Lauren's Antique Padlock Restoration

[Lauren]

I obtained this nice hatch pattern padlock recently without a key in the locked position. The hasp and the key hole cover showed some nice spring back action, so this lock had promise to be fully intact. With this lock, I wanted to machine an extra special key made from nickle silver bar stock on my drill press. In addition, I wanted to make some tooling that would replicate those nasty concentric top and bottom ward cuts. Here's some of the steps:

Grinding the key head:



Side view of the barrel hole and key head thickness:



Key barrel and lighting bolt bit established (NICE!)



Special homemade cutter for production of the bottom ward (Works great!):





Using a scribe locked in the drill press to define key head and waste material:



Special homemade cutter for production of the top ward (WOW!):





Tools, key and wonderfully working padlock:

[nozza36]

Love your work Lauren , i would like to get my hands on some machining capabilities eventually !

[macgng]

great work as always!

[Oldfast]

Indeed, indeed! Beautiful outcome. Thanks for sharing some of that journey

[GWiens2001]

A work of art, Lauren. Thank you for a view into how you do some of what you do.

Gordon

[MrWizard]

Amazing work as always perfect fit.
Don't know anyone else that produces keys from bar stock.
Plus made from material that is hard to work with.
Works of art each and everyone of your keys.

Richard

[MBI]

Thank you for taking the time to show us all these steps in production of a key like that. Looking at a finished one, knowing it's handmade, clearly it took a lot of work, but seeing that sequence of pictures really puts the massive amount of labor involved, into perspective.

[ARF-GEF]

Lauren, that is one great project!

[rai]

Now you have all that chip scrap to melt and make sand cast keys too.

[jeffmoss26]

That is awesome. Thanks again for making the key for my coworker's Power Lever padlock. Will take it to him tomorrow!

[Lauren]

Today, my brand new, uncut Corbin barrel key found its new home. I received a brass Corbin 4-lever padlock today in the locked position. I picked the lock open, decoded the tumblers using the center pin as a reference surface, and I then cut my key on my drill press using a Dremel diamond cutter. I purchased the lock on Ebay for $5.99...what a steal! The padlock works great...

[Lauren]

After the patent expired on various padlocks, certain manufacturers would reproduce the designs. The Ames Sword padlock was no exception. Eagle Lock Co. reproduced the Ames Sword padlock. An Eagle version was obtained without a key in the locked position. In order to reproduce a working key, the lock must first be decoded. The decoding process is a technique called "incremental bit reduction". A double bit key is used, containing only one mirroring bit set at the end of the barrel. The total bit height of both bits is .550 inch. Both bits are equally ground down and tested on all four lever tumbler pairs. When the key can be turned counterclockwise to the 9 O'clock position the total bit height is measured. This information is used to make the final working key. Here's some spec's for making a key blank: Barrel hole drill size= #24 drill bit, barrel diameter= .250 inch, bit thickness= .072 inch, total bit height= .550 inch, bit width= .315 inch. The individual bit widths were obtained by taking .315 divided by 4. Essentially, it takes one decoding key in order to making a working one.

Here's a pictorial view of the process that was used to machine a working key on my drill press once the lock was decoded:

[GWiens2001]

Magnificent work, Lauren! Thank you for the pictures, as well.

Gordon

[MrWizard]

Lauren

That is just spectacular almost magical and great pictures.

Richard

[Lauren]

http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic ... 63#p428063

Just something else I did today.