Archive for the 'Cutaways' Category
Medeco M3 and M3 BiLevel Mortise – Factory Cutaways
Update: Some errors were made in this article, please see the end for the corrections.
The Medeco M3 is Medeco’s latest commercial cylinder and was released as a replacement for the Medeco Biaxial. They released both the M3 and the lesser known M3 BiLevel (M3B for short) at the same time. On the surface both look surprisingly similar, and even with factory cutaways it may not be immediately apparent what the difference is. We will explore the workings of the M3 and M3B and see what they bring to the table beyond the Biaxial in terms of security and features. In addition we will take a look to see why the beefy looking M3 BiLevel may not give you much more security than the Kwikset on your front door.
8 commentsDuo 14 Tumbler Cam – My Cutaway
The Dirty Duo. The Duo lock is somewhat unknown among lock enthusiasts, often looked at as a simple wafer lock. The Duo, however, is not everything it seems, as it features a non-reversible key and generally found in 8 or 14 tumbler versions. The higher end Duos’ feature more than the standard double bitting (cuts on the top and bottom of the key) and are triple bitted (having two parallel tracks on the top of the key, and one on the bottom). In addition, the Duo uses one spring placed between every two wafers (one pushes up while the other down, countering each other and making it harder to manipulate) unlike standard wafer locks. On the tripple bitted keys the lock does not use split wafers like some wafer locks, but rather one of the tracks is actually a side track (set slightly lower than the actual top track). I decided not only to make a cutaway of this lock but to do some restoration work for cosmetic and functional purposes. So let’s continue…
2 commentsAbloy Protec Mortise – Factory Cutaway
The Abloy Protec lock is one of the most secure cylinder locks in the world. It is currently the second most secure lock that Abloy offers, only superseded by the Abloy Protec CLIQ, which is the Abloy Protec with an additional electronic chip. I recently acquired a factory cutaway and figured how best to celebrate but to photograph and disassemble this beautiful beast.
I would like to specially thank Jaakko Fagerlund, an Abloy expert, for not only direction on the breakdown but also technical review of this article. If you are lucky enough to be going to the upcoming Dutch Open you will be able to catch him speaking there. We have a lot to cover, so let’s get started… Read more
Master Lock 572 Padlock – My Cutaway
I figured I would start with a cheap rekeyable padlock. This is a MasterLock 572 bought from a Home Depot with a price of about $13. Aside from the cheap factor of this padlock the key feature was the fact it was rekeyable. Making cutaways of non-rekeyable padlocks is a whole lot harder than rekeyable ones (although not impossible, but that is for another time). It was primarily a practice but came out pretty well. Read on for the how to…
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