Rough notes

Rough notes ....

There is no logical starting point, because everything is a variable. I am thinking that one needs to take each part of a process, refine it as much as possible and then move onto the next, in an ever repeating circle.

The criteria are ....

1. Lock pick time.

2. The amount of damage caused to the lock, by the pick.

3. The length of time required to learn how to use each tool / technique (eliminate the human).

It is not a simple matter of comparing specific tools or techniques because plug torsion is equally critical and common to all tests. Maybe the starting point is refine the torsion wrench technique first. We can forget about manually set torque, because it is too variable. We can cut the human element out by using a mechanical, calibrated torque loading on a 'standard' tension wrench. I am thinking of calibrated weights on the end of the torsion wrench arm. Now, the wrench could serve another purpose, an indication of when each pin set clears the shear-line. A predictable problem is how to securely fix the tension wrench into the keyway !. Maybe use the keyway in the plug .. full length, and maybe a second short locating pin at the top of the keyway ?.

So the torsion test rig, will .....

1. Secure the lock.

2. Have a weird shape torsion wrench capable of being loaded with weights, at a known lever length. An extended wrench length with a pointer on the end that works against a 360 degree protractor 'dial'.

3. Be capable of accepting the pick/ rake jig at a later stage.

4. Consider electronic detection of pin shear for automatic data recording ?.

OK the keyway is central to the protractor. The torsion wrench is shown in black. Since one cannot know exactly the hang of the wrench, I will use a 360 degree protractor and allow it to rotate around the center of the key (4 screws) to zero the scale (one clamping). The 'calibrated' weights will be made from half penny washers, each with a slit cut in them.

What the above will give it a calibrated torsion and a read out, of the change of angle as pin sets clear. If we need to extend the projected end of the torsion wrench, then a LASER diode can be fixed to it and that would project a very highly magnified image of beam movement, even several feet away. Photo-diodes could be positioned to detect all five pin sets clearing. Hmmm I am wondering if we picked the lock manually, a tumbler at a time, measured the angular displacement of the tension tool as the pin set goes into shear ..... whether we could get a 'signature' from each pin set, that would be good enough to identify which pin set it is ?. The same lock and tension tool, will be used for all tests (but not the same torsion .... or will it ? ... (the rake jig arm has to be balanced! and allowed to rotate "with ?" the torsion wrench, and that would mean lowering the rake shaft to centre in the keyway)). Could use the scope transient recorder to plot the signature and print it out, take that a little further and fit an accelerometer on the torsion wrench ?.

The green square is 15.0mm MDF mounted vertically on a 15.0mm base board, big enough to accept the pick / rake test jig.

Pick / rake / bumper striker Jig.

Pick uses vibrator, rake uses servo, so maybe make three / four separate add on jigs ..

1. Rake servo.

2. Pick jig.

3. Bumper striker.

4. Vibrator jig ??????

Instrumentation.

1. Control everything with PIC micro-processors.

2. Electronic stop-watch.

3. PWM driver circuit.

4. Can build servo stroke rate and displacement control into PWM box

5. Need 12 volt solenoid and dashpot. How to control dashpot ? ... needle valve and stepper ?????? Neodymium magnets and eddy current sleeve ?.

Order ?

1. Torsion jig.

2. Rake jig (Bogotá, long snake, saw, W etc).

3. Bumper striker jig. Need one hand cut key and one commercial, or get set. How to measure kinetic energy ???

4. Vibration jig.

5. Need to tabulate entry methods.

Project Diary

19th Jan 2010

Have ordered, what appeared to be a standard 60mm solenoid, which turned out to be only 20 mm long !. The larger ones I have are all for mains voltages 115 / 240 but I managed to un-assemble two different types last night and extract the coils for re-winding. I have been wondering if the ordered one will be powerful enough to move a Bogotá rake through the lock, if it did then it would make a very small electro- rake. Wall Cavity insulation gets done today, so tomorrow I can get back into the workshop and have a clean-up ... whoopee !.

1. I found some 30mm x 20mm x 15mm (Frame size) solenoids in the workshop, but again they have 115 volt coils. In one end of the frame a brass rivet can be seen. I drilled this out with a 3/16" drill and that allows two steel shims to slide out of the frame. The two shims are actually springs that press down the coil into the frame detents.

When the shims are out, apply an upwards pressure to the coils and it can then be lifted out of the frame and rewound. Probably have to glue it together afterwards !.

2. This is a 60mm x 30mm x 25mm frame solenoid unassembled. First spring the top of the frame apart about 2mm and a stack of three square plates will drop out. You can now slide the coil out of the frame.

3. This one has a 40mm x 35mm x 15mm frame (excluding the mounting plate). First pull out the wire clip and this will allow the coil to be slid sideways out of the frame.

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20th January 2010

Decided that one of the tests I wanted to do was to see if brand "A" rakes etc., were better than brand "B". So I have ordered a set of six rake keys from one company and immediately run into a problem. Newly cut keys are going to be rough as hell, so do I 'smooth' them out before the tests ?. Logic says that I have to remove any wire edges etc., but where does that stop ?. The company I have ordered the six key set from, specifically state that the keys are straight off the cutting machine and they need cleaning up before use. The problem here is cleaning up one suppliers rake keys exactly the same as another suppliers ... where do you stop ?.

The smoothness of the heads of the key pins is decided by the quality of the machining of them, back at the factory. If we look at them under a micro-scope they will actually look 'rough', but will smooth over a limited area of the flanks of the bite, with use. It is something like a marriage, both sides wear and give a bit, until the union works. The lock and it's pins we have little control over, but we can control the the smoothness of the key, rake or pick. So, hopefully, six rake keys are in the post to me and I know in advance I have to do some work on them, before I can use them. First what I need to do is remove any wire edges left by the cutting, with a fine needle file. Then I need to remove all sharp edges on the key without changing the profile. I guess it is time to consider exactly how that can be done. Metal gets cut by 'teeth', which may be metal, an abrasive material or even diamond, but in all cases it leaves the cut surface rough.

Polishing or finishing, is a multi step process, for example to polish a Japanese sword, traditionally requires 17 different grades of polishing stones. With modern abrasives we can cut this down to about three for keys. . For example, 600 grit can almost polish to a mirror finish on brass , but is slow and ideally needs to be preceded by 400 grit. To finish, one needs nothing less than 1200 grit. The last stage is to use a few drops of Brasso on a worn 1200 slip stick and that will give you a mirror finish. Slip sticks are the tools of the perfectionist, and all they are is the appropriate grade of emery paper glued to a wooden stick !. Lock keys are small and so slip the sticks can also be small. I made a set this evening using emery paper glued to lollypop sticks. The wooden sticks are easy to sand into any cross section, before gluing the emery paper to the stick. A large packet of lollypop sticks cost less than a pound and from that you can make a lot of slip-sticks of varying grit sizes, for pence.

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23rd January 2010.

Busy day, but have made up a Bogotá and a 'W' rake, plus a broken key extractor and another torque wrench. Have also rough ground some blanks for picks and medium sized Jigglers. The grinding process turned out to be a little comical as I had stuck the profiles on the hacksaw blades with Pritt stick and of course they eventually floated off, when cooling the metal in water. I often wondered why people who make video's about grinding picks always say one needs a container of cold water available to cool the metal .... but never seem to use it !. Now I know !. I stuck the last lot on with Epoxy glue, which lasted longer, but eventually dropped off as the paper became soaked, so the latest ploy has been to smear a light coating of Epoxy glue over the applied paper profile to try and water proof it. I think this will be the last lot of picks I make from profiles, as none of them seem to match up with the pin spacing (see cut dimensions table). I came to the conclusion that if you want all of the pins to jump the shear line together, they have to be all hit at the same time and with the same amount of force. It may well be a size problem when printing out the profiles, but none of them seem to match the pin spacing. That led to a problem !.

Timpson's and other High Street shops cannot code cut keys, they can only COPY an existing key. So I cannot go into one of their shops and, for example ask for a Yale Y2 blank cut to all the 9's. However if I have such a key then they can copy it. So what I have done is ordered a range of bump keys, which I hope the supplier will be able to tell me what their cut spacing is (or I will measure it myself). Yale and Yale generic locks seem to be the most common in my area (served by national chain stores that sell locks), so it makes a good starting point for the project, with a pin spacing of 0f 0.165". If you look at the cut dimensions table, the Yale cut spacing is a little odd and a more common spacing would be about 0.155/6". I have a new 'no-name' Yale generic (ex Range store) , so I think I will start the tests off with that.

I had to ask myself why I am doing this and came to the conclusion that it is merely to OPEN locks, rather than the purists aim to pick them. The back ground is a street of old people, mostly widows, who sometimes lock themselves out and the sole purpose of the exercise is to get them back into their own home, as quickly as possible, with a minimum of damage. Hmmm ... I suppose that is also the aim of professional locksmiths.

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2nd February 2010

Stripped the 115 volt windings from the 3 solenoid coil formers. These are now ready to be rewound, to something between 3 - 12 volts DC.

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20th February 2010.

Started a multi-purpose rig to measure energy transfer between multiple element systems. No special reason, although it does provision for several ideas that have appeared to date.

Everything is adjustable and all components can be changed for others to suit a certain experiment. Draw length is actually measured against a 300mm steel ruler (not fitted yet). Other things that are missing is the calibrated torsion device and steel springs to replace the rubber bands (not that I have anything against rubber bands !). The key fitted to the rig is the No 2 key of Locksrus bump key set and just to the right of it is an experimental "minimal contact area" device to decouple the key from the piston, to prevent unwanted torsion. The mounting holes continue to the right to provision for the fitting of 'prime mover' devices such as solenoids and motors. I have also made up the components for a magnetic piston drive, which I had been thinking about. I had tried a few 'jury rigged' experiments but the neodymium magnets are very powerful and unless everything is securely bolted down ..... it all snaps together in an instant. Now I can actually bolt any attachment to this jig for experiments

I have been wondering about the limitations of the manual pick .... or maybe that should read the limitations of the pick wielder ... and then suddenly had a EUREKA moment !. I have been looking at the wrong part of the process !. So I felt quite excited about that and am now wondering what I can do about it. This realisation has opened up a lot of other possibilities as well. I also think I need to knock up an electronic controller as soon as I get my priorities right. I think a PIC micro-processor driving a MOSFET .... how about a BUZ11, that will drive anything !. Manual frequency sweep, manual pulse width modulation, LCD display to show actual frequency and pulse width in percentage. Auto stop watch function for the unlock time ..... oh shit ... how about the same for the other 'problem' ?. Have to think about that, although my first thought is it has to be a constant for all locks ?. Lock opening time will tell !.

Piano wire for the rakes !. Factor 'X' applies to manual picks, rakes and pick guns, I had not realised that before, how could anyone have missed it ?. OK remember Theresa's light pen, is that the way to go ?. Another thought and I am in stitches !.

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