Milling Lever Lock Picks from Single Piece of Steel?

[SidebarSam]

I am completely new to machining and on the cusp of buying both a 7x16 lathe and mini mill. The primary purpose of the these machines will be locksmith tools/prototypes. A very common tool for lever locks is known as a two in one pick. Without a lathe and mill the finger/flag would be silver soldered to the round shaft.

I'm unsure about the best way to mill the circumference around the finger or flag part of the tool using a single solid piece of steel.

Right now the only thing I can think of to accomplish this would be to mount the tool vertically and than rotated under mill using a rotary table. Is there other ways to accomplish this or is that proper way to machine it?

Here are some pictures of a store bought "two in one" pick.

Chubb Battleship Pick

 

[mikey]

You could turn it and leave a large ring on one end, then mill off the excess to create the finger and debulk the base of the finger. Then clean up the base with a file. Of course, you can also use a rotary table but you sort of have to buy the lathe, the mill and the rotary table. Now that I think about it, you can actually do this with just a lathe, a hacksaw and a file.

 

[SidebarSam]

Thanks for the reply, I will give that a try first. Both lathe and mill should be arriving in the next week and I'll wait on the purchase of the rotary table. Though I would probably only need the smallest size, most of the rotary tables I see for sale are pretty expensive.

 

[chips&more]

Hi and welcome to the HM. How many are you going to make? Making it a solid one piece could be a waste of material and LOTS of machining time. If you only need one or two then I would make it a two piece construction and silver solder together. Or spline together. Or square shaft together or something…Dave.

Please note, turning down or milling off large amounts of material on small machines can take some time.

 

[SidebarSam]

I would probably be making them fairly frequently as I would need a different tool for each different lock (each has different keyway and space between the levers or discs.). The tool I posted is an example of one of the more simpler keyways, and the tool also doesn't have markings to to read which lever and what depth it is set at. I could probably silver solder the finger/flag on the tool above but am worried it may not be as strong as a solid piece.

What I'm planing on my first project is a Abloy disc detainer pick (pictured below) which is slightly different than the one above but the tool works in the same way. Here is a picture of the only commercially available pick for this specific lock. Most my projects will be very similar to these two tools I have pictured.

Abloy Tool

(Note: this tiny tool sells for $660. For size reference the width of the very top part of the tool is 6mm and the handles are about 1" in diameter.)

On this tool you can read the space and depth of the pick which allows for decoding. Knowing the code you can cut a working a key after picking the lock open.

As you mentioned I am concerned about having to turn or mill steel frequently, and also work on such a small scale . The tools need to be made out of steel for strength but I will never need to turn down anything thicker than a 1/2" steel round bar at about 4-6" long. The handles will probably be 1" in diameter but those can be made out of aluminium or brass. The handles are attached to the pick via set screws.

Do you think working with such small diameters will require a steady rest? I just realized I will probably need one. LMS sells a 0-1" steady rest I was thinking I may have to purchase.

Thanks for the input,
Sam

 

[SidebarSam]

As an update I did order a small rotary table. Here is a link to the steady rest I was thinking of getting from LMS. https://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=4675&category=

 

[EmilioG]

Abloy locks are one of the top 3 locks made. I had no idea that an Abloy could be picked with a store bought tool.
It can't be easy. Let us know how your project works out.

 

[SidebarSam]

Abloy locks are one of the top 3 locks made. I had no idea that an Abloy could be picked with a store bought tool.
It can't be easy. Let us know how your project works out.

Will do, I look forward to posting the progress. The Abloy tool above is for their Classic system which was designed in 1907 and is still produced today (though pretty uncommon in the US). The newer Abloy locks such as Protec, and Protec 2 are just about the most secure locks in the world.

 

[SidebarSam]

I received the mill/lathe on Monday. Having no machining experience it's been a pretty slow process getting started. Today I took the first few steps towards making the tool for the Abloy. I'm having some problems with the rod deflecting as I'm turning to such small diameters. I ordered a follower rest but it has not arrived yet. Each of these pieces was turned down to size an inch at a time. I would have to turn down to size, move rod an inch further out of the chuck, turn down to size, pull it out another inch and so on. The finish was rather poor so I cleaned it up with a file.

Tomorrow I will try drilling the center out of the piece on the top so that the middle piece can fit inside of it. After that I will shape the pieces on the mill. Both of these are made from 1144 steel.

 

[SidebarSam]

I tried drilling the rod yesterday and things did not go great, though eventually I did get the a hole all the way through. I suspect my trouble came from the fact the tailstock was not perfectly centered with the work piece. I still need to find the best way to get that reasonably centered.

Anyway I realized after drilling the hole that both the pieces I started with were too short. So today I decided to restart and and focus only on the tension part of the Abloy tool. I also decided that it would be easier to mill the shape I needed the tip to be before turning the entire length of rod down to size.

This is what I'm left with now. You can see from this new picture just how much longer the new piece is. I am quite happy with this and it fits the keyway of the lock perfectly as well. The extra length will give a much more comfortable picking experience.




So tomorrow I will need to mill a small section of this new piece and then it will be complete. From there I will start on the pick part of the tool which will likely be the hardest part to make. Not only do I need to drill a perfect diameter hole all the way though the 5.8mm rod, I can only mill some of the the piece and the rest will need to be done by hand with a dremel and files.