Key Duplication
Key cutting (after cutting, the metalworking term for "shaping by removing material") is the primary method of key duplication: a flat key is fitted into a vise in a machine, with a blank attached to a parallel vise, and the original key is moved along a guide, while the blank is moved against a wheel, which cuts it. After cutting, the new key is deburred: scrubbed with a metal brush to remove burrs, small pieces of metal remaining on the key, which, were they not removed, would be dangerously sharp and, further, foul locks.
Different key cutting machines are more or less automated, using different milling or grinding equipment, and follow the design of early 20th century key duplicators.
Key duplication is available in many retail hardware stores and of course as a service of the specialized locksmith, though the correct key blank may not be available.
Certain keys are designed to be difficult to copy, for key control, such as Medeco, while others are simply stamped Do Not Duplicate to advise that key control is requested, but in the US, this disclaimer has no legal weight.
Rather than using a pattern grinder to remove metal, keys may also be duplicated with a punch machine. The key to be duplicated is measured for the depth of each notch with a gauge and then placed into a device with a numeric slider. The slider is adjusted to match the corresponding measured depth and a lever is depressed, which cuts the entire notch at once. As the lever is raised the key automatically advances to the next indexed position and the slider is adjusted appropriately to the next measured depth. This cycle is continued until the key is complete.
Duplicating keys by this process is more labor intense and requires somewhat better trained personnel. However, keys made in this fashion have clean margins and the depth of the notches are not subject to wear induced changes encountered when heavily worn keys are duplicated using a pattern grinder. Keys may also be made in this fashion without an original as long as the depth of each notch and the type of key blank are known. This is particularly useful for institutions with a great number of locks for which they do not want to maintain a wide variety of archived copies.
A machine permitting rapid duplication of flat metal keys, which contributed to the proliferation of their use during the 20th century, may have been first invented in the United States in 1917 (image to the left):
| “ | The key to be duplicated is placed in one vise and the blank key to be cut in a corresponding vise under the cutting disk. The vise carriage is then into such position by means of a lateral-feed clutch that the shoulders of both the pattern and blank keys just touch the guide disk and cutter respectively. The lateral-feed clutch on the top of the machine is then thrown, and the vertical feed rod released into action and power applied through the combination hand-crank power wheel on the right of the machine, until the cutter has passed over the entire length at the blank. A duplicate of the pattern key is obtained in about one minute. | ” |
In recent years, dual key cutting machines have come on to the market, enabling cutting of both mortice and cylinder keys on one machine. These machines are primarily manufactured in the Far East and save a key cutter a significant amount of money compared with using two separate dedicated machines.
Read more about this topic: Key (lock)
Famous quotes containing the words key and/or duplication:
“As soon as you are in a social setting, you better take away the key to the lock of your heart and pocket it; those who leave the key in the lock are fools.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“A creative writer must study carefully the works of his rivals, including the Almighty. He must possess the inborn capacity not only of recombining but of re-creating the given world. In order to do this adequately, avoiding duplication of labor, the artist should know the given world.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)