Where to get blanks, how to get restricted systems
Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 3:43 pm
Hey everybody! I don't post much, but I've been more or less lurking for a while. Some background: I used to be an in-house locksmith for a large non-profit, mostly dealing with Best, but locksmithing had long been an interest to me. Recently I left that job and moved, and I'm in the process of slowly starting my own shop. I'm planning on doing stuff in person, as well as having an online presence where people can order keys cut by code. I'm going to focus on commercial and residential locks, but I want to be able to do some basic automotive stuff. (Lockouts, duplicate keys using factory programming methods as necessary, etc.) I've been dabbling some, and I have the luxury of growing this slowly instead of having to bet the farm and go all in on it. I don't have any plans of opening up a storefront, I plan on doing more mobile/on-site service.
Sorry for the long intro, getting to the meat of this post, I've been getting blanks online based on who had them and who had price on them, including keycraze, clk supplies, lockpicks.com, keyblanksales.com etc. Anyway, as I increase my quantities (I'm buying KW1/SC1/SC4/etc 250 at a time and others 50 at a time) and diversify what I keep in stock, this is getting both tedious and expensive. Maybe this is all that's available at my level, but I'd really like to be able to order straight from Ilco/esp/jma/etc or a top-level distributor of some sort. Something to where I can order anything a given manufacturer has from one source without paying crazy markups. Any ideas?
Further, what's the best way to get OEM Schlage stuff, like Everest? I've been ordering from absupply and other sites, but they're sometimes around $3 per blank, depending on what I'm after, they're slow shipping, and the most recent ~$175 order I made had a shipping price over $50. Pretty ridiculous for ~60 keys.
Finally, I did some brief research on becoming a registered dealer or whatever a given manufacturer refers to it as, where I'd be able to offer customers restricted keyways, like Everest/Primus, Cormax, Medeco, Instakey, etc. But nothing I could find on those manufacturer's websites made it really clear how to go about this or what the requirements were. (I'm assuming some may want me to do a higher volume of sales than I do now, buy in at a significant up-front cost, or simply not go through locksmiths as distributors.) Do any of you guys have any recommendations as to which manufacturer(s) I should focus on, and what it would take to get in?
More background info, in case you're interested, I have a 1200 with just about every accessory, a pak-a-punch, an automatic duplicator, a tubular code machine, a couple of manual duplicators, and a bench top punch for best. I'm looking to get a high-security machine soon, strongly considering an Ilco Swift Plus. I can cut Medeco keys, pin Medeco original and biaxial, pin Best a2/a4, etc. There are some tools I haven't purchased yet, but I've got a lot, including what I need at this stage more often than not. I'm probably average at picking but have never tried impressioning.
Thanks in advance, any tips will be highly appreciated!
Sorry for the long intro, getting to the meat of this post, I've been getting blanks online based on who had them and who had price on them, including keycraze, clk supplies, lockpicks.com, keyblanksales.com etc. Anyway, as I increase my quantities (I'm buying KW1/SC1/SC4/etc 250 at a time and others 50 at a time) and diversify what I keep in stock, this is getting both tedious and expensive. Maybe this is all that's available at my level, but I'd really like to be able to order straight from Ilco/esp/jma/etc or a top-level distributor of some sort. Something to where I can order anything a given manufacturer has from one source without paying crazy markups. Any ideas?
Further, what's the best way to get OEM Schlage stuff, like Everest? I've been ordering from absupply and other sites, but they're sometimes around $3 per blank, depending on what I'm after, they're slow shipping, and the most recent ~$175 order I made had a shipping price over $50. Pretty ridiculous for ~60 keys.
Finally, I did some brief research on becoming a registered dealer or whatever a given manufacturer refers to it as, where I'd be able to offer customers restricted keyways, like Everest/Primus, Cormax, Medeco, Instakey, etc. But nothing I could find on those manufacturer's websites made it really clear how to go about this or what the requirements were. (I'm assuming some may want me to do a higher volume of sales than I do now, buy in at a significant up-front cost, or simply not go through locksmiths as distributors.) Do any of you guys have any recommendations as to which manufacturer(s) I should focus on, and what it would take to get in?
More background info, in case you're interested, I have a 1200 with just about every accessory, a pak-a-punch, an automatic duplicator, a tubular code machine, a couple of manual duplicators, and a bench top punch for best. I'm looking to get a high-security machine soon, strongly considering an Ilco Swift Plus. I can cut Medeco keys, pin Medeco original and biaxial, pin Best a2/a4, etc. There are some tools I haven't purchased yet, but I've got a lot, including what I need at this stage more often than not. I'm probably average at picking but have never tried impressioning.
Thanks in advance, any tips will be highly appreciated!