Lock making

Broke the small padlock on my boat the other day & as a passing thought it occurred to me that I had never seen (or actually looked) for any articles on lock making. Is this something that model engineers do from time to time or is it just that it is cheaper to go to the local hardware shop than it is to get into the actual details of a lock plus the key. I should imagine a mortice lock is easy but moving on to a padlock could be harder & a cylinder lock a real brain teaser.

Has it all been done before?

Well obviously someone has done it otherwise we would not have locks. But is it a field of model engineering that is only undertaken behind closed doors?

Are there books & drawings out there somewhere, have magazines considered the task, or do manufacturers keep them hidden?

One of the very first jobs I did on board ship was to repair a lock. The shipwright I was following was going to bin it and fit another. I had a go at fixing it and it worked. As howwever this was over 30 years ago I have no ideal what was broke or how I fixed it.

You quite often see a model with a toolbox that has a padlock say 1/6 scale. Probably not a particularly sophisticated design though rather like the full size ones we were issued with for toolboxes that could be opened with a standard modified key.

An interesting challenge and I'm sure it would make an interesting article as something out of the ordinary.

After buying a milling machine my second project was a simple padlock. As you can see from the pictures I was very much a Learner Driver.

Although made from metal the design is one of five from "Making Working Wooden Locks" by Tim Detweiler, which I bought a few years ago from Camden. I'm not sure they still stock it.

Cheers,

Dave

Having taken a Yale type lock apart to see how it worked it quickly became apparent how to pick this type of lock. YouTube makes you realise that you may as well leave your doors open as the only people who are deterred by a lock are honest people anyway. The equipment available on eBay can open most locks in seconds, very scary. Locksmiths seem to be some of the biggest crooks when you realise how easy it is to open a lock and the fees they charge for doing it.

Mike

But could you make one?

For those who may not be familiar with them: Here is a page about Bramah locks.

Interesting device & an interesting man.

MichaelG.

I think l could make a one off that worked, but holding the tolerances of a commercial Yale lock would be an entirely different ballgame.

Mike

This is fun and worth a read - even if only from your armchair

I am rather proud to have made a replacement key for Llandaff Cathedral in daily use, and have done a few others for other Churches and repaired locks for same.

Repairing and making new keys for old type locks is quite a specialised subject, but well suited to the model engineer.

Cheers,

Julian

i made my own padlock,after my tool boxes kept on getting broken in

my lock was a short bolt cut in half,the threaded part which goes onto nut first was screwed into the nut a bit

welded the nut,and the hex head part was screwed into the nut,when you looked at it,it just

looked like that someone welded a nut and bolt onto tool boxes

Never seen one before but you are right-quite interesting. thanks

If I saw that in a magazine article i think i would definitely have a go at making it

Any deterrent is better than no deterrent, it's human nature to go for the easy target.

Tony

Locks are 100% effective in keeping honest people out.

Martin

Camlocks and classic car ignition locks often (normally?) use flat plates in the cylinder instead of pins making them particularly easy to work on. The cylinder can normally be withdrawn without a key and a new blank key inserted. It is then a matter of measuring how much each plate stands out and filing the key to suit.

None of these are very secure but if you only need minimal security, for example to child-proof a tool or filing cabinet, you can even make them match another key by swapping plates around and filing down (or just removing) any plates that still stand up. If you only want to be able to stop the cabinet door swinging open you can even remove all the plates and lock/unlock it with a screwdriver. I'm slightly ashamed of myself for admitting that one, but it looks so much better than a 1/2" hole in the front of the cupboard and saves buying a plug for it

Brian

The spare key for my workshop (the yale-style one, not the mortice lock) is in two parts silver soldered together!

I've fixed a few mortice locks in the past, if it's not just dirt causing it to stick, it's usually just a broken spring but it's surprising how hard it can be to get the 'leaves' in correct order if you muddle them up

Neil

My girlfriend , now my wife, always had to be home at certain times as her parents would not give her a key to the back door. That meant she would often be left sitting on the doorstep until one of her parents came home.

Being in the building trade I made her a master key ( it was a carp 4 lever lock) & she was able to let herself in. Parents never twigged for ages