Any locksmiths about?

[Dave]

A simple problem with a filing cabinet.

Wife is a Scout leader and needs to keep confidential information about the children secure. She uses a filing cabinet for this and last week asked me to get a second key cut for the lock. Despite going back twice since the original copy was made, the key will not rotate to unlock it.

I have just spent the last 2 hours measuring everything about the keys and the biggest discrepancy is as much as a whopping 0.006 of an inch between the old and new keys. I must suspect from this that the lock is well worn. Is there anything I can do for her?

Dave

[Andy Dingley]

Ignore the flimsy supplied lock, bolt on (locked nuts on the inside) a hasp and staple with a padlock.

[The Medway Handyman]

The lock should have a number on the front, plenty of sites selling spare keys, you just need the number (&sometimes make).

[cj]

Hi From other posts can't decide what type of cabinet you have. Mine have 4 drawers and stand around 4feet high so a hasp and staple is out unless fitted to each drawer.

1st post says newly cut key is faulty if I read it correctly,so you should have the master complete with number. If your cabinet is like mine the easiest way is to remove the old lock completely and replace the whole unit. Any good locker supplier or stationary supplier should carry new ones and they come with 3 keys. I even got a bag full in the garage rotting away from a locker lock change. If you get desperate repost with perhaps a link to a picture . HTH CJ

[Nightjar]

Six thou is quite a large difference for a cylinder and pin lock.

I would suspect it was well worn if it worked with both keys.

That is always what I have done. Easy to do and the key you get has been cut against a master, not against a possibly worn key.

Colin Bignell

[John Weston]

The 4-drawer secure ones I used to have at work had a steel strip that was fixed through metal drawer handles down to a flat U-bolt slot near the floor. There was a secure hasp and staple fitting at the top, to prevent it being withdrawn or pulled forwards, that took a security lock. Nothing for bolt-cutters to attack but, these days, no problem with an angle grinder :-)

[Andy Dingley]

Just make the top drawer lockable.

[Matty F]

I suspect the locksmith has made a mistake or used the wrong blank. It should be possible to make an exact copy of a key even if it is worn.

[Dave]

That will have to be a floor to the top of the cabinet system. I had considered this before posting.

Dave

[Dave]

I might take a look, depending on Night jars post.

Dave

[Dave]

Having been in an engineering all my working life, I would have thought that it wouldn't make that much difference.

Yes, you could well be right here, thanks for pointing that out.

Thanks, I'll do that as soon as I can see the cabinet tomorrow evening.

Dave

[Dave]

That's a good idea. The problem is the children's health record integrity that must remain confidential.

Dave

[Dave]

I am trying to avoid the angle grinder option :-)

Dave

[Dave]

The blank he used is an exact copy of the orgiginal, both being Yale keys, a well known brand.

Only if the key that is copied is the original. Making copies of copies of keys results in a key that will not work.

Dave

I think I will go along the lines of replacing the lock.

[jkn]

Is a filing cabinet lock considered 'sufficiently secure' for this kind of thing? I'm kinda surprised myself....

J^n

[Adrian C]

Compare the distance between the lock facing flat of the shoulder and the 'v' of the first cut. Identical?

[Dave]

As I wrote before, it is less than 0.005 though.

Dave

[Adrian C]

Ah, OK. That was the problem though that screwed up on one of our cut keys. Fellow hadn't clamped the original in the right place to start his copy.

[Terry Casey]

When you measured the new key against the old, did you check the position of the shoulder at the back of the key?

I've got a Yale lock here with two identical cylinders, one inside and one outside.

One spare key I had cut worked OK outside but was either stiff or wouldn't turn from the inside.

After a bit of head scratching, I found that shoulder on the new key was very slightly forward of the position of the original. This was stopping the key going quite far enough into the lock. A few seconds with a file sorted the matter out.

If the new key is not going in far enough or is going in too far, the internal registration errors will be a helluva lot more than six thou!

[Tony Bryer]

You don't want a little bit of Australia where you live?