BACK TO BASICS BEST Hacks, Part Two to get it out. Even so, as I said before, it’s worth it to have the control key, and the customer isn’t going to mind if you ex- plain why you’re doing it. Figure 12 is a hole (I believe it was Figure 8. The black mark near the author’s thumb in the groove shows where the set screw or yoke would normally bite into the cylinder once it’s installed in the lock. Figure 9. The drilled hole is shown. 9⁄64") that I drilled along the side of the core. Look closely and you can actually see the lug on the right of the hole. The idea is to remove the part of the cylin- der that the control lug locks behind, which I showed you back in Figure 2. If you can get that out of the way, you can get the core out. Once you’ve made the hole, if you try to pull the core out and it won’t budge, it is usually easier to tap it out from the back. In Figure 13, I removed the cam and started tapping the back of the core with a punch to push it out. See that black dot above it? I could have drilled there as well to get it out. Figure 14 shows the core partially out of the cylinder. Figure 15 shows the lug partially drilled Figure 10 Figure 11 Figures 10 and 11. The lug is shown in the locked and unlocked positions. set screw or yoke would normally bite into the cylinder once it’s installed in the lock. I’d recommend using a vise when you drill this, and be mindful of the threads on the cylinder when you clamp it. Figure 9 shows the drilled hole, which I decided to move slightly forward of my mark. You want to drill this hole a little bigger than the tool you’re using to ap- ply pressure. Also, be careful, drill slowly and feel for the point at which you break through the cylinder wall. There’s not a lot of space between the cylinder and the lug. If you do drill into the lug a tiny bit, you should be fine; just don’t plow 48 KEYNOTES APRIL 2020 through it. If you don’t damage it, you can use the core again. The same goes for the cylinder. In Figures 10 and 11, I enlarged the hole so you can see what you normally wouldn’t: the lug in the locked and unlocked positions. This hole is for instructional purposes only; if you use this method, keep the hole small. Pressure on the lug itself is oſten a surer way of picking these things than a ten- sion wrench, as the wrench tends to slip just when you think you’ve got it. Still, sometimes it won’t work for you. The next step will require you to sacri- fice a cylinder and possibly the core itself away. I was in a hurry when I did this, and that’s the result. For what I’m going to show you, this doesn’t matter at all. As long as the core can function normally and the pins are unaffected, I’m good. However, learn from my experience. Next time, I’ll check the depth before I drill and maybe use a drill stop. Decoding the Core Now that you have that sucker out, you’ll need two tools to decode the core — aside from whatever you use to cut the key and, obviously, key blanks and hand tools. Those specialty tools are a micrometer or dial caliper (Figure 16) — digital or analog — and something to help you remove the pins in an or- derly fashion. Figure 17 shows a Lab Annex, and Figure 18 is made by A-1, though I believe they have recently ceased operations, sadly. They offered a lot of must-have items for the trade, and they will be missed. WWW.ALOA.ORG
