much difficulty, now the bank is once again functional. It will go back to its owner soon.

Gordon

[farmall]

That's great. the locksmiths missed and easy service charge there. Are you going to pin it up?

[GWiens2001]

That is up to my wife's friend.

Gordon

[bitbuster]

very nice bank. here are pics of the 1961 combination version of your key op door.

dougs garage 046.jpg

dougs garage 047.jpg

dougs garage 048.jpg

dougs garage 049.jpg

[GWiens2001]

Nice, bitbuster.

Here is my 1960 combination version. Took the picture a month ago at Homer, Alaska. (Locks need vacations, too!)



Gordon

[Papa Gleb]

I can understand why locksmith(s) could not help her, I too have turned down a few jobs to make/impression keys for rare antique items because the chance of braking them far out weighed the reward.

Very nice pictures btw.

[jeffmoss26]

Very cool!!

[Locks+Picks_Happy]

Great call with that flashlight. I have to say my frist thought with that illuminated key way was it looks like it doesn't have any pins. But my second thought was if it was that easy a locksmith could have definitely done this job. Sometimes you just need to use Occam's razor. Great innovative problem solving.

Could you have turned the keyway with any piece of metal, or was it necessary to use a blank?

[GWiens2001]

Great call with that flashlight. I have to say my frist thought with that illuminated key way was it looks like it doesn't have any pins. But my second thought was if it was that easy a locksmith could have definitely done this job. Sometimes you just need to use Occam's razor. Great innovative problem solving.

Could you have turned the keyway with any piece of metal, or was it necessary to use a blank?

Any piece of metal would turn it, though it is under some spring tension.

Gordon

[iiFlynRyan]

lol very cool little bank