"LIKE" Lock with Metal Card Key Cylinder! (Pics + Video)

[Marduk28]

Hey Guys,

Recently found a very cool lock with a mechanism that quickly became one of my new favorites!

It's called a "LIKE" lock and uses awesome metal card keys!

The mechanism has 4 cylinder segments with 4 pins/wafers each- For a total of 16 elements that must interact with the key!

I had to download the patent to understand what was going on and was delighted to see a style of lock i have never seen before. (Luckily the patent was very easy to find, as the number is all over the lock! More on that in the video).

I try my best to explain how it works in the video, but feel free to read through the patent and let me know if I made any errors.

The lock itself is almost 15 years old, but I found it in brand new condition!

Here is the Video:



Pictures:












Have any of you ever seen this style of lock before?

[Papa Gleb]

Amazing. Wonder why it didnt mass produce, maybe the key is unreliable?, Thanks for sharing this unique lock.

[rerun12]

christ marduk where do you find this stuff?! thanks for sharin another cool lock with us

[Somotaw]

What he said ^

[jharveee]

As Always you have brought another cool lock.
Thanks, its very interesting.

Anytime I see a new lock............first thing that goes through my head is how to defeat it.
After watching the video I'm thinking rapping either side while applying tension.

Every time I see such bold warning stamped on the lock it makes me want to test the metal.
"HIGH STRENGTH", "ANTI-DRILL"
Come to find out, a lot of the time the metal isn't all that strong.

How does it feel to you?
Have you tried to defeat it?

[Doogs]

Marduk I see there some screws! Would you be interested in doing a teardown on one if it's possible?

[huxleypig]

Cool lock dude! Did you try to pick it yet?

It is like a mini-version of the hotel lock from Vingcard(?) Attacks for that included impressioning with pressure-sensitive materials, like carbon paper. But that lock only had the pins present or not, this one has 3 'cuts', right?

If the wafers do not have false notches on them then I think it can be picked pretty easily. Do it!

[mercurial]

Thankyou, once again, for finding another novel & interesting lock!

What is seen in a patent is often different from what ends up in production. Whilst the patent demonstrates three potential 'depths' for each position, looking at the key it seems as if there may be only two possibilities available, hole, or no-hole. The keys are quite roughly made, so it is hard to tell from the pictures. A picture of the keys placed flat & squarely aligned with the camera might help here.

As huxleypig said, this should be a very easy pick if there are no false notches. If the keys are anything to go by, the lock is made to quite low tolerances, so I'd suggest simply applying tension & raking it. A pick such as a full ball should work well, if it is thick enough to depress the wafers far enough. Some dimple lock rakes I've seen online look even more suited to the task.

An over lifting attack could also be worth a try. Cut a piece of metal or maybe tough plastic to the shape of a blank key. The material needs to be thick enough to displace the wafers as far as a real key can. Insert into the lock, apply tension & remove the implement far enough that it no longer interacts with the wafers. If successful, the lock will open.

It'd be great to see gut shots of this lock, as the patent drawings are quite likely to differ from the finished product - the question is how much they differ.

...Mark

[Neilau]

Marduk.

Thanks again for sharing another interesting lock.

I like your pick. It looks EXACTLY like the ones that I am now making.

Nice thick wood handles = very comfortable.

Did you make it?

[Marduk28]

Glad you like the lock guys!

So I tried taking the screws out and realized that the gold color back panel is actually also glued onto the back. I didn't want to rip it off and risk damaging it, as this one is for my collection.

As for the lock itself, it feels quite sturdy and well made! As I mention in the video~ inserting the key gives some really solid and satisfying clicks! You guys know what I am talking about!

I put a good amount of bending pressure on the keys with my hands to see how strong they were ~ and they would not budge. Again feels pretty solid.

I starting SPP-ing this thing and after about 30 min my hand starting cramping so I had to stop. This thing is tricky~ maybe it has to do with my inexperience with this kind of lock, but I can't really be confident I am setting anything.

Do you think that there would be significant feeling from setting just 1 of the 16? I am starting to think you wouldn't really feel much until you have cleared one whole segment (4 wafers within 1 segment), allowing it to be pushed forward a bit. Just a thought, but not sure.

After that I tried Raking it with a double ball and a Dimple Rake as Mercurial suggested. After about 6-7 minutes, to my surprise, the Core rotated!

Here is what happened next:


More work to do I suppose~

What do you guys think?

[Marduk28]

Marduk.

Thanks again for sharing another interesting lock.

I like your pick. It looks EXACTLY like the ones that I am now making.

Nice thick wood handles = very comfortable.

Did you make it?

Thanks!

Those were actually made by Nozza36! I got them in the set I won in the Keypicking Auction! They are really great!

[mercurial]

Seeing as the segments of the lock seem to pick individually, I would make a tension wrench to tension just the back 1/4 of the lock (piano wire, with a 90 degree bend at the end) & try to pick only that section.

Even if the back 1/4 of the cylinder can't turn unless the other segments are picked, the fact that the segments can be tensioned and picked individually should make this lock easier to pick than if the plug was a single unit.

It may even be worth trying use a stiff L-shaped piece of wire to turn the cam/actuator at the back of the plug, leaving all 4 segments unpicked. If the rear of the 4 pickable segments is identical to the others, and just turns a cam, then there is a good chance that this will work!

When I said the keys look to be made to poor tolerances, I certainly wasn't trying to imply they are weak, it's just that compared to precision made keys, they look quite rough. The tiny differences between the individual keys for that lock could render some of them difficult to use, or inoperative in a high tolerance mechanism.

...Mark