Any locksmiths about?

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

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

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.

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

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 There was a secure hasp and staple fitting at the top, to prevent it being withdrawn or pulled forwards, that took a security lock.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 :-)

Just make the top drawer lockable.

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.

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

Dave

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

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

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

Dave

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

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.

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

J^n

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

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

Dave

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.

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!

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