the lockpickkid wrote:You ever thought of trying to get a job with Schlage? You have lots of ideas, funny though, if you were to try to explain them to people they may sound stupid or impossible, instead you think of something, you build it, and it actually works!!! I can't believe the stuff you come up with, it's fantastic.
I've thought about it. Never tried to pursue it though. I'm not so sure I would fit in very well. I'm sure the main problem would be that while I try to make things more secure. Most of my ideas drop the possibility to masterkey a lock. Which is a big problem unless you are going after the residential market. And yes while Schlage is definitely going after the residential market. They are also trying to go after that market without the locksmiths help (just like Kwikset, they want the end user to be able to re-key their own locks). And the ideas I come up with aren't geared in that direction. If for some reason I ever come up with a user changeable lock that isn't easy to decode (by my standards) and works reliably, I may just give them a call.
Back onto the subject of this lock. I am actually a little disappointed by it. For whatever reason it was by far the easiest lock to pick that I have used stacked T pins in. I rearranged the pins in it this morning to make it harder. What bugs me about it is that I'm not exactly sure why this lock was so much easier than the other locks I've used those pins in. I shouldn't worry too much about it since I know that locks will always vary in difficulty, ...just makes me wonder.
As far as the anti-impressioning. For obvious reasons I haven't tested this (I know what the key bitting is). I'm sure that the key pin spools can and will throw someone off a bit. I'm just not sure if it will work as well as my original anti-impression pins/chambers. The original pins/chambers I made had deeper spools and would very noticeably lift the pins off of the key when binding them at certain depths. On the other hand it could be a good thing that they don't get lifted very high of the blank. It may make it so all the pins leave much more equal marks (like if they are all set correctly, even though they really aren't).
I also haven't tested the impressioning because that's more like work and I don't find it that fun to do. Anyways, here are some pictures of the original anti-impression pins.