Medeco Biaxial

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The Medeco Biaxial is the previous generation of Medeco lock, however it is arguably a more secure cylinder than the newer M3. Involving almost as much complexity as the M3, it is frequently a hard lock to explain to others. While there are factory cutaways of this lock (similar to the M3 in the previous post) they do not effective in showing the unique features of Medeco locks. To be able to show people how Medeco locks really work I decided to make my own Medeco cutaway. This is also my first milled cutaway for the blog.

The Biaxial lock is based on a decades old design by Medeco of a pin tumbler lock with the additional requirement of rotating pins (Medeco Classic). The Biaxial lock added the feature of fore and aft cuts to the Medeco Classic lock, with the tips of the pins skewed slightly towards either the front or rear of the lock. This means for every pin length (1-6) there is not only a rotation (left right center) but also the fore or aft position, making a total of 36 different varieties of bottom pins. The fore and aft cuts are primarily for expanding master keying possibilities, although it can also allow one key to operate more than one differently(non-master keyed) locks. This is due to the fact a single key can carry both a fore and aft cut for each pin, although some key bittings will not allow this as having both fore and aft cuts on one pin position will affect the MACS (maximum adjacent cut specification). It varies from the M3 primarily in its lack of a slider and by having a narrower keyway than the M3 (which is a large reason why the M3 is a less secure lock in comparison to the Biaxial).

Originally the Biaxial was not the first lock I was going to do a cutaway of, however a friend (Jonathan King) was giving two presentations involving his picking of Medeco cylinders and so we thought it would be useful to have a cutaway. Unfortunately due to some video issues it was not used in the presentations, but all the same, the cutaway was made. I actually made three of these cutaways, with this blog covering the final version. The first cutaway was simply for practice and finding any significant flaws in the design of the cutaway. The decision to make a third cutaway was done after seeing a cutaway by Tobias Bluzmanis (of Marc Tobais and Tobias Bluzmanis from security.org) and noticing further improvements that could be made. If you are to attempt to do something similar I suggest you read the entire article through (and wait for my next article on milling which should be out very soon) so that you have a complete understanding of what I did. I would also like to thank Han Fey for his suggestions and Mike Brewerton for being kind enough to review and edit this article prior to publication.

Required Tools

Let’s start with the tools required to do this:

Now we need to identify what the primary features are of the Biaxial that we want to show:

• A normal pin tumbler setup (showing the pin chambers and shear line)
• Rotation of individual pins (ability to see the sidebar groove in the pins)
• Interaction between the sidebar and the pins (the sidebar teeth entering the pin grooves)
• The pin interaction with the key itself (ability to see the bottom of the pins contacting the key)

To accomplish this we will want to remove the maximum amount of material from the shell. If you look at the shell from the front we want to remove the top right quarter completely and almost the same on the bottom right quarter leaving a slight gap between the two where the sidebar groove is located. The difference between the quarters is on the bottom we will leave a small sliver of metal to ensure the sidebar remains retracted during rotation. During my first attempt I did not leave this metal and while the sidebar was still primarily retracted by the front of the shell the back part came out slightly causing it to get caught when re-entering the sidebar groove or the non-cutaway part of the shell. On the plug we will want to make similar cuts removing most of the top right quarter and bottom right quarter so you can see the bottom pins and their interaction with the key respectively. Finally we will want to remove a small part of the sidebar retaining part of the shell and plug so that you can see the sidebar interaction with the pins. For all of the millings I wanted to ensure that you could see all six pins in all parts. That means removing as much of the material as possible (sometimes in an extra step or two) to ensure you can see the pin closest to the front of the plug (for example). I did this so there would be no mystery step during demonstrations where if you could only see four of the pins you would not know what is going on with the other two.

Parts Breakdown

The first step is to break down a Medeco biaxial lock. I suggest removing the hex screws in each of the plug chambers(a 5/64″ hex wrench works well) and removing the pins and springs that way (to avoid possible loss when taking the plug out). Then removing the cam screws and cam, and finally sliding the plug out with the sidebar. You’ll need to rotate the plug slightly to retract the sidebar before you’ll be able to slide it out of the shell. Keep in mind the sidebar springs and the hardened crescent inserts so you don’t lose them during disassembly. If the lock is somewhat dirty you most likely want to clean it at this point (to ensure your cleaning doesn’t tarnish the freshly cut surfaces). I used an ultrasonic cleaner to help make all the parts shine.

Shell Marked

We are going to want to start off with the hardest cuts whenever possible, that way if a mistake is made we have less work we have to scrap. To this end we want to mark the bottom quarter of the shell off for making the cuts and to leave the middle sliver. I then wanted to go just a bit farther than half way past the center of the bottom of the shell (to give a good view of the tips of the pins). You want to cut down to right above the sidebar groove in the shell to offer maximum visibility but still allow the sidebar to properly lock into the groove. When locking the shell (or the plug for that matter) into the vice I have found it easiest to grip it by the face and back of the cylinder (and make sure to lock it down tight). I have tried several other ways of locking round objects into the vice, however if it is not very sturdy and the lock jumps while cutting it can cause damage to the lock, to the bit, or something else if it shoots off (I have had it happen). We want to mount the cylinder basically upside down for the first cut. You will also want to use parallels to raise the lock high enough above the lip of the vice to be able to cut as low as you want to be able to cut.

Bottom Milled

I started with the 3/8″ bit as it was the only bit that could comfortably fit between the middle sliver and the front of the plug. The lock is made up of primarily brass so I felt comfortable taking off about twenty one hundredths of an inch per pass. There will be two separate cuts we will be making, the back part of the lock near the cam and the front part between the sliver we plan to leave and the front of the plug. I started with the back part and moved on the X axis for the passes (back to the front). With the 3/8″ bit I ended up having to move on the Y axis after getting fairly far down and making side by side passes to remove all of the metal. On the front part I made passes on the Y axis and then at the end widened it on the X axis once I was all the way down, progressively making the sliver thinner until it was the correct width.

Before Cutting into Pin Chambers

Next we can go after the top right quarter. This is an easier cut as we are just taking out the entire segment. You will want to mount the lock on its side rather than upright for this cut for two reasons. First of all your bits are round that means they will always leave a round corner somewhere, without proper planning that round corner can restrict the view of something important (mounting it normally would mean the pin closest to the front would not have good visibility). Second of all, while this cut is easier for the most part, the finish is very crucial. We are going to be milling down just barely into each of the pin chambers to give a good view of what’s going on inside. When mounting the lock in the vice it is extremely important it is completely level front to back and side to side. The parallels will take care of front to back (as long as you are careful, however for side to side leveling you will need to slowly clamp down on the plug while watching the letters on the face of the plug (or something else) to make sure you have it perfectly on its side. This is all to ensure when we get down to cutting into the pin chambers we cut into them all evenly and it looks good. You will be able to make minor corrections when you get to that point if needed, but do your best ahead of time.

Uneven alignment when cutting pin chambers

When you start to get close to the pin chambers (look at how far you have to go through the plug) you will want to only take 5-10 hundredths of an inch off on each pass so you don’t go too deep too quickly. If you go too deep here your pins and springs won’t stay in the chamber and that is game over. Once you start to cut into the first pin chambers it is important to finish that pass and look at the cut. If you are lucky you will cut into all the pin chambers equally and the bottom and top will both be cut in evenly. On my second attempt at this lock I got it even, on the third I did not. As you can see in the picture the bottom of each of the pin chambers was not cut into, but the top was. If this happens you can slightly back off your vice and roll the lock in the proper direction just a little bit to try and correct your offset. Make another pass (you should not need to go down any further) and see if you have it corrected. It may take a few tries (always better to move it too little than too much), but once you have it all set make your final pass. You want to cut down just far enough so you can see into each of the pin chambers, maybe about a quarter of the way into them at most. If you cut any deeper your lock may not function correctly.

Sidebar groove cut and rounded corner removed

Next I flipped the lock so it was mounted normally in the vice, as I wanted to do two things. First I wanted to cut a small groove out so you could see where the sidebar was retained in the plug. I used the 3/32″ bit and just cut down slightly into the sidebar groove (I did this by entering from the right side when mounted. Second I wanted to remove the rounded corner from the front part of the piece of metal left to hold the sidebar in place. This is as easy as getting the bit at the right height and then just barely going forward enough to touch the front of the plug (and moving on the y axis then to remove any corners). Once you are finished with these optional steps you are done with the shell. The picture on the right shows the shell (with one of my earlier plugs that I cut) once complete.

Cutting the plug

Slightly Damaged Bit

Next we move onto the plug, we are going to want to remove the top right and bottom right quarters from it, along with cut into the sidebar retainer so that we can see it interacting with the pins. I got the idea for this cut from a very nice Medeco cutaway by Tobias Bluzmanis used in his and Marc Tobias’ latest book. The only downside to this cut is you can’t show the entire sidebar as we have to leave some metal in place to retain the sidebar. I decided to show four of the six fingers which is a nice portion of the sidebar but leaves plenty of metal to keep it in place. In addition, when we cut out the top right quarter we are going to want to follow a similar procedure to when we did the shell, as we are once again going to be cutting into the pin chambers. There is one final trick to cutting the plug, the hardened metal inserts. These do run the entire height of the plug and while it is possible to cut them with the right bits I strongly suggest against it. When doing my practice of this lock I did cut into one on the bottom and it damaged my bit slightly. So if you have DRO controls do the top first and mark how far on the X you can go (as you can see them on the top) so when you flip the plug over to do the bottom you don’t go too far (without DRO controls just measure twice and cut once).

Metal bending up during cutting

I started with the top right quarter and mounted the plug on its side. Cut down slowly (traveling on the X axis) and do your pin chambers as you did on the shell. Make sure not to get too close to the sidebar retainer on the Y axis as you want it to stay firm. Once you are done with this side you will want to do the bottom right quarter. I mounted this sideways in the vice, and you are going to go down until you hit the keyway. When you get close to the keyway the metal may bend up when your bit hits it. After this happened I evaluated the options of attempting to cut this off, but in the end just moved into it with the endmill bit and it was able to go through it without any problems.

Cutting the sidebar retainer

Finally on the plug we need to mount it normally and cut into the sidebar retainer. This is a bit of a tricky cut as I wanted no rounded edges. To make that happen I started in one of the plug chambers and moved on the Y axis all the way to the outside of the plug. Then I moved along the edge (on the X axis) of the chambers down to the second to the front chamber and went into this one and across on the Y axis again to cut the area out. I used the 3/32″ bit for this as it had to fit through the hole in the plug chambers without cutting the sides.

Tailpiece stops in place

At this point you are basically done with the milling. Before re-assembly there are two additional steps you may want to perform. First item is to apply some sort of stop on the tailpiece so that the rotation of the plug is restricted. If you rotate the plug counter-clockwise once the pins are loaded into it, the top pins will drop into the cavity we cut out in the bottom of the plug. On the first cutaways I added a screw to stop the plug from rotating too far, however on this lock I forgot. I tried to inform a few people just not to rotate it counter-clockwise, however moments after this they frequently turned it the wrong way anyways. I was on the road at the time without my tapping equipment but knew I needed to apply some sort of stop, so I experimented with JBWeld. It is an epoxy-like substance that works very well with metals, so I figured I’d use this to make a stop for the tailpiece. The only trick when using JBWeld is to score the surface prior to application to help ensure a firm hold. When doing the counterclockwise stop you will want to make sure you get it as close to the tailpiece as possible to ensure the sidebar does not come out of the groove (as otherwise it won’t go back in easily). For the clockwise stop it is less important and I just applied it to the shell where the sidebar groove is.

Painted Pin

Next is painting the pins. I painted the sidebar groove in each pin so that once assembled it is far easier to follow the rotation of each pin. While you may be able to paint directly in the groove with a small brush, I always found that I couldn’t stay in the groove. The good news is that you can paint the groove and then quickly wipe the pin with your finger to remove any excess paint; if necessary a little water can also help. You will find that if someone was to insert the key and turn the plug slightly then turn the lock upside-down the bottom pins will fall out. You may not think this would happen very often but you would be surprised, and after searching for those pins on the floor three or four times you will want a solution to make this a great cutaway. While thinking about this problem one night I thought about the fact that if you could seal the bottom of the grooves the sidebar would keep the pins in the lock when it was retracted into the plug (which is the only time when they could fall out anyway).

Now this may sound familiar if you know the history of Medeco (or some of the recent exploits) but I will give a quick summary all the same.  There are tools (as old as 30+ years ago) that allow you to hook into the groove of a standard Medeco bottom pin and manipulate the lock open much easier than normal.  To counter this Medeco came out with pins where the bottom was sealed back at the end of the Medeco Classic’s life.   Later on they made more complex closed grooved pins called ARX pins which had additional security features.   There are a few issues with ARX pins however, for one they restrict the bottom pin heights as on some of the shorter pins the sidebar teeth stick out the bottom of them.  This means fewer key combinations and a decrease in security.  In addition ARX pins have a higher production cost, so they are still not standard in Medeco locks. 

Painted closed pin groove

While my cutaway doesn’t really need the security of ARX pins it actually makes the cutaway function better (pins won’t fall out).  The first thing I did was try to obtain a few ARX pins which have sealed grooves, however these are in quite short supply. My next solution was simply to do it myself, I tried with hot glue and a few other substances but they all caused issues during operation. I then found the best way was simply to paint the very bottom of the groove (about 10-15 times) to build up layers of paint and close it off. One very important note about closing the grooves on the pins is that all the pins must be at least size three or longer, otherwise you can end up with the sidebar needing to stick out the bottom and the sidebar fingers not being able to enter the pins (technically L/R/C rotation may allow some other shorter pins to also work).

Finally you are ready to re-assemble your completed cutaway and admire your work. In the end this is the most complete Medeco cutaway I have ever seen and works fantastically at being able to explain the way Medeco locks work to others. See the gallery for additional pictures.

Lock at rest

Pins rotated randomly and not at sheer line

Pins aligned and at sheer, sidebar ready to enter

Plug rotated 45 degrees

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.

To make things easier to follow I want to setup some standards for this write up.  First of all when I am talking about the M3 Standard cylinder I will refer to it as M3S (S for standard) and when I am talking about the BiLevel I will call it the M3B.   For all the pictures I show I will always have the M3B on the left and the M3S on the right, if only one picture is shown it is safe to assume that feature is the same on both the M3S and M3B. In addition beware that while both are 6 pin cylinders the cutaway only shows the first 5 pins.  I would also like to thank Jon King a lock picker and something of a Medeco specialist (including picking the M3S) for reviewing the technical details of this article.

The Medeco M3S was primarily created to replace the Biaxial when the patent protecting the Biaxial keys ran out.  To extend the patent they added a slider to the lock for added security and once again were able to offer a cylinder with patented keys (meaning authorization is required to duplicate keys).  In addition the M3B was a new type of cylinder from Medeco, a cheaper cylinder (list of $40-70 depending on features), that took the same key as the M3S and was intended to protect things that don’t need protection.   The documentation for the M3B says it best “BiLevel’s patented standard locks offer the appropriate level of security for conference rooms, maintenance closets, break rooms, bathrooms and other areas without risk or valuables.”.   Before we really dive into the pictures and breakdown I am going to say a bit about how the M3S and its predecessors work. 

Aside from simply raising the pins to the sheer line like a standard cylinder, Medeco locks have always had an additional feature of requiring each of the pins to be rotated either left, right, or center (20 degree offset for L/R).  This is accomplished by having a vertical groove cut into each pin and fingers that stick out from the sidebar.  When the proper key is inserted and the pins are rotated all the grooves face the sidebar and the fingers (5 for 5 pin 6 for 6 pin) on the sidebar are able to push into these grooves.  The Biaxial was the first patent extender on this, it added the fact that each pin could be either a fore pin or an aft pin (front or back).  While this didn’t make it harder to pick it did add a lot more possible key combinations allowing for greater master keying.   Finally the M3 came along and added a slider, the slider must be pushed in just the right amount to allow the two fingers on it to enter into the two holes on the sidebar to allow the sidebar to move in.  Confused? Great! It will become more clear as we go through the actual workings.  The M3 BiLevel is really more similar to the Medeco KeyMark than the other Medeco lines.  Both are basically standard cylinders with patented key control, but do not offer much in the way of security.   So lets start looking at these cylinders.

 
We can see the front of the M3B has a B on it for BiLevel but the other difference we can notice when compared to the old Biaxials is a much larger and fairly open (free of wards) keyway.  This doesn’t mean much for a usability perspective but does mean it is easier for a lock picker to insert tools into the cylinder.

 
Looking at the key from the top we can see the angle cuts and also that the valleys are not equally spaced apart (due to the fore/aft positioning of pins).  Look at the side of the key we can see the slider cut to the proper length.

 
As we look at the cutaway side of the cylinder you may be able to make out the mushroom security pin (2nd chamber on M3B and 3rd on M3S).  You should definitely be able to see the silver color of some of the M3S pins, those are the hardened anti-drill pins.  We also get a shot of the sidebar on both of these cylinders.  In addition if you look at the stack heights (top pin height + bottom pin height) they are basically equal on both cylinders.  This ensures equal spring pressure so one could not use the amount of pressure being exerted by a pin to determine its length (it also makes the cylinder much more annoying to pin/rekey due to the fact you must adjust the top and bottom pins).

 
Once the key is inserted we can see the pins all raised to the sheer line.  In addition on the M3S with the 3 bottom pins we are able to see their grooves all pointing out, this is to allow the sidebar fingers (not visible) to push into them.

 
Here we can see where the metal has been cut away to allow you to see the slider moving.  If you look closely you will notice one slider is a bit farther in than the other (just due to different key slider cuts for the M3B and M3S) however the slider mechanisms themselves are the exact same for both.

 
Now we are getting to some real action shots! Here the key is rotated partially to allow a look at the bottom pins.  On the M3B the bottom pins look pretty much like standard pins, in addition you can also see the sidebar (if you look carefully you will not see any fingers).   On the M3S there is much more to see. First of all we can see each of the pins has a hardened anti-drill pin in their center for anti-drill protection.  In addition we can see all the grooves are going in the same direction on the pins (note the nubs at the top of each pin may look like a groove but is not, we will discuss them later).  If you look carefully at the sidebar you can actually see the fingers for 3 of the pins sticking out (will really need to zoom for that one).

 
Further rotation shows us the slider, again on both of them it is the exact same hardware/action.

Now we need to take it apart, the Medeco cylinders are very nice in that these use hex screws at the top of each pin chamber(instead of a bible cap) making for easier repinning than normal.  We can remove these screws and carefully remove the springs and pins, make sure to keep them in order and right side up as it matters (right side up can be figured out later).   Once you remove the pins the cylinders will still not turn even if tension is applied, this is due to the sidebar/slider.  The sidebar cannot move in unless the slider is pushed in the proper amount.  To see how much security is added by the slider apply tension to the cylinder and slowly push forward the slider with a paperclip or small screwdriver, once it reaches the proper amount the sidebar should go in and the plug turn.  It isn’t quite that easy while picking, but its close.

Now while Medeco makes it really easy to repin from the top, taking the cylinder completely apart they made lifetimes harder (at-least on these cutaways).  If you look at the picture above of the back of the cylinder you will notice a C clip on the back of the plug.  Technically this is more like an O clip with a small break in it:)  To make things worse this sits in a groove to prevent movement.  Overall it is exceptionally hard to get off, it took me 20+ minutes the first time I tried.  The best method I have found is to try and get it completely out of the groove and then it is fairly easy to get off.  To do this I used small screwdrivers to pry one side up a bit, then used another screwdriver to slowly go around prying it up until I reached the other side, at which point i used a screw driver to pry this up some, and presto i was out of the groove (a good 5-10 minutes after).   I broke a mini screwdriver doing this, and doing it without damaging the clip is another trick.   You also may notice the pin in the back of the plug, this will come out once the C-clip is removed, and is there to prevent anything from coming out the back of the plug (can you say Adam Write Wires or a screwdriver!).

 
It is important to be careful while removing the plug from the cylinder (remember to put the key in, or manually bypass the slider to get it to remove easily).  Both the slider and the sidebar have small springs (two for the sidebar one for the slider) and losing these is very annoying (and somewhat hard to replace).  You may notice when taking the M3S apart that two crescent shaped pieces of metal fall out too, these are located at the front of the cylinder (see the picture on the right above for where one goes, the other goes next to it on the side).   These metal crescents are hardened steel to further prevent drilling.

 
This is the pin breakdown for both of the cylinders note the odd black color of the M3B bottom pins.  As we can see the M3B pins are just like standard cylinder pins, and are not effect at all by the angles on M3 keys.

 
On the left we have a mushroom top pin (found in both the M3B and M3S), it is a true mushroom pin and not just a spool pin as they frequently are.  Mushroom pins are used to try and prevent picking by causing the pin to false set on the sheer line.   On the right we have one of the hardened top pins from the M3S.

  
On the left here we have one of the more interesting M3B bottom pins.  It has a groove through the middle of it which we can only surmise is an anti-pick groove.  Frequently bottom pins may be serrated (American 5200’s) or have a groove similar to this but normally more towards the top of the pin.   It is very odd to have the anti-pick groove where it is, especially as the M3B is not said to have increased pick resistance (and would require some heavy over-setting to be effective) but it is the only function we can figure out for it.  In the center we have a standard M3S bottom pin, it is cut on an angle and has the groove running straight through the side of it for a finger from the sidebar.  Finally on the right we have the M3S bottom pin from another angle showing the metal nub mentioned earlier.

 
Here we have the two sidebars.  Both sidebars have two notches in them, these notches are what the two finger pins from the slider are able to enter.   The rest of the M3B slider is fairly basic, just the two springs, the M3S slider however features the 6 fingers that go into each of the respective pins (ensuring they are rotated the proper amount).

 
This is the side of each of the plugs respectively, where the sidebar goes.   The M3B plug has the slider in it showing the two fingers sticking up into where the sidebar goes.  If you look at the M3S plug you can see the 6 slots the fingers go through to reach the pins, if the slider was in the M3S it would also have the two fingers for the slider sticking up.

This is a top view of the M3S plug as you can see at the very front of the plug are 3 metal rods, these are anti-drill rods to protect the plug from drilling.

 
This is the slider, it is the same in the M3S and M3B and it is just showing it from two different angles.  You can see the two fingers which stick up into the sidebar and must be aligned into the holes in the sidebar to allow it to enter the plug.

 
Here we can see the sidebar just resting out of both plugs.  On the M3S you can see see the fingers sticking out.

This is with the M3S sidebar pushed into the cylinder if you look closely you can see the finger pins now protruding into each of the pin chambers.

Here we have a shot of the bottom of the M3S plug (you can see the fingers again here) which is where the slider is on both plugs.  As you can see there is a gap above the two notches in the sidebar where the slider fingers can move before the sidebar is pushed into the cylinder.

Once the sidebar is compressed you can see there is only the two holes for the slider fingers.  If the slider is not pushed in the right amount the sidebar cannot move into the plug as the holes will not line up with the fingers on the slider.

Here is a shot of the key in the M3S plug with the bottom pins in place.  It is easy to see all the grooves lining up and you can see the nub on the top of each pin.   The metal nub is basically used to ensure the pin does not rotate too much or else the key cuts would not be able to properly set it.  As you can see the nub sits in a small gap which allows it to rotate 20 degrees from the center both ways.

That concludes the breakdown of the cylinders, so lets take a moment to reflect on what we have seen.   First of all we know the M3B is basically the same as a normal cylinder with the addition of the slider (the sidebar is also new but is fully controlled by the slider).  This means that once you pick it like a normal cylinder you simply must slowly push the slider in while applying tension to get it to open.   As the slider doesn’t add much protection one may think the M3B is actually easier to pick then a standard Kwikset of Schlage due to the wide open keyway.  This is certainly partially true, however Medeco cylinders still are generally manufactured to tighter tolerances and do have two security pins in there, so it is still a hard pick.  Does this warrant the $40-70 list price? Maybe, maybe not.  You still get key control with the M3B and the ability to use the same keys for the M3B as you do with the M3S (good in mass deployments).  If you are going for anti-pick/drill ability your money is certainly much better spent on something like a Scorpion which can sell for roughly the same price.

Now onto the M3S, and how it stacks up against its cheaper predecessor the Biaxial.   From a picking point of view if you can pick a Biaxial (which is no easy feat on its own) the M3S will be no harder as the slider simply means once you are done with your normal picking you must push it into place.   Some may say it is easier to pick the M3S due to the more open keyway when compared to most Biaxials.    Don’t forget that while most locksmiths won’t willy nilly duplicate biaxial keys if you want true key duplication protection you should upgrade/buy the M3S.  

As long as you understand the M3B’s intended purpose (protecting nothing valuable but allowing the same key as the M3S to be used) and understand that security wise the M3S offers very little on top of the Biaxial (with the M3B being far worse obviously), you can make informed decisions about your lock needs.

Corrections
Recently Han Fey supplied some additional information in respect to this article.  Most importantly is regard to the groove I spoke about on some of the M3 BiLevel bottom pins:

Originally I stated that this was an anti-pick pin (similar to other serrated bottom pins) however the groove was too wide and low for a normal serrated pin, but no other purpose could be deduced.   Han Fey clarified their purpose: They are not to prevent picking but rather to stop decoding.   John Falle of Falle-Safe Securities makes several high security tools, including a standard pin tumbler decoder.  Most standard pin tumbler locks can be decoded by this tool and while I will not go into details on the tool, it is available to normal commercial locksmiths.  Medeco has taken the time to add this ‘falle groove’ to their BiLevel pins to make the BiLevel stand out from other standard pin tumblers.  If you look at all of the pins with this groove you will notice they are all equal distant from the bottom of the pin:

The second issue Han explained was that the BiLevel did not actually start with the M3.  For clarification, for the entire article up until this point, when I talked about the BiLevel, I was talking about the M3 BiLevel.  I had heard in the past that over seas the Biaxial had been called the BiLevel, this was not completely correct.  The original BiLevel is actually a very interesting modified Biaxial.  Some of the bottom pins are replaced with a special rounded pin (instead of a chiseled standard pin).  This rounded pin required the key to be cut by a special machine that can cut in 3D (if you consider the normal Biaxial key cutters 2D cutters).  This obviously greatly reduces the chance of key duplication and makes some other attacks harder.  This is not an article on the original BiLevel (although at some point on the future I may write one), however if you are looking for more information I was able to find some online at: http://www.medeco.dk/dwnload/Bilevel_brochure.pdf (See page 5 for a picture of the pin and key).  The original BiLevel obviously is of no relation to the M3 BiLevel, the original BiLevel may have been sold under another name in the US (if you know it please let me know).

I would like to thank Han Fey for providing the corrections and additional details.

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…

 
The last two blog posts I had someone review them, Jaakko actually helped with the entire Abloy project, but even on the Masterlock I had someone review it before posting.   This has worked out, and this time Doug Farre (of Locksport International Texas Edition) was kind enough to review it.  He seems to have some affinity to proper English, so if you find this to be easier to understand than normal, you can send thanks his way.   I would also like to thank Graham Pulford who’s latest book “High-Security Mechanical Locks” provided great technical detail to help clarify how this lock works.

While I do have a new unused Duo, I decided to use this one instead (both are 14 tumbler versions). I purchased this one along with a few other Duo’s very cheaply on EBay. They were fairly old, in somewhat poor condition, and the key did not flow very well into them. While I was originally planning on doing a milled cutaway as my next example, the mill is awaiting some new parts (DRO and more bits). To that end I decided to choose this Duo as it would allow me to detail some restoration techniques. Let’s start with some pictures of the lock as I received it:

As you can see, they are not in overly great condition. The face has a gouge in it, and the metal is fairly warn over. The following are the tools I used:

• Vice - holding the lock during dremel use (generally using your hand can lead to some nasty cuts)
• Two sets of files - diamond(rough) files for removing larger amount of materials and fine files for finishing work
• Dremel - used to drive the following tools:
• Wire wheel - used for cleaning up metal parts of the lock to remove dirt and corrosion
• End mill bit - used for cutting the window in the metal to view the wafers (Dremel calls it a Tungsten Carbide Cutter)
• Cut off wheel - to cut a guide line for the end mill bit
• Flathead screwdriver - to remove the cam from the back of the lock
• Emery sandpaper - (200/400/1000 grit sheets i used) for fixing the face of the lock, removing the gouge
• PB rust remover - removes rust from metal along with general cleaner, also works as a lubrication
• Brake cleaner - another cleaner works well for getting grease and anything else out, will remove the PB Rust lubricator left behind after it does its dirty work
• Marker - used for marking the wafers to keep them facing the proper directions

The very necessary tools are the Dremel with a cutoff wheel (or an endmill bit), as always you could technically use just files but it would take you awhile. You also see the Dremel flex-shaft attachment and multi-tool work station, neither are needed but both make the process easier.

For taking the lock apart I suggest you leave the key in the plug at all times and never pull the plug by the key. If the key comes out and the plug is not in the housing your wafers and springs will go everywhere.  This is about as bad as with an Abloy:) Next we need to unscrew the flat head screw holding the plug in, and then slowly remove the plug from the housing. You should end up with the following:

It is at this stage that I decided to clean everything. It would have been better if all the wafers were separate. but this was much easier than keeping track of all the indivudual wafers. I took all the pieces and put them in a small bowl, then sprayed them all with the PB Rust Remover and let them soak in the bowl. I also switched between having the plug separate from the housing and the plug in the housing while spraying in the keyway. After about 5 minutes I emptied it out, washed the bowl, and did the same thing with the brake cleaner. After mixing it around and letting it sit again I dried the pieces on some paper towel. It started to look a little better at this point:

The following few steps(taking the wafers out and putting them back in) are not required if you are just making a cutaway, however if you are looking to restore/fully clean the lock then I would recommend it. Now each wafer technically has several different ways it could go into the plug. The wafer could be flipped vertically or horizontally causing it not to work (not to mention getting them out of order). There may be some way to tell the way a wafer should face, however it is far easier if we just mark them while they are in the correct order. I used the sharpie to make a solid line on the bottom of the plug across the top of each wafer (top as in not in the center of each wafer, so that I knew if the wafer was flipped horizontally). You may have to move the key in and out slightly to make sure you hit all of them (just be careful to not let any wafers come out while doing this. Next comes dis-assembly, during dis-assembly we care about two things, the order the wafers and not losing any springs. Remember, for every two wafers there is one spring. Keeping the springs in order doesn’t matter but the spring for the two wafers closest to the front of the plug did seem smaller than the others. Start at the back of the plug and slowly pull the key out, taking a wafer out at a time and laying them down in order (set the springs aside). Once done they should be similar to:

I would like to stop for a moment and talk about the wafers.  There are three different cuts on a key: top, bottom, and side which means there are 3 different types of wafers that move (top,bottom,side) and a fourth profile wafer that is static.  The wafers are always in order (top, bottom, side, profile), but don’t let this fool you, this lock is still very hard to manipulate.  Each wafer is paired with another wafer (by sharing a spring) by moving one up or down you are changing the pressure on the other.  In addition the wafers have anti-pick notches in them, and are extremely thin with no spacing wafers in between (making manipulating one at a time very hard).  The profile wafers are fixed and guide the key, but also make it harder to manipulate the side wafers due to the extreme warding. 

Now we need to clean each wafer, we are going to just use the wire brush in the Dremel (on a fairly low setting of 2-4) to do this. When you do this there is a good chance you are going to be removing the sharpie marks, so before you do each wafer you must remember where its mark is and then re-add it after it is clean. You could technically just look at its partner wafer (as it will go the same way), but I find it easier to just keep track. I would pickup a wafer holding the non-marked end, and look at the marked side, remember if it was on the same side as the spring or not (the spring side has a cut in the side of the wafer where the spring goes. Then I would run the front part of one side of the wafer over the wire brush, then flip sides of the wafers and do the other. Then I would flip the end I was holding and do the same on the other side, and then finally re-mark the wafer and set it down. The wire brush setup in the Dremel and in the multi-tool station:

The following picture is where about half the wafers cleaned (and then another where all the wafers cleaned):

Next we need to clean up the plug itself; You can see where it has that nasty gouge in the face that we need to remove. I started with filing it out until it was gone. This heavily scraped the face, so I proceeded on to the sand paper. The 200 grid sand paper is fairly rough and will help smooth the grooves from the files, but still leaves the lock face looking nasty. Following up with the 400 and with the 1000 grit until you get it nice. To do the sanding I alternated between the sand paper on the table and rubbing the plug on it, and putting the sand paper in my hand and grinding the plug against it in the palm of my hand.  The second method allowed me to better apply it to the roundness of the face. You want to make sure you don’t take too much off, just clean up the surface so it looks closer to new again. I also ran the rest of the plug body over the wire brush to help remove grit along with the cam piece.

Next I cleaned the key with the wire brush; it really helped restore the key. Here is a picture of the key half cleaned:

Now we need to reload all the wafers into the plug. The best way I have found to do this is not to put the spring in with the wafers but only after the wafers are partially in the plug. I started at the front of the plug and would load four wafers in at a time. Once the four were in I would go back and load the two springs. I push out the first two wafers about 1/2 to 3/4ths the way so I could see the hole for the spring and load the spring in. I then push the wafers back in, flip the plug over (as you will note the springs alternate sides for the most part) and do the same with the second pair of wafers. I would push the key forward a bit then would load four more and continue this until they are all loaded. To see how much the wafers would be pulled out here is a picture just after I inserted a spring into a pair of wafers:

Next I took the wire brush tool and ran it over the sharpie line on the wafers removing the black mark we made previously. Now we need to make the actual cutaway into the outer housing so you can see the wafers. We want to make the cutaway at the top (or bottom, as they are the same) of the housing, in the part where the gap above the wafers is so they can move up/down and you can pull the key out. I placed the outer housing into a vise (be careful not to grip it any tighter than needed for fear of altering its shape) and use the cut off wheel to cut a slit down the side of it:

Next I took the end mill bit and basically widened this hole to approximately how wide I wanted it. I wanted to be able to look one way and see the cap in the plug above the wafers where they could move up and down, but also the other way you could see no gap in which they had to fit under. Keeping in mind that I was going to file it down later on I went in with the endmill bit and widened the slit:

If the dremel could be used like a true milling machine it would have been a lot more perfect, but instead we must now file. I started again with the diamond files to roughly even it out and then moved on to the finer files to end up with:

Once that is done, clean it off, and put everything back together. You now have a Duo Cam Cutaway! Some final pictures:

Notice the cleaned up face, the gap on the right side of the second picture, and the lack of a gap on the left size of the 3rd. Enjoy!

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…

 Abloy locks are disk detainer locks, and while small adjustments have been made to the system, the basic idea has stayed the same.  You have a plug with several circular disks in it, each disk has a small notch(gate) at a specific location.  In addition there is a metal locking bar that sits in a small cavity in the cylinder above the plug.  The locking bar is what is responsible for preventing the plug from spinning.  You insert a key with angular cuts into the plug and turn it 90 degrees.  This rotates the disks various amounts so that the gates on the disks line up and the locking bar can drop down into the plug.  At this point the plug can be rotated further to lock/unlock the lock.  For more details on how Abloy locks work I encourage you to check out Toool which has an excellent Abloy series by Han Fey, including Part 3 which focuses on the Protec.  I will talk about one additional feature of the Protec, just so those who don’t know will be able to follow the pictures, that is the return bars.  The return bars serve two main purposes: at rest or when the lock is opened they keep individual disks from moving (either due to physical movement during transportation or otherwise), they also ensure the disk return to their positions when the key is removed.  Two are required for this lock as it can be turned both ways, for more details see Han’s series.

I figure I would start with some operational pictures:

Pictures at rest: Key and lock | The return bars and bottom of the cylinder | Locking bar above the disks
  

Pictures at 45 degrees of rotation: You can see one of the return bars moving and disks spinning

After 90 degrees of rotation the locking bar may automatically drop into the plug due to gravity, however if it doesn’t then once tension is applied the slope in the locking bar groove will cause it to enter the plug.
Pictures : Locking bar dropped into the plug | Return bar has reached the other return bar and the disks are aligned
 

Pictures after additional rotation (unlocking the lock): Locking Bar in the plug | After about 280 degrees of rotation to the right | After left rotation instead of right
  

Now onto the fun of taking it apart! Before one goes about disassembling any lock you should make sure your workspace is clean, and you aren’t going to be interrupted by a phone call, an animal, or zombies.  The last thing you want is pieces to go everywhere or get out of order, especially on an Abloy.  In addition, if the lock you are taking apart is dirty some Kerosene, Acetone, Brake Cleaner, or Turpentine will allow you to clean your lock while taking it apart.

To start we need to remove the cam from the back of the lock. First we need to unscrew the cam, and then apply some pressure to pull the cam off. It is important make sure to do this with the back end up so the plug doesn’t come out.
Pictures: Cam Attached | Cam Removed
 

Next we need to remove the retaining clip that sits just inside the plug, I used a small flat head screwdriver(inserted into the lock bar notch) to do the trick. After this we need to remove a metal washer sitting behind it, a few taps to the cylinder while upside down should do the trick (again make sure to hold the plug in the cylinder while tapping).
Pictures: Retaining Ring | Retaining Ring Removed | Washer and Retaining Ring
  

Next we want to push the plug out a small amount so we can see the locking bar bracket and springs, I did this with the key in the lock, but you should just do it by pushing on the front of the plug slightly.  Once you can see the lock bar bracket you can remove it, and the two springs under it.
Pictures: Locking bar bracket and springs in plug | Springs still in plug but bracket removed | Springs removed
  

Next we want to pull the entire plug out, the locking bar may drop out at this point (or the silver profile disk), but don’t worry.  Tilt the back of the cylinder down and slowly push the plug out, making sure to hold it as it comes out as it may come apart otherwise. Once done set it down and set the locking bar aside.
Pictures: Entire plug outside of the cylinder | Locking bar aside with bracket and springs
 

If the profile disk did not come out during removal it is most likely stuck in the front of the cylinder, tap it until this comes out.
Pictures: Profile disk in cylinder | Profile disk removed
  

Next we need to remove the disk controller.  To do this put the plug vertically on the table, and slowly pull the disk controller off while holding the plug.
Pictures: Disk controller on plug | Plug with disk controller off | Disk controller on its face
  

Now I want to stop for a second and talk about the disk controller.  The disk controller is the only piece of the lock I did not fully disassemble, this is due to the fact I was told it came from the factory in one piece, and it did not come apart easily.  It also looked like it would be very hard to put back together due the springs, and the fact it may be partially crimped in place.  Aside from this the disk controller has two important functions. First ensures that the key is fully inserted before you can start rotating (as with Abloys without this feature you can rotate at any point which can prevent the key from being fully inserted or removed without rotating back to start).  Second it guides the key in so that minimal contact with the other disks occurs on entry, this helps avoid a disk spinning by mistake and blocking the keyway (along with reducing wear).  By using the dimple on each side of the key the disk controller can prevent premature rotation.  There are ball bearings that extend into the outer part of the disk controller when they key is not fully inserted preventing rotation.  Once they key is fully inserted the dimples on the side of the key allow the ball bearings to push into them, allowing for rotation of the plug. My key has two dimples per side, however only one is used by the Protec.  You can best see the ball bearings here:

Once removed we can now remove the front locking washer and return bars.  First remove the washer from the top, then you should be able to see the two silver locking bars. At this point you can flip the plug over (while holding the disks in place) and the return bars should drop out.
Pictures: Washer next to plug, return bars visible | return bars removed from plug
  

Next we need to remove all the disks, you can do this one of two ways, either by removing them from the plug housing, or by sticking the disk controller back through them, flipping it over, and doing it that way.  I did it the latter, but the choice is yours.  The important part is to keep the order and direction (facing up /facing down) of the disks correct.  If you do mix up the direction look at the pictures below, or know that all the disks go embossed side down during assembly.
Pictures: Disks on disk controller | disks placed in order on table (Top right disk is the disk closest to the back of the cylinder)
 

At this point everything should be disassembled; if your lock is dirty you can clean the metal pieces with your solvant now.
Picture of all the components:

Now to put it back together, this was certainly the hardest part, and is especially hard without the proper tools.  The tricky part is loading all the disks back in to the plug housing.  I will explain the way I did it, and then I will explain the way I think you should do it, and finally the way I received from an Abloy specialist.   What you should understand is that there are 3 types of disks.  Ones that have a single deep U gate in them, ones that have lots of small false gates and shallower real gates (generally two but sometimes one in the middle depending on the bitting), and finally ones with shallow gates but no false gates (that also look like they hug the key).  The first ones are primarily washers, the U gate on each of them interfaces with the locking bar and allow the washers to stay in place, the second work with the return bars and the locking bar, and finally the third are control disks used for moving the return bars.  You definitely want to align the first locking bar disks (so there is a straight groove for the locking bar).  I also believe you want to try and align the second type of disks for the return bars, however this may not be overly important(I have not tried without aligning these).  I thought the best way to do this would be to mount them on the disk controller with the key in the disk controller.  To do this I put the key in the vice (with some padding to avoid scratching) and used two things to align the disks: A) tweezers to align the locking bar groove (any flat piece of steel will do this) and B) a small flat-head screwdriver to rotate the disk once I placed it on the disk controller.  

I didn’t constantly use the tweezers just every now and then to ensure the groove lined up. At the end I used the return bars to help with their grooves, eventually I ended up with all the disks on.
Pictures: Key and disk controller in Vise | All disks loaded on key | Top shot with return bar

I then slowly put the plug housing on. The housing has a gap in the bottom of it; this should align with the first type of disks (ones with the locking bar gates).   Finally I loaded the last return bar in.
Pictures: Housing showing gap for locking bar | Loaded housing with both return bars

That was the way I did it, and it took several hours.  I would suggest trying to load the disks directly into the housing and not onto the key / disk controller first.  The housing keeps the control bar gates aligned, and then at a maximum it’s a matter of just aligning the other half of the disks and adding the return bars in.  You can manipulate the disks using a pin or small screw driver.   I would assume this should go much faster, but after spending a couple hours I didn’t want to take it all out to try again.  Finally A professional has provided that the way suggested by Abloy.  Abloy suggests you load the disks into the housing, use Vaseline or a wire tool to keep the return bars in place, and load them this way.  A picture of the wire tool:

After all the disks are reloaded and you have the return bars in you are over the hump.  Apply the locking washer back on top, then insert the disk controller.  Next reload the springs for the locking bar, and put the locking bar in its groove, place the profile plate on the end and slowly load it back into the cylinder.  Right before it’s all the way in, put the locking bar bracket on top, and push it the rest of the way in.  Now test it and make sure its working, if so put the cam back on and your done!

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…

 Something just about anyone can do, and using some fairly cheap tools for the process.  First of all the tools:

• Vice (to hold the lock, its a lot harder to file something you are holding)
• Large File (filing down large portions of the lock)
• V File (just a file with smaller surface area contact, useful for filing away the actual pin chambers on the cylinder)
• Needle or Riffler Files (for pin chamber filing)
• Dremel - for cutting through the lock
• Metal Cut Off Wheel - attachment for dremel to do cutting
• Pin tray (or something to put the pins in)
• Top Loading Tweezers (these just make it easier to repin the cylinder, but many people just use a pick)

Now technically as long as you have a vice and a medium grade file you could do this, however its not suggested (it will involve hours of filing).

 First of all we need to break the lock down into its parts.   Unlock the lock and then you will find a screw in the shackle hole.  Remove your key from the cylinder (if it is in it) then unscrew that screw.  Once unscrewed you can remove the retaining plate on the bottom (hit it once or twice if it doesn’t drop right out). It should look like:

Once the cylinder is free from the lock we need to mark what part of the cylinder we are going to file down later.  There is a very crucial part here, and that’s making sure you are filing down the right side.  Imagine what part of the lock housing you are going to cut away to make your window, and then physically place the cylinder back into the housing so you know what side of the cylinder housing you are going to cut and mark this side.

Now we will remove all the pins and springs from the cylinder.   Looking at the back of the plug (where the key does not go in) and there should be a metal retaining clip, remove this clip (using a flat head screwdriver works well).  Once removed put they key into the plug and turn it 45 degrees in either direction.   Next we are going to pull the plug out from the cylinder, as we do this the top pins and springs are going to shoot out the back of the cylinder, its best to do this with the back of the lock angled down towards a table (with a hand cupping or some sort) so you don’t lose any springs or pins.   Slowly push the back of the plug until it is free from the cylinder, put all the pins and springs that fell out into your pinning tray (order doesn’t matter on the top pins and spings).  Next remove the pins from the plug and put them into your tray in order. 

Now we will start by filing the cylinder down so you can see the pin chambers.  Lock the cylinder into the vise.  Now it is important here to make sure of two things, first of all that the side you marked to file is facing up and fairly flat, secondly that you don’t tighten the cylinder in the vise the wrong way.  If possible you basically want to put pressure on the ends of the cylinder and not on the body itself.  If you put the cylinder into the vise sideways (so the pressure is on the the sides instead) and tighten it too much you won’t be able to rotate the plug in the cylinder freely, and the lock is ruined (no matter how hard you try to bend it back).  Also if you are going to clamp the sides make sure to put some padding(paper towel works fine) between the cylinder and the vice to avoid scratching.

Now deciding exactly how to file down the lock is a bit tricky. I chose to leave a slight gap between where I filed and the plug chamber, primarily to ensure that I don’t file to the sheer line, as I wanted to ensure it felt the same as if it wasn’t cutaway (at-least as close as possible to it). To do this I put the jaws of the vice slightly beyond the plug chamber so the file wouldn’t be able to move any closer to the sheer line.  I then used the triangle file to start filing.  After filing down for awhile (it will take awhile) you will start to get to the pin chambers. 

At this point you will want to file down until you can see all of each pin chamber (be careful to not file for much longer than that otherwise the springs may not stay in properly).  At this point using the needle files to clean up the chambers until they are fairly even.

Next we can repin our cylinder and put it back together.  I loaded all the springs in first, then loaded the plug with the bottom pins and used the plug to follow as I loaded the top pins in (just make sure you put the cylinder in the right way and not the back).  Depending on the cylinder you may be able to load the pins differently, mainly just get it back together.  In the end it should look similar to this:

Now its time to mark our padlock for where we want to cut our window.  There are a couple key things to doing this: A) The retaining bracket must be able to still lock into place which means the hole in this case on the left had to remain intact.  B) It is easier to remove more material later (and you will have to when filing to make it smooth) then add it back.   Here is how mine looked:

Next put the lock into a vice (make sure to not touch it directly to the metal clamps, paper-towel will work, just so it doesn’t scratch).   Now dremel away what you have cut out.  Originally as you can see where the sides meet I had it going straight down the side, unfortunately I couldn’t cut this without cutting into the lock more than I wanted to, so ended up with something like this:

In the end I just cut it on an angle through, it actually looks good this way and made filing later easier.  The edges now will be rough, take a file to them and file them down until they are even and smooth.  In the end you should put it all back together and have a fairly good cutaway. 

Now there are some things that went wrong or that I would correct the next time through:

• Be careful of your lock, take an effort to ensure it doesn’t get scratched or touch any other metal
• Make sure you are going to be able to see the pins, originally I didn’t file close enough to the sheer line and had to file that down more later and that actually caused some problems (if you look carefully at the chambers you can see the part closest to the plug housing is filed down more than the rest and causes the holes to be bigger in the chambers too)
• If this was going to be for show you should follow up filing with sand paper, it will give it a much better shine

Also some questions for those who may have some ideas:

• Anyone able to confirm what type of lock this is?  572 is the only number I could really find, there is a photo here of the package.
• If you have any ideas on how to do more exact filing of a specific area (I thought maybe taping areas not to file, but thought the files would probably tear through the tape)

Thanks all here are some final photos, you can find more in the gallery:

I have always followed several other blogs, but few have much in the way of cutaways and even fewer in how to make cutaways.     

I plan to not only document how and the result of the cutaways I attempt, but also any tools and professional cutaways I acquire along the way.

 So welcome, and some real content to follow.