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So a few years ago I got this padlock, locked and without a key. I think it's a Yale 1640090 but I'm not sure. I Picked it a few times and then decided to disassemble it to see how it works.



After disassembling the lock I thought I could rekey it and put it back to service. I left it disassembled but it was not a brilliant idea, since after a while I managed to loose the drill protection cover.
I wanted to make a key for it anyway, but it was very difficult to find a blank. I forgot about this padlock until I found it laying in the back of a cabinet. I made a post to buy it's missing cover but till now I had no luck.
Then I brought it to a friendly key duplicator that was kind enough to look for a fitting key. There I found out the core was probably changed, because the fitting blank is a CISA (CA 48) and not a Yale.
Here starts another adventure for this old padlock.





First of all I picked it again, then I removed the c-clip on the back and carefully removed the plug, using a AAA battery as a plug follower





So I decided to use a sharpie to mark the pins positions, one side at a time. Then filed down the key diagonally to allow the pins to sit flush in their chambers.









One side was done. It was time to file the other side.









Then I tried to reassemble the cylinder and found out that I filed the key less than needed, because the plug was stiff and not easy to insert in the cylinder. I had to adjust the key.





So I inserted it slowly and carefully, trying to slide it in the cylinder one pin at a time to notice which pins were too high. I gave a couple strokes with the file and then checked my progress again. Except for the first and deepest pin, that I filed a little off center, everything went fine. Now I have a working key. Yes, it's not reversible, because I filed down only one side. As you can see, by filing down both sides I may end up with a split key.









I think I may go back to the friendly key duplicator to see if he can make me a copy of this key.

Cheers

nice job! i wondered if you could just file it like that to get a simple dimple key working like that. cool! thanks for sharing.

Great job.

Just a suggestion, if you had.. or wanted to do that again Dykem or Prussian Blue would be ideal.

Thanks all for the compliments.

I was looking for layout blue but I've been told that a sharpie works better and, since I had one handy, used it. InsatiableOne, what advantages do you think I may have with the fluids you suggest, over the sharpie?

Thanks