On 2012-06-24, whit3rd wrote:
On Friday, June 22, 2012 8:04:22 PM UTC-7, LeeAtWork wrote:

I've been a locksmith for 40 years now, and I usually work out my own
solutions, but this time I could use some help figuring out a better
one.

I need to modify several thousand "finger pins" so I can use keys
from 2 different series in the same locks. The pins are made of a hard,
high-nickel brass called "nickel silver"... Anyway, I need to make a
second pair of the same kind of cuts in around 500 of each of 4 shapes
of pins


Two ideas: get a jeweler's lathe (Taig is a common brand); they're
tabletop size. Either hold the pins in a collet (using a collet and a
stop is VERY much easier than a vise),

Be sure to get the alternate spindle for the Taig which accepts
WW series (jeweler's lathe) collets, which are much better for this sort
of thing than the collets which come with the Taig's standard spindle.

with the
cutter-on-a-Dremel mounted to the tool carriage, or put the cutter in
the lathe spindle and move the pin past it with your vise fixed to the
tool carriage.

Put the collet in an indexing head on the carriage -- and put
stops to allow offsetting to one side for one cut, and to the other side
for the second cut.

If you hold the pin in the lathe spindle collet, you can position for
the second notch using the lathe spindle indexing feature (common only
on jeweler's lathes).

I know it to be on the true jeweler's lathes, but I don't have
such a feature on my Taig -- rather an old one as they go. However, it
should not be that hard to add.

Or, go to a machinist with a real shop, and see if he can use nickel
silver (cupronickel) welding rod for stock and churn out a few hundred
automagically.

I get the impression that there is an elbow in the part which
would make it more difficult to make from plain rod stock -- unless you
used silver solder to join two pieces.

Or, even ask the lock manufacturer to make a run of
custom parts; you KNOW they have a screw machine setup for doing this.

:-)

Remanufacture with all the handling of small parts is ... always going
to be inefficient.

Of course -- but it may still be the best approach, depending on
how happy the manufacturer is to deal with individuals -- locksmiths or
no. And it sounds like he wants to add an extra feature not present on
the standard parts.

It is a fascinating lock which I have not seen before. Where
are these used? Looks like it would be immune to a picking gun. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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