LocksportSouth's Stash

[LocksportSouth]

Before we get to the next “big” lock on the list, I have a little detour to make. The seller who sold me my last lock on the list kindly packed the box full of awesome, FREE padlocks to make the best use of the flat shipping rate from the US. Very awesome! So, let’s take a look at the other stuff that he sent me...







What you see in the pic above is a large selection of U.S. stamped (Military, I believe?) American laminate locks and regular American locks – some with keys and some without – as well as two all-brass American locks new in boxes. Awesome!



A shot of some of the locks without keys. Picking challenge! Some still have chains attached too – I assume this is standard with these military locks to allow them to be hung near the thing they’re locking to stop them getting lost etc (the “big” S&G locks generally have chains, too):



Two all brass American locks with their boxes and keys. These are US stamped, so again, Military or at least Gov’t. I believe that all brass locks are generally used in explosive environments as brass will not generate sparks, as steel will. They have a very different feel to them than the other locks, and still have a satisfying but “softer” click when opening:



Some of the locks with keys – there’s two standard American locks and a laminate one also, all US stamped:



Closeup of one of the laminate locks. It’s hard to tell in the photo but the laminate sheets are a spectrum of colours between brassy, pink-ish and green – I’m not sure whether this is due to the tarnishing of the metal in use or an intentional colouring (although each laminate plate is a different colour and not in any really uniform way), but it sure looks nice .



This lock is branded “Pacific Lock” – I’m not sure if that’s a sub-brand of American or a separate company. Either way they look pretty nice!



Shot from the top:





And another one:







Here’s a Master one, with the “Tough Under Fire” slogan stamped into the top plate:





Another US stamped lock:





I’ve lost track of which is which, I think this is the lock from the last two pics though. Another Pacific:









Here’s a tall shackle US stamped lock:



And the bottom:



Laminate padlock with a “PACLOCK” (Pacific Lock) key:









Unlocked:





American Lock (US Stamped):





What a lovely collection of locks! In the next post, we’ll disassemble the locks with keys

[LocksportSouth]

In this post we’re going to break down some of the American locks with keys from the last post. If you’ve seen BosnianBill’s video on the “New” American locks after being bought over by Master Lock you’ll know that there has been a significant drop in security, such as reducing the number of pins and the quality of the core metal, and in permanently crimping the cylinders closed rather than using a C-clip. It’ll be interesting to see if these are the “old” style original American locks with serrated pins, or the new Masterlock style.

Here’s our first contender:



And the keys, which appear to be 5 pin:



Pop her open:



Simple Phillips screw to drop out the bottom plate:





Cylinder removed. If you’re wondering why there are two screws – the one on the right is a rivet type thing which the left screw screws into. It inserts up through the bottom of the bottom plate (notice the large hole in the top of the bottom plate) and the screws goes down into that from within the shackle hole:



Inside the lock, you can just about see the actuator:



Bottom plate showing the screw tube hole (at the top), the key cutout (in the middle) and a tab to fix the other side of the plate into the lock body (bottom):



Screw & screw bolt/rivet/whatever:



And the core:





Interestingly, it IS made of the regular brassy metal, but it’s also only 5 pins – the former being the trait of pervious American locks and the latter being a newer Masterlock style American lock trait. Not sure what to make of this so far, but the pins will likely tell us more...

End of the cylinder – we can see a C-clip, that’s a good sign:



C-clip removed and ready for disassembly:



Ah-hah!



Serrated keypins...



Serrated and serrated spool driver pins. Definitely an old-style Masterlock!





Re-assembling...





Onto the next one!





Unlock...



Unscrew...







Uh-oh. From a distance I count 5 pins, AND that looks like the newer copper-coated cylinder...



Yup.



Smooth keypins...





Notice the crimped edge of the cylinder and lack of a C-clip – these cylinders were never meant to be disassembled or repined:



Smooth keypins – except for the one silver bump-stop pin which, as Bosnian Bill pointed out, are usually frozen up, not only negating the anti-bump features but effectively turning this into a standard 4-pin lock, like the Master No.3 – oh dear.





Re-assembled:



I did want to take a look at the brass American locks next:



But unfortunately it turned out that the “thing” that is inserted into the shackle hole, holding the bottom plate on, is neither a hex screw, Phillips, or torx screw. I’ve no idea what it is, but it seems round and semi hollow, like an inverted rivet end. I assume what whoever put these specific locks together didn’t want them being opened again.



But I decided to include these close-up shots anyway because the locks are so pretty .



Unlocked:



You can see though that they’re using serrated key pins, so they *are* the old style, high security Americans:



Two together:



And that brings us to the end of this little segue. In my next post I’ll be getting back to our regularly scheduled Big Lock Porn™, however I just wanted to take a look at these US stamped American, Master and Pacific locks because they’re really awesome, and the fact that they were thrown in gratis is astoundingly generous .

[LocksportSouth]

A juicy update today!



Some may recognise this style of box ....

Another shot of the box from the side. The NSN may give this away, for some . I love to find these in their original boxes...





It’s another 833!



The previous Sargent & Greenleaf 833 was purchased from a forum member before I had the inkling to check eBay for this sort of thing, but I was lucky enough to find this 833 on eBay, “new in box” with all the original packaging, instructions and chain intact so I had to snap it up. Yeah, it cost a pretty penny but it’s awesome to have a shiny new one with all the gubbins

I’ll try to avoid too much unnecessary commentary or “instructional” stuff since I’ve already done that for the other 833. Expect a more picture focused, and less words-focused post this time around.

Instructions:



And here’s the lock body with chain. Lovely condition





I did take the chain off, though. Would be too hard to display it with the chain attached.



Keys!













Body closeup.



1991!













I’m shining a light in to show the “A” stamped into the body. I’m under the belief that these locks generally have unique IDs stamped into them for protection from destructive entry, then replacing the lock with another identical one – at least, the military versions have this. However, my locks mostly feature single number or letter codes – I’m not sure if that’s normal, or if I happen to have civilian bodies (although my research leads me to believe that these are indeed the mil versions).















Stripping the lock...



I didn’t talk about these parts enough before, so let’s address it now. In the following photo, on the far right you can see a large round hole which is of course the shackle hole. There are a couple of square-ish “cuts” into the surround – that’s for ceramic anti-cutting bars. The ball bearing also in this area is one of the two locking BBs for the shackle. Stepping down and left a level, you can see a little round metal tube sticking out of a small-ish hole which has its own surrounding half-circular ring. The little bar is partly to keep the metal rod, further left, in place and acts against the spring as it is pushed back, but it also acts as the stopper in the top of the actuator when the lock is in “open”, but not “control” position. Basically this little nub catches on the actuator and stops the body from opening. The silver metal spike, which is attached to the aforementioned spring-loaded rod, provides resistance to the non-opening side of the shackle when it is pushed down and pulled up. You can also see the bottom of the shackle – the bar cutting across it is to stop the shackle coming out completely.





In the side of the flat area of metal, you can see a rod that wasn’t present on my other 833 – this is an anti-cutting ceramic rod. These locks are packed with ‘em .



In the next pic, you can see that the lower body is also stamped with the letter “A”, same as the top half, as well as the number 3 and a sort of double FF symbol. I’m not sure about the relevance of any of these – whether any of them act as unique Ids to prevent deceptive destructive & replacement attacks – but I assume at least the A is for that purpose. Other than that, this is identical to my other 833, of course.







This cylinder cover / anti drill disk is stamped with the number “1!









Meanwhile, the actuator gets “2”:







Military Medeco core:







Disassembling:





Shiny!



Sidebar:





Typical Medeco wedge pins:







Empty chamber with springs:



All the pins – this time the drivers are a mix of mushroom and standard, and then the Medeco key pins. They all look to be steel, except the mushrooms:



Showing the back of the cylinder and the actuator, where the notch and nub line up:



Actuator and anti-drill disk re-attached:



Popping the ball bearings back in...



Slot the cylinder back in...



Re-assembled:



And there you have it!



What a lovely addition to the collection.

[LocksportSouth]

Drumroll, please



...............







Oh yeah! It’s a brand (ish) new S&G 951 with original box, instructions and accessories!

Instructions:



Shiny keys:









Angled Medeco cuts:



One control key and Two operators keys:



Warning package that the keys came in:



This accessory kit was still stapled closed...



Galvanised chain and staple:



Lookin’ tough and battle ready:



Bottom of the lock and chain connection:



Front of the lock. Ain’t she a beauty?



Note that this lock, just like the 833, disassembles by sliding apart in the middle. The 951 and 833 are very, very similar inside, actually.



The top half is stamped “US Government Property” on the back – that’s the first sign it’s a military/government padlock. The civilian ones are blank in this space, I believe.



Side, with drain hole:



Close-up of the back / US Government Property stamp. I love the texture of these locks – not shiny and reflective like the Abloys – it’s dull, almost rock-like, but still instils a sense of heft and quality. And then there’s this faint, almost imperceptible shimmer, which I assume is flecks of drill bit-breaking stuff. It’s very cool:



Top down. Lovely shiny shackle:





Bottom and keyway entry / drain point. Note that the key entryway is identical to the 833:



Operator’s key in lock:



Lock open:





Time to take a look inside...



As with the 833, the difference between the operator’s key and control key is simply a shoulder on the operator’s key which prevents it from turning anti-clockwise past the lip on the entrance cutout:



The 951 disassembles in a pretty much identical way to the 833:



The insides, too, are pretty much identical. In fact, I haven’t actively studied the differences but I daresay there is very little, if no difference at all between the 833 and 951 – except maybe the core:



Still plenty of anti-drill/cut rods, as you can see:



Anti-cutting rod on the side, same as the 833:



These anti-drill rods seem a bit... whiter? Not sure if that’s because the lock is new or because they’re made of something different:



After trying to explain how the parts were held together in my 833 post, I decided to hold the two halves of the 951 together to show it more visually, especially as this took me ages to figure out how it worked. On the left half, in the middle of that dirty circle, you can see that protruding silver cylinder at the bottom end of a oval cutout? (incidentally, for some reason the metal rod here is stuck in place – dirty somehow?) – that rod slides into the round cutout in the top of the circular actuator in the middle of the body section on the right. When the key is in the control position, the cutout gap is facing the open edge of the body (as it is now). When in the closed and normal open position, it is facing at other angles, which stops the body separating. That does appear to be the only thing holding this lock together (I assume that the semi-circular metal surround going around the silver cylinder is also trapped by the actuator, though) (and bear in mind that when locked both halves of the shackle also hold the body together!).



The cylinder slides out easily... Along with the locking ball bearings! Be careful not to lose them



All the body parts. Remember that “no more than 7 parts” rule I mentioned before? Still in effect here... In fact, one of the BBs doesn’t even come out:



Ball bearing in body (I think this was the loose one? I forget...) (Also, see that square hole above the BB? That’s where that spiky silver rod in the top half of the body, which provides tension on the shackle when sliding in and out, fits. Or at least, where it should fit – as I say, mine is seized up for some reason...



The anti-drill disk / cylinder protector looks a bit more beefy on the 951...



... And it has three anti-drill rods in it, too:



And it’s not only numbered, but lettered too, in my case. Although mine is labelled “A1” – seems suspicious, as my 833s were “A” body too. I wonder if A / A1 is just used for unspecified purpose or civilian models?



Top of the actuator is very similar to the 833 one:





Also “A1” labelled:



Green Teflon military cylinder:





Showing how the squared off edge of the cylinder front and the anti-drill disk fit together:



Cylinder rear – this is interesting, and we’ll get to why in a bit:



Showing the back of the cylinder and how the notch and nub on the actuator fits together.



Now, notice how the cylinder has a small screw on the back, on the left hand side? It’s a little grub screw:



And I’ve seen a video somewhere that shows when you remove this screw and tap the cylinder upside down, an anti-drill rod falls out. However all mine spits out is metal dust:



I can see the rod though, trapped inside. Said video did explain the difference between the Medeco cylinders with rods and ones without – I think possibly the ones with rods are newer, maybe the M3? However I can’t remember where I saw/heard this so please correct me if you know the difference.

Removing the C-clip:



And removing the plug...





Typical Medeco pins:







Key Pins:





I’ve explained these thoroughly in the 833 post so I won’t repeat myself here.



Cylinder body and bible with springs:



Driver and key pins. Nice to see a serrated in there!



And more serrated of different heights, number of serrations and thickness of serrations. Interesting!



Serrated pin closeup:



All the Medeco cylinder driver and key pins – all Medeco steel key pins and a mixture of two standard and four serrated drivers, which all look to be brass.



Re-assembling. Interesting how one of the pins doesn’t have the little hole thingy in the middle?



Cylinder re-assembled with control key:



Actuator and anti-drill plate in plate, replacing cylinder back into lock body:







All back together:



What. A. Gorgeous. Padlock.



And that’s it for my Sargent & Greenleaf locks.... For now. But don’t worry, there’s still plenty more to come....

[jeffmoss26]

Drooool

[GWiens2001]

cleans up Jeff's drool with a hand-mop.

Come on, Jeff. Your mother does not work here. Clean up after yourself.

drools himself, and cleans it up

Gordon

[LocksportSouth]

Hehehe, luckily they're all waterproof
If it's any consolation, the 951 I probably overpaid for, and I've spent basically every spare penny on locks, lockpicks or lock-related stuff. That's what I get for joining forums where I get encouragement and learn about new awesome locks I'd never heard of before, I guess .
Also, I somehow have a longer wishlist now, dammit. I wonder how much I could get for a spare lung....

[LocksportSouth]

Okay, so I have something very, very cool to show you today. I didn't really know much about these when I bought this, other than it sounded and looked awesome, but I've since done a bit more research into both the lock body and cylinder so the below may have some inaccuracies, apologies if that's the case.

I do actually have the original box for this as well, but I’ve already packed it away. Anyway, without further ado...



It’s an Mogul, fitted with an Assa V-10 core. The Mogul cylinders are detention locks designed for prison doors and the like – as such it has a hugely heavy and chunky casing which is all but vandal-proof. This unit is comprised of the large outer shelf, an armoured front plate (that’s the shinier silver bit you see in the middle of the large outer disk) and the cylinder itself, as well as... Well, we’ll get to the internals soon enough .



You’ll notice the keys are interesting – they have two lines of bitting. These are Assa Twin keys, and the lock has both “normal” pins and also a kind of sidebar / side pin system:



I love these keys, so cool looking:



The keys are stamped “AA2” on the back. The cylinder itself has a sticky label which says “AA3”. I had no idea what this meant until I just googled it literally a few minutes ago and found an awesome PDF from ASSA called “Master Key System Design Guide” which shows that it’s a way of designating master key levels.



The front of the cylinder looks imposing and awesome:







Life goals: Find a way to fit this to my front door, hahaha:



Pin chambers in the outer body? You may be asking. Why yes, I’ll get to that:



The back of the lock. So – in the middle we have the actuator, which screws onto the back of the plug. Above that we have three cutouts – two on the left and right which I assume are to do with fitting this into the lock body. The one in the middle is interesting – you see that little brass screw in the middle? We’ll get to that soon.



Now would be a good time to point out that the following disassembly is not the first time I disassembled this lock. This time, I did it carefully and under controlled situations (I still had some issues, but not many). The first time was just after I received the lock. It was new and exciting, and I figured “Oh, it won’t hurt to quickly pop the plug out and take a look at it before I pop it back together and start the teardown! Won’t take 2 minutes”. So, that’s all well and good until I started sliding the plug out and pins, springs and side pins started popping out and flying EVERYWHERE. On the plus side I learnt a lot about how this lock works as I spent the next SIX HOURS putting it back together. You live and learn!!

So, moving on. Close-up of the actuator:





And that brass screw. When I first saw this lock I couldn’t figure out what the pin chambers in the top of the lock body were for – I assumed that maybe the lock had a second set of pins, separate to the plug that somehow locked the plug in place? Well, it turns out that this little screw isn’t just a screw...



When you unscrew it...



You’ll find that it’s attached to a long brass rod. Below that, the springs, driver pins, and finally the plug and key pins / master wafers can be found. This is simply an efficient way to pin up the chambers without having to use a plug follower – simply pin up the plug (I guess you could technically do that through the top holes too, but I found that the master wafers kept getting caught), slide it in and then pin the drivers and springs from above. There’s a trick to getting the bar back in, as the springs necessarily sit higher than the bar (to provide spring tension) – the way I did it is to push the bar up against the spring like when you use a plug to trap the driver pin in place in a regular lock, then use a thin, flat screwdriver to push the spring down. Pull up on the screwdriver whilst pushing the rod forward and it’ll slide into place!

Here’s one of the pin chambers. There are a LOT of parts in this lock – not least because of the master wafers in mine:



Pins removed:



So we have six pins, three master wafers, six drivers and six springs – this isn’t counting the sidebar stuff. All the drivers are like.. Weird spools. Reverse spools? They have sharp spool edges, then a dip, and then a wider middle section. Interesting stuff. Key pins are standard:





Empty chambers:



There’s that long rod that I was talking about, and also the two screws which attach the actuator plate to the back of the cylinder:



Back of the cylinder and actuator with the screws removed:



Actuator plate:



The inside fits into the back of the cylinder. It’s really heavy-duty and thick, just like the rest of the lock...



Back of the lock unit with the actuator removed exposing the rear of the plug:



Plug coming out of the front (well, technically this is an armoured plate which slides onto the front of the plug to protect it. Also: the bane of my time with this lock, as I kept carefully re-assembling all the parts in the plug only to forget this front plate – which you can’t add with a key in the plug – and had to start over. D’oh!):



Rear actuator plate and front cylinder protector:



Front of the cylinder with the plug and front plate removed:



All the “loose bits” so far – key pins, master wafers, driver pins, springs, actuator screws, pin loading slot rod, actuator and front plate:



Here’s the key in the plug, which is wrapped in black tape. For good reason...



... Because not only does the plug have the regular pin chambers (which are even more finicky than usual when fitted with paper-thin master wafers), it also has five side-pins (and springs) AND a sidebar, which are ALL loose and will come out of the plug (the key holds the side pins in, but that’s it. Also they’re under spring tension, so remove the key and you GUARANTEE that pins will go flying across the room...):



End of the plug:



Pin chambers empty:



Holding the sidebar in. This interacts with the side-pins (which in turn are interacted with by the key) and like most sidebar locks, the sidebar will stick out when the correct key is not inserted:



Photographing this was a nightmare as I don’t have a proper macro lens. You’re looking at the slot where the sidebar goes – I’ve removed it for this shot – and inside the slot you’re looking at the side of the side pins. The little serrations you see are where the sidebar nubs fit into:



Sidebar and springs, which are SUPER TINY and will fly off at high speed when you’re trying to fit the sidebar under tension, and will get lost on the floor forcing you to spend an hour hunting for them. Twice. So I hear... ¬_¬



The side pins have a higher edge and a lower edge, which interacts with the cuts on the key. I’ve not got it PERFECTLY worked out like the Medeco system but I have a rough idea of how it works...

The key does thankfully keep the side pins in place, so when you’ve managed to finagle the pins down into their chambers and slid the key over the top, they won’t leave in a hurry.



Show of the sidepins and springs. So, add that to the list of parts that come out of this lock! Interestingly there are six primary pins but only five sidebar pins:



A couple of attempted close-ups (like I said, no decent macro lens...) of the side pins. Note the notch cut into the side for the sidebar nubs to fit into:





The plug with all the “bits” removed. There’s barely anything left of it!!



All the parts – as before, but now including the side pins, springs, sidebar & springs, plug, body and key. Phew!



Time to re-assemble! First, drop in the sidebar springs and pins, then carefully rotate the side pins to the right angle, push them down and slide the key over the top (may take some fiddling) until the key fits all the way in:



(Quick note: No, actually, the first step is to load the damn armoured front plate into the key FIRST – ideally onto the plug, but it WILL keep slipping off. However it’s a gigantic pain in the arse to try and fit this after the plug has been assembled...)

Next step: Load the key pins and master wafers. If you don’t have any master wafers, you can skip this step and load them from the lock body along with the drivers (master wafers tend to get stuck inside the chamber in my experience):



Then, C.A.R.E.F.U.L.L.Y load the tiiiny springs into the cutouts for them in the sidebar slot, and then add the sidebar. Test it goes down all the way, then curse and have to take the sidebar back out, locate and re-insert the springs that just pinged off everywhere, and reinsert the sidebar the other way round ‘cos you put it on back to front....:



You can then hold the sidebar in and load the plug back into the lock body. Little tip – stick some tape over the pin chambers on the outer body to stop the key pins and wafers leaving while you re-attach the actuator:



Now it’s very important that you attach the actuator – otherwise the plug will fall out and key pins, master wafers, sidebar & springs, key pins and springs will fly EVERYWHERE. Be careful when screwing it back in as it’s easy to push the plug out with the force of the screwing motion – I recommend using a vice and jamming it in in such a way that the plug cannot leave:





For some reason, I didn’t get any photos of the next step. Anyway, once the actuator is screwed on, carefully remove the tape (dropping any master wafers and pins that may be stuck – be careful as they can get caught in the chambers), and refill the pin chambers with driver pins and springs. Then load the bar into the hole in the back and use the trick I mentioned earlier to get it pushed through. Then simply screw it back into place and BOOM, you’re done.



This is definitely one of my coolest finds and I hope to get it mounted in a stand of some kind to show off properly . Thanks for following my journey!

[nine4t4]

Great pics, that Mogul is sexy. Time for me start spending money on some good locks

[LocksportSouth]

Thanks, nine4t4






Now I have your attention...

So, this parcel came through quite a while ago, but due to lots of life stuff going on I haven’t had chance to photograph it or get it uploaded (that goes for most of my recent posts, to be honest). That said, it did take an extraordinarily long time to turn up, the details of which could fill a small book but I won’t bore you with the mundanities of online ordering. So, without further ado, let’s get to the EPIC Ruko haul!!

Outer box:



Opening the box up, we have an... Interesting packaging solution:



They actually included a Ruko merchandise box (I assume that’s what it is), which is pretty cool:





All the locks laid out. They packed them into sandwich bags to keep the keys and code cards together:



All the locks laid out with their respective keys:







The code card – this is for the locks with the Garant core (I got a few (the red/blue strip and a few nice green stripe locks) in Garant Plus core and the rest in 1200 series (similar to D12, but a different keyway, I’m still not 100% sure of the differences between the ASSA and the Ruko cores, which seem very similar). The purple label with the black hatchings is a sticker which you can peel off to reveal the code cutting number underneath:



Back of the card:



You’ve seen this one already (first photo), but here’s the locks with a paper label next to each one showing the model number for each lock. It can be hard to track this info down so I thought it worth labelling (do check out my Ruko thread which explains all the naming conventions, too). “RG” is for the Garant cores (Ruko Garant) and RD is for the 1200 series (Ruko D12):











Some shots of the three shutter locks laid out next to each other for size comparison:







All locks laid out together:



And all of the keys, after they had been transferred to my keyrings with the standard key tags and lobster clips. Also some keys for other locks that had recently arrived...



And that’s it for this post. I’ll be doing a dedicated look at all of the locks individually (including full breakdowns of a D12 and a Garant Plus core, as well as partial breakdowns of all other locks), and will be making a dedicated post for each lock so look out for those very soon!

If you have any questions, just ask. Rukos are one of my main projects right now so I may have discovered answers to questions that I haven’t found elsewhere... Or maybe I’ll have a new question to add to my list of “things I want to know about Rukos”, lol!

[LocksportSouth]

Hey all! To kick off this series of Rukos, let’s start from the ground up – the simplest / lowest end of the range that I have. Note that these are all very capable and extremely nice locks regardless . I wish I could find some yellow stripe (grade one) Rukos, but I’ve not had any luck sourcing these, sadly.

The RD2640 and RD2641 are very similar locks – in fact the only difference is in the way that they open and retain the key. It’s take a look at them:



The bodies are identical, but we’ll start with the 2640, since (numerically) it’s the “lowest” end. As you can tell from the “RD”, these are D12 / 1200 series cylinders.

Both the 40 and 41 next to each other:



Two sets of keys:



Notice that the keys seem to have “too many” cuts?



That’s due to the way the D12 system works. They have 6 pins in the locks, but 12 cuts and specially shaped pins that take advantage of the extra cuts in the keys. Whilst this doesn’t provide any picking advantage (as there are still “only” six pins), it does provide two important advantages: Firstly, the larger variety of cuts means that there are more key differs (as each pin can straddle two cuts in different ways), leading to better masterkeying potential, and secondly because the additional cuts make it much harder to “sight-read” a key to make a duplicate.

Disassembly is pretty simple – after unlocking the padlock, you’ll find a torx screw at the bottom of the open-side shackle hole:



Simply unscrew it, and the plug will fall out:



This applies to all Rukos in the Grade 2 range (green stripe), but from Grade three onwards the extra requirements call for a bottom plate, so that is present in all Rukos from blue stripe onwards.

Sliding the cylinder out:



The back of the cylinder – this Z plate is screwed to the back of the plug, and acts as an interface for the actuator which is located inside the lock:



Here’s the actuator disk and another part which work together to open the lock:



So, what’s the difference between the 2640 and the 2641? Well, the 2640 is not key retaining, and the 2641 is. On the 2641, when you unlock the lock, the shackle will pop open and the key is unable to rotate at all until the shackle is depressed and then the key turned (the shackles are under spring tension, so it’s a little fiddly to hold the shackle down and turn the key at the same time!). On the other hand, after you turn the key in the 2640 and the shackle pops open, you can rotate the key back and remove it, and simply “click shut” the lock whenever you want. Somehow this works despite being a ball bearing locking lock – though I’ve not been able to figure out quite how.

Unfortunately, my 2640 currently doesn’t function quite as intended. Originally, the cylinder gave slight spring tension when turning to the “lock” position, so if you popped the lock open and then wanted to turn and remove the key, the cylinder would be under tension when you turn it. The mechanism and number of parts in the 2640 is actually significantly more complex than any of the other locks that I own, which all use the 2641 key-retaining mechanism, so it caught me by surprise and I spent many hours trying to reassemble it, leading to issues such as it locking or unlocking in the wrong directions, the shackle being able to be tapped lightly and pop open (I assume the mechanism which allows the snap closed somehow became snap open, an inability to remove the key and more. I think you need to turn and hold certain components under spring tension while re-assembling, too. I’ve managed to get it “working” normally but for some reason the keyway is no longer under spring tension in any direction – I really need to spend some time fixing that one of these days!

This is all a roundabout way of saying – the 2641 is a much more complex lock, the internal components can be inserted upside down, back to front and the wrong way round, and there are so many possible permutations of “this plate round this way, this spring on this side of this disk” etc it’s nearly impossible to brute-force guess your way through it. I’ve not been able to figure out how this particular lock works at all (in terms of the closing mechanism) and there are scant few details on the web about Rukos – so if you decide to disassemble a 2640 yourself, for the love of all that is holy, be careful, pay attention, and log EVERYTHING.

Here’s the cylinder – we’ll be disassembling this since this is the first 1200 series / D12 cylinder we’ve come across so far:



Unscrew the two torx screws holding the actuator connector onto the back of the plug:



Remove the plug in the usual way...



Here’s the end of one of the key pins. Notice that is had a tooth-like shape? That’s so it can sit in the key grooves in a specific way. It’s almost like a Medeco, but not really, because it doesn’t interact with a sidepin – the double groove is purely for key control and increasing the number of differs, I believe. The nubs on the side are to keep the rotation oriented correctly:



All the pins. All standard (well, standard for 1200 series locks anyway!) key pins, and those kinda odd reverse-spool drivers that you saw in my previous post about the ASSA twin in the Mogul:



Lock reassembled – finally!



Next time, we’ll be looking at the RD2641, which is like the RD2640, but much less of a pain in the ass .

[LocksportSouth]

Hey! If you saw my last post on the RD2640, you’ll know that it’s a giant pain to put back together. The 2641 – and all other Rukos that I own – are mercifully much less hassle. This and all future locks are key-retaining by the way.

This RD2641 is otherwise completely identical to the RD2640 – but we’ll take a look at it anyway .



I do so love these padlocks. I’ve probably mentioned elsewhere but Rukos are kinda one of the original reasons I got interested in locks, way back when I was a kid. It’s so cool to finally get hold of some, despite the hassle.





Key again. If anyone knows the difference between the D12 and 1200 series, let me know. Both look the same and I have both in a Ruko 2641, but the keyways are ever-so-slightly different and obviously they have different names. Other than that they share a lot of similarities – 12 cuts in the key, 6 pins, trapezoid head (similar to the original 500 series, I believe), and the “d” shaped keyway that has the key pins rest on a piece of warding to help prevent picking.

The keyway I was talking about:



These Rukos all have the 1200 keyway, but I do have a Ruko 2641 with a d12 keyway, too.

Side of the lock:



I’m not sure what that round cutout/plug is for, but I’ve not been able to remove it. It’s on the non-opening-shackle side so I assume it’s something that was sealed in during lock assembly.

Front again, including Assa Ruko 2:



Unlocked:



The screw to hold the cylinder in removes in the same way for all of these locks:





Looking down inside the lock, you can see the actuator plate and the sticky-out tailpiece kinda thing – they work together to unlock the shackle but also to limit rotation of the key and make sure it’s going in the right direction:



1200 series cylinder:



A look at the inside, with the actuator plate removed:



Re-assembled:

[LocksportSouth]

Now we move on to another “double set”, kind-of. In this post we’ll be looking at the RD2643 (52mm), and we also have the RD2643 (127mm) to look at in a future post.

As far as I can tell, the body of the RD2643 is identical to the RD2640/41. The only difference appears to be a longer shackle – there’s a choice of 52mm and 127mm, although there’s no formal distinction in the official product number, hence why I have simply appended the shackle height to the model number. They *do* have a different model number from the 2640 though, which is interesting – as I consider them to really be the three sizes of 2641, with the 2641 being “small” and these two “Medium” and “Long”. The shackle thickness seems to be the same in all cases – I believe 8mm, and they all use the 2641’s key retaining locking mechanism. The cylinder is also a standard 1200 series so we will not be stripping any more of these as we’ve already looked at one, and they will all look more or less identical (except for different length pins, of course).

Here she is:







Familiar 1200 series key:









I don’t think I’ve pointed it out before, but here’s the drain hole:



Taller shackle than the 2640...







Unlocked:



Inside the body, the mechanism is identical to the 2641:

[LocksportSouth]

If the RD2643 (52mm) was very similar to the RD2641, then the RD2643 (127mm) is literally identical, except for the longer shackle. I believe you can even just buy a long shackle to convert one to the other, and there is no distinction at all from a product number standpoint. All that said, I’ll simply stand back and let you enjoy the pics this time .

















That’s a hella long shackle! I wonder what you’d use it for...

[LocksportSouth]

If the 2643 locks were similar to the 2640 except for a longer shackle, the 2646 is similar to the 2460 but with a thicker shackle. I believe the two are otherwise similar (same as the 2643), but just with a thicker shackle – I believe 10mm rather than 8mm. Just a few pics this time as you’ve really seen it all before in the 2640, and being a 1200 series you’ve seen this core disassembled before, too.











The shackle is interesting – it’s thicker, but it also bulges a bit towards the bottoms, and thins out after a slope towards the top part. Not really sure why. I assume it’s 10mm at the bottoms and 8mm at the top?



Unlocked:





Of all the “RD”, green stripe locks, this one has to be my favourite for the thick shackle (the shutter lock (2649) and thick/tall 2647 are actually Garant cores, in my collection).