been seeing a few lost key posts recently...

[slimshady_2469]

so i guess what better way to introduce myself to the forum? my name is jesse and im from madison, wisconsin. i am a locksmith, and i just wanted to say that anyone that needs some help with any type of key issues from your toolbox to your cars and houses, i might be able to help or point in the right direction. i guess thats about it. hope i can be helpful for someone, and i look forward to the many good topics to come!

 

[jay50]

Welcome Jesse.
As far as locksmith service, what type of equipment do you have that allows you to program replacement car transponder keys. Is there a piece of programing equipment that covers many of the models or are you stuck with buying several pieces of expensive equipment? Any website to the equipment?

 

[v8garage]

Welcome to the forum. If I need any locksmith type advice I will know who to ask!

 

[slimshady_2469]

jay50, where i work my boss went against my personal recomendations, but he bought a transponder duplicator made by jma. i will agree it has a couple benefits against some of the others, but i think that the rw4 is a better machine because you can store and keep the mess of numbers that makes up a transponder, among other things, but the jma keys dont have batteries so they will always work and hold thier program. you can technically backup the data with it but you need to hook the machine up to a computer and read the key through the software and its a pain in the ***. everybodys products are constantly changing and updating. some you have to buy the update, some its free updates for life. theres honestly so many different things that i cannot accurately tell you about much other than look into it. silca i think is who makes the rw4 machine, jma is the machine i use daily, strattec makes a machine, jet... but they all cover different bunches of cars, some have a few of the same models as others, some have a lock on ford or chrysler for the most part, you need to figure out what kind of cars youll be dealing with more in your area, more fords and hondas or chrysler and toyota? just need to figure out which will work best for YOU. as far as on site programmers, i personally dont have alot of experience with them, but for a smaller place i think the mvp would be a good investment with free updates for life and u pay by the car essentially because you buy "tokens" which get cheaper as the quantity you buy goes up. try strattec's website, im not sure if jma has a website, im sure they do. i know that kaba/ilco/silca has a website. try checking around and youll find way more usefule info than i can give you as i dont have access to multiple different machines, but they all have their ups and downs. hope that helped at least a little.

 

[Tech Guy]

Welcome Slimshady- I'm a locksmith myself. 27 years now. Probably saw some of my posts. Where abouts are you from ?

 

[slimshady_2469]

from wisconsin, been doing this for a majority of 10 yrs on and off, full time non stop for the last 6 1/2. i try to focus my knowledge in auto/moped/motorcycle etc. but i have a knack for being able to craft new parts for older mortise cases fom the turn of the century. we have a decent amount of pretty old houses and buildings in madison and as you know those cases are expensive and not always the simplest thing to just swap out so i see quite a few. i love what i do.

 

[cnyeco1]

I had a key issue a few weeks ago. I have a Lista cabinet that needed a key.
I called Lista and they sell cut keys for whatever lock # you have. You just take the lock off the cabinet and it's marked on the side. It will say something like (2C 236), Thats your key number.

I was really happy to be able to buy it, but when they billed me for it the charged me $7.50 UPS ground. I was a little pissed. Why couldn't they stick it in an envelope and send it to me? The key price was $7.00, cheaper than it cost to send it. HILARIOUS!!! I bought the damn thing, what else could I do. Just funny I thought.

An important thing to note. I bought a 1st generation cabinet like the newer second generation cabinet that I have. They are 10 years apart of manufacture date, and they have the same key code. Different size modulars cabinets, seperated by at least 10 years and they both take the same key. Boy I feel safe now.

Like I said before, HILARIOUS....

 

[slimshady_2469]

not uncommon, when companys that mass produce a product need a lock, they will buy a whole **** ton of them right off the bat and they may get 5-10-20 or more different key numbers. its easier for a manufacturer to set up a machine to produce 2 million of the same exact thing than a slight variation on every one so therefor it would make it cheaper for the end product manufacturer to buy more of them in turn. does that make sense? if anyone else has some inside info id be interested to hear it but thats what ive gathered about it.

 

[cnyeco1]

Sure, get that. But I think it's funny that new these cabinets were $1300 and the older one was $950, and Listas are know for superior quality, durabilty and security, and they are using the same keys on alot of their cabinets. I think they could have varied them a little more than that.

For a locksmith you can appreciate that if someone wants to break in to any company and steal tools or hundreds of thousands worth of tooling, all you have to do is call Lista up and order 20 or 30 keys at $7.00 each. And try them until you get one that works.

Seems to be a fair trade to me. One other thing I have learned about Lista locks is that the mechanism parts are cheap. I needed a new rod and rotor, (the parts that turn the lock) and they were only $15.88 for the whole kit. And they are great people to deal with.

By the way, I was thinking about having a locksmith make a key for the old lock, but figured it would cost alot more than $14.50 What do you charge to do that? And how much does it cost to re-key a lock for a barrel lock? If you don't mind me asking

 

[Tech Guy]

from wisconsin, been doing this for a majority of 10 yrs on and off, full time non stop for the last 6 1/2. i try to focus my knowledge in auto/moped/motorcycle etc. but i have a knack for being able to craft new parts for older mortise cases fom the turn of the century. we have a decent amount of pretty old houses and buildings in madison and as you know those cases are expensive and not always the simplest thing to just swap out so i see quite a few. i love what i do.

Cant stand the automotive locks myself. Did it for too long and finally got out of that part. Strictly commercial / industrial locks now. Plus we are AAADM certified and do a ton of operators. I used to work in the Beaches area of Toronto which was all the old style mortise locks. Kind of miss that part but we got out of residential a number of years ago. It is an interesting field though.

 

[Tech Guy]

By the way, I was thinking about having a locksmith make a key for the old lock, but figured it would cost alot more than $14.50 What do you charge to do that? And how much does it cost to re-key a lock for a barrel lock? If you don't mind me asking

If you take the lock to the locksmith they can either cut the key from the code (or just provide them the code) or they can impression a key for the lock (fancy name for filing a key to work in a lock) providing they have the blank. Impressioning the lock will cost as its learned skill. Cutting the key by code is cheapest. As for rekeying, I havent seen the Lista locks but if its wafer they should be able to do it for you no problem.

 

[slimshady_2469]

personally, i love working on cars, you never have to do the same thing twice in a row. i know how and do have to work on residential/commercial accounts too, but i hate it, it seems so repetitive to **** around and rekey 40 locks for said customer, its boring as **** whereas working on cars, everythings made differently for each car. not a huge fan of all the newer transponder **** but it comes with the territory. im a real big car guy outside of work though so it probably has something to do with why i like workin on them at work too. whats aaadm? never heard of it before.

 

[Tech Guy]

AAADM-American Association of Automatic Door Manufacturers. In the US, you have to be AAADM certified to work on automatic and handicap doors. Not required in Canada yet but it should be. The companies from the US that have moved into Canada require you be AAADM certified before you touch their doors. Some Canadian companies are following that route as well. I got tired of the automotive just do to all the after hours calls. And residential was a ***** dealing with morons. Once the big box stores started carrying locks we would get a ton of calls for us to install locks they bought-no thanks. We also do video and card access on a regular basis so it keeps it interesting.

 

[slimshady_2469]

sounds like a whole different animal. i personally have zero interest in doors, card readers and the like, but i am fascinated by the way different locks work. i am one of if not the only person in my area that will work on the newer hondas with the sidewinder type keys. the dealer calls us/me for repairs on faulty locks. nobody seems to want to do automotive stuff much anymore. if it was up to me i would be spending more money on equipment for working on autos because thats where its at if your good at what you do, you can make some very good money working on cars!

 

[Tech Guy]

It is a completely different animal. But there is really good money in handicap operators, doors, access and video. And the hours are better. Plus like most locksmiths, the eye sight started going so it was getting more difficult for auto locks. And the price was going through the roof on the newer equipment.

 

[slimshady_2469]

true, prices are crazy, but if you live in a large enough city than it can pay off. i dont mind weird hours as long as your gunna pay. and as far as the sight thing, i still have age well on my side so i should have a few good years left but i have a number of co-workers that just hand things over to me because they cant see anymore. kinda *****, but its almost funny in a weird way...

 

[Tech Guy]

Thats what got me was the weird hours. Having a family I preferred to have my weekends and nights off. As for the eyes, every locksmith I know eventually has the eye sight go. Trying to impression keys became a ***** before I started using reading glasses. But thats what happens when you clear the hurdle of 40.