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Haha! Nice. Not a bad idea actually. After it tore through the initial layer,
did it begin eating at the brass a bit? i.e. Soften/round out the edges
leaving you with that nice "heavily used/worn" look?

There's a few locks that look really nice next to a nickel-plated key...
but 90% of the time, I prefer brass. Unfortunately, more and more blanks
are now coming nickel-plated. I've (briefly) looked into various methods for
removing this top layer. Most of them though, seem to involve the use of
acids such as sulfuric, hydrochloric, or nitric.

Another thought that's crossed my mind - If plating is an electro-process,
it stands to reason that I may be able to reverse this process somehow with
my electro-monster. Some experimenting for this summer I suppose

Yes it did round off the edges. Air sanding is like sandpaper but it doesn't shape the metal like sandpaper does. Imagine you're painting with an airbrush: the longer you stay in one spot, the more it's sanded. So I had to move the key like if I was painting it, without stopping in one spot to avoid carving it or changing its shape. I'll look for the keys and post a picture of the ones I'm not afraid of sharing online. Some of them are still in use.

If your electro-monster works it could be very fun.

Cheers

I would love a pic if you get the time. Actually, I was tempted to ask, but thought it inappropriate.
But I didn't realize you had blasted a few that aren't in use. Thanks.

A regular AM3 key would have sufficed! LOL, that makes it even cooler

Mike,

I have some of those same cut keys in my American pinning kit! Junkinc Bros.

Gordon

They can come in handy... sometimes

lol. I first impressioned it with a regular AM3. It looks like shit but works like SILK.
It actually works better than the one pictured. I'll send em' both back with the lock.

Hey Oldfast,

as promised I took a couple of pictures of the keys I sanded to remove the nickel plate that I didn't like. I censored the bittings.

I sand blasted the first one and completely removed the plating. This has no effect at all on function since the bittings were not plated so I haven't removed any material from there.





At the time I did this I knew nothing about locks and I was worried that removing the plate from the bottom of the key could have been a problem. So I just sanded the sides of this key with fine grit sandpaper. You can see the key bow raised edges were sanded and the inner part was still untouched.



Cheers

Thanks for taking the time to snap some pics for me femurat.

Since you'd made mention of that, I talked with a friend of mine that works at an auto-body shop.
He said he'd be happy to blast a few keys for me. They have a small one too, where a glove runs
into a small box.... so you could hold the key and hit both sides with a light touch. We'll see:)

That SET US American came from me originally. Nice to see a key for it... and yeah did you try picking it? It picks real crazy!

Kinda funny actually... the first time I picked through it with no problem. When I tried again it
gave me some hell - even knowing the bitting! Those US SETS can be funny like that sometimes.

That's what I used

Beautiful job, Mike. I also like the WB locks. Have three of them which I just received last week. Now I just need to make keys, cause there ain't none. Lucky me!

Do you have the depths and increments for the bittings on them? Or heck, just send me your key, and I'll tell you how many of my Wilson Bohannan locks it turns! Now THAT would crack me up.

Just received a package of locks from a friend in Finland. Opened it up, and he had included an ABLOY P3020 as a birthday present for my son. He was thriled. He included a few challenging locks, and told me I could not open the package with the keys until I had picked three of them. Picked four of them, so I can look at the keys, but will wait for morning, or more likely after work tomorrow. The remaining locks look like they are going to put up a fight. Tomorrow I'll take/post pics.

Have a good night, all.

Gordon

you da man!!!