On 7/15/2015 8:17 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
On Wed, Jul 15, 2015 at 8:39 PM, Ali<cct...@fahimi.net> wrote:
>>Surely any competent locksmith could turn out one of these for less
>>money, complete with the stamp...
The key is "easy" (from the right place). The stamp is a little
harder these days, since not everyone has the stamps.
Stamp sets are 10 or 20 bucks @ harbor freight. But that isn't the
problem. I found a grumpy old locksmith (not Fred) who told me the
state of the problem at least for the state of California. Locksmiths by
and large are licensed to open doors if they have the appropriate
authority to do so, etc.
For the keys, lock and key sets for this sort of key are restricted by
the manufacturer to be only made for the lock by the manufacturer. They
don't have the key blanks. They can key a new lock, but not to that
specific setup by their licenses. That was why I was shown the door.
No blanks exist to do it yourself. I don't personally see a huge
problem with proper skills at precision machining and tools, but I don't
have them.
I do have friends who can probably have done it by hand, and with the
tools available now, might be able to do it better now that tooling that
exists in maker shops is out there. Again, I don't know of such a shop
here in my area, wish i did. I'd take a key in and have someone help me
make some.
If you found someone making the keys, then that is at variance with what
is going on in general, as I called several locksmiths and all of them
sing the same tune w/o prompting. The ACE way or the highway.
BTW, a previous key I saw a couple of months ago went for twice this.
thanks
jim
