XPT Padlock with strange Keyway

[Nickinator]

I've had this in my collection for a while now, never picked it, 7 pins by the look/feel of it, seems to have security pins, I've googled it and found almost nothing.





Any advice?

[piotr]

Any advice?

The XPT were (were because the company is now defunct) a Taiwanese lock that was imported into Australia by the Taiwan Import Co. Pty Ltd(site was www.ticc.com.au). The locks were at one stage sold by the Bunnings chain of hardware stores and gained some presence in the market. Some manufacturing plants in Australia are secured with these padlocks. The XPT brand along with the Taiwan Import Co Pty Ltd are now dead AFAIK.

The XPT padlocks have 6-pins and the bitting code is stamped on the bow of the key. (You can confirm the number of pins by counting the cuts on the key and by inserting an upside-down half-diamond into the lock and slowly withdrawing it and counting the pin clicks.

The XPT padlocks have spool pins, I am anot sure how many. I am not able to SPP the one I have but it rakes very easily because of the series of shallow cuts.

[Nickinator]

Thanks Piotr,
I've tried raking it to no avail, I can get one good rake in, but then some pins seem to set one one side of the keyway, while others are on the other, would a pick gun work on one of these if inserted into the bottom part of the keyway with the pins exposed? I presume there would be fees-able methoods to get such a lock to open, else they would be used more commonly.

Why don't more manufacturers use restrictive keyways?

[piotr]

Thanks Piotr,
I've tried raking it to no avail, I can get one good rake in, but then some pins seem to set one one side of the keyway, while others are on the other, would a pick gun work on one of these if inserted into the bottom part of the keyway with the pins exposed? I presume there would be fees-able methoods to get such a lock to open, else they would be used more commonly.

The bitting on yours may make it difficult (impossible?) to rake. A pick gun should work. I have a pick gun but I rarely use it because it is a good way to fuck up your cylinders. My advice is stick to SPP.

Why don't more manufacturers use restrictive keyways?

Because they are harder to manufacture and hence more expensive.

Optional detail:
Keyways are milled with a series of specialised end-mills that perform only one cut. The end-mills are specific to the keyway and have to be manufactured specifically for that keyway and CNC milling machine. The plug progresses through a number of end-mill stations in a sequential manner with each specialised end-mill contributing in its own way to the final form of the keyway. Creating a restrictive -- often paracentric -- keyway typically requires more steps which usually means more specialised end-mills and the usage of more stations on the CNC milling machine (a CNC milling machine in a production will have a limited number of "stations"). Also, each end-mill station must perform its milling within a fairly narrow tolerance for deviation else the work quality will deteriorate with each step of the process because of the interdependence of the steps. The more complicated the keyway the more (different) end-mills must be used and more steps need to be added to the overall process of milling the keyway and then the stations have to be calibrated and managed within a certain tolerance of deviation. Some lock manufacturing plants just wouldn't have the capability to produce restrictive keyways because either their CNC milling machines don't have the the required number of stations to accomodate all needed end-mills and/or the milling machine(s) may be incapable of milling within the required range of deviance from the specification and/or their end-mill supplier can't supply certain end-mill designs. In any event, even if all of the technical difficulties are overcome -- and indeed they are with the high quality lock manufacturers that have restrictive keyways such as Kaba Gege -- the production line will be comprised of more steps and this translates to a higher cost of the end product.

[Nickinator]

Thanks for the info, I don't have a pick gun myself as I simply do it as a hobby, but if this padlock can't be fees ably picked through SPP, it'd be well worth the extra few dollars in manufacturing. But where's the fun in that for us I guess.