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Sargent locks with no key bitting

PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 10:35 am
by tmcmellon
I picked up two Sargent padlocks at an antique store yesterday with what I thought were key blanks attached. It turns out the blanks open the locks. They are related somehow as the wardings are mirror
images of each other. As expected they are easy to pick open. You just slide a flat pick down the top to push all the pins to the top and they pop open. Does anybody know anything about these?

Re: Sargent locks with no key bitting

PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 11:54 am
by UnlockD
They are zero bitted.

Re: Sargent locks with no key bitting

PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 5:04 pm
by MrWizard
I used to have to key and rekey these by the 100's. They came new with blanks and tapered pin cell plugs to cap them. Drive the plugs in and file them flat. Why these are capped with zero bitted pins is really stupid. To rekey them you have to carefully drill the center of each plug to removed them. Use a really small drill bit to be sure you get it centered, drill all the way through and the use a larger bit just smaller than the plug and hope it grabs and spins the plug out. Use a drill press and drill press vise it is easy once you learn how to do it.

Richard

Re: Sargent locks with no key bitting

PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2018 6:11 pm
by jeffmoss26
What the others have said. Not sure why those were sealed up.

Re: Sargent locks with no key bitting

PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2018 8:28 pm
by tmcmellon
Thanks everybody for the info. Getting the pins out should be no problem. My work involves stuff much more difficult than this. A mystery as to why a company like Sargent would make something like this, and why are the wardings on these two locks exact mirrors of each other?

Re: Sargent locks with no key bitting

PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:19 pm
by MrWizard
Look on the back of the blanks you will see the keyway each one is. I will guess one is LA and the other is RA or any R keyway.

Drill the plugs like I said they will come right out.

Richard

Re: Sargent locks with no key bitting

PostPosted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 9:38 pm
by tmcmellon
One blank is numbered NRG 111111 and the other is numbered NLL 111111

Re: Sargent locks with no key bitting

PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 6:02 pm
by jeffmoss26
RG and LL are the keyways, 111111 is the bitting.

Re: Sargent locks with no key bitting

PostPosted: Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:45 am
by Squelchtone
@OP I venture to guess that they are pinned up like this (disregard your luck of finding a pair with mirrored keyways for a minute) so that a locksmith who stocks them can demonstrate them opening and cloing nicely to a customer at their counter, and then they would go and pin it up to the customers existing master keyed system or to just a stand alone change key they cut by code based on the MACS for Sargent.

This may be more for marketing than anything. I know I wouldn't want to show a customer a $30 dollar padlock in a baggie with a bunch of pins and springs spilling out.

I live a couple hours from the Sargent factory, an ASSA Abloy umbrella company, and I might reach out to their folks to see why this is done, maybe my answer is totally wrong and there is another reason they pin things up zero bitted. Maybe it is to make sure the plug and shell and all fit and finish and machining is good to go before it leaves the factory, what better way than to pin it up and stick a key in?

just my theory,
Squelchtone