Master Excell locks.
Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 8:00 pmA friend of mine that lives up the coast from me owns a hardware store. I was recently up that way and dropped in for a visit.
After catching up on things he, knowing of my interest in locks, asked what I thought of the, relatively, new Master Excell padlocks. He was particularly interested in the big one marked “Ultimate” on the security scale, saying that the salesman said that they were also pick proof.
I explained that the scale only refers to the physical security and that the lock certainly looked tough. As the key ways were accessible he asked if I could pick one. I don’t carry my picks outside the house but had a folding/pen knife set in my bag so I said that I’d give it a go as I had opened a couple of the smaller ones fairly easily in the past.
Long story short, I opened all four (the big ones) on the board in under 30 seconds each, blind. Using a half diamond. He just shook his head.
He sold me one at “Mates rates” as I didn’t have one in my collection.
So, what is it with Master locks? They make a, physically, strong lock and then put in a crappy cylinder. They CAN make some good cylinders but they put in rubbish cylinders on strong locks. In fairness, they are not alone in this.
Just to save a few cents???? They are fairly expensive here, retailing for about $54 AU For the same price you can get a pretty good Lockwood with spools that are a bit more of a challenge.
On looking at the packaging “Assembled in Mexico from USA and Global components”. So there it is.
I remember seeing, a while back, Pres. OB touring the Master lock factory and extolling the virtues of American manufacturing and quality plus the dedication and skill of American workers. Link was on this forum if I remember rightly.
Obviously the CEOs don’t share this dedication to quality only profit.
Here is a lock that, from a distance, looks quite nice. Up close it is a bit tacky and rough plus the action is rough and gritty. It is obviously physically strong but with a cylinder that even a beginner would have little trouble opening.
Pity the poor “Joe” who sees the security rating as “Ultimate” and believes it.
There is a second part of the story that may help people that are having trouble opening them.
For the next few nights, after I got my new lock home I was opening it quite quickly using different picks then one night I just could not get it. WTF!! Four nights and it just wouldn’t open. I could not set any pins and all the pins would over set with just a light raking.
Playing with it a bit more (the lock!).
I discovered that you could close it up so that the shackle was locked and the cylinder would not turn BUT it was not fully reset. Pressing the shackle a little harder, there was another click and then it would open easily again. So maybe Master had discovered a way of increasing its anti pickability because of crappy cylinders. I don’t know if this is true of all Excells or just some of them.
If you are having trouble with them, try making sure that the shackle is fully closed and if you can, press the shackle in when picking it. This seems to removes some of the tension and they open up very easily.
If Fiasco Badmandry is still out there, try this method if you are still having trouble opening your Excells. BTW how are you progressing?
After catching up on things he, knowing of my interest in locks, asked what I thought of the, relatively, new Master Excell padlocks. He was particularly interested in the big one marked “Ultimate” on the security scale, saying that the salesman said that they were also pick proof.
I explained that the scale only refers to the physical security and that the lock certainly looked tough. As the key ways were accessible he asked if I could pick one. I don’t carry my picks outside the house but had a folding/pen knife set in my bag so I said that I’d give it a go as I had opened a couple of the smaller ones fairly easily in the past.
Long story short, I opened all four (the big ones) on the board in under 30 seconds each, blind. Using a half diamond. He just shook his head.
He sold me one at “Mates rates” as I didn’t have one in my collection.
So, what is it with Master locks? They make a, physically, strong lock and then put in a crappy cylinder. They CAN make some good cylinders but they put in rubbish cylinders on strong locks. In fairness, they are not alone in this.
Just to save a few cents???? They are fairly expensive here, retailing for about $54 AU For the same price you can get a pretty good Lockwood with spools that are a bit more of a challenge.
On looking at the packaging “Assembled in Mexico from USA and Global components”. So there it is.
I remember seeing, a while back, Pres. OB touring the Master lock factory and extolling the virtues of American manufacturing and quality plus the dedication and skill of American workers. Link was on this forum if I remember rightly.
Obviously the CEOs don’t share this dedication to quality only profit.
Here is a lock that, from a distance, looks quite nice. Up close it is a bit tacky and rough plus the action is rough and gritty. It is obviously physically strong but with a cylinder that even a beginner would have little trouble opening.
Pity the poor “Joe” who sees the security rating as “Ultimate” and believes it.
There is a second part of the story that may help people that are having trouble opening them.
For the next few nights, after I got my new lock home I was opening it quite quickly using different picks then one night I just could not get it. WTF!! Four nights and it just wouldn’t open. I could not set any pins and all the pins would over set with just a light raking.
Playing with it a bit more (the lock!).
I discovered that you could close it up so that the shackle was locked and the cylinder would not turn BUT it was not fully reset. Pressing the shackle a little harder, there was another click and then it would open easily again. So maybe Master had discovered a way of increasing its anti pickability because of crappy cylinders. I don’t know if this is true of all Excells or just some of them.If you are having trouble with them, try making sure that the shackle is fully closed and if you can, press the shackle in when picking it. This seems to removes some of the tension and they open up very easily.
If Fiasco Badmandry is still out there, try this method if you are still having trouble opening your Excells. BTW how are you progressing?