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CISA C3000

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:13 pm
by least
This is a grade 3 or 4 cylinder (4 with safety fitting, 3 without it), with 6 pins and very interesting anti-bump protection. The anti-drill protection is not much visible (there is a steel insert guarding the pin stack), but the pins should be made of the stainless steel, so they can care for themselves (manufacturer also states, that their material and shape protect against wax impressioning - will have to read up on it).
Also this is the first lock that I have, that has a "meaningful" keyway, (a keyway cut to word) - CISA (actually the key has the "CISA" profile, the keyway is mirrored). Another nice touch is that the keys and the security card were in the non-transparent bag - probably standard for CISA, but not common around here.

guts.jpg


The lock internals are very interesting - especially the chamber 4; it is the anti-bump protection. The driver is a pin-in-pin, and also the "sleeve" has a slight rim. The rest are spools. The bible is interesting too - it has two groves cut in it; might be for sidebar, or passive pins; the manufacturer's brochure talks about its masterkeying potential, but they mention it as it is due to the fact that it is a six pinner. Other possibility is, that they use the same bible for different lock models...

Picking of this lock proved to be quite challenging (first pick was with the keys still sealed). It took several hours to get it open - I attribute it to the manufacturing precision of the lock, the six pins, to the pin-in-pin and the key bitting.
The pin-in-pin was the first one I encountered so far and it took me quite some time to figure out what was going on - all pins felt springy, regardless of the tension; I suspected some hidden pin or other mechanism blocking the cylinder, but the pin 4 felt a bit different when depressed deeper, and when the core went to a false set, it was clear, that there is something fishy in there (but the key is cut very low there, so it was not easy to depress it deep enough consistently).
Than the spools got to play their part and thanks to the precision of the lock they proved quite tough. The set pins felt quite differently compared to other locks I encountered so far, so it took a while to get some feel for the lock.

My only gripe with this lock is the use of the crimp-on circlip, which is not very easy to put back on. Other than that - it is a magnificent lock and a good incentive to start saving for AP4 :???:

Kind regards,
Michal