Keys

[The Real Bev]

I just had OSH make me a spare housekey. It didn't fit, so I had them
make me another one. It didn't fit either. The good one has a point in
a certain place, the bad ones have that point truncated. They gave me
my money back.

A friend had 4 car keys made before he got one that opened one door and
the ignition. A different friend had several made, the last one of
which opened half the things it was supposed to open.

Mine is an ordinary Quikset house key. The friends had a Solara and
Miata respectively.

WTF? You used to be able to walk into any dime store, give your key to
a PFY who held it in a vise along with the blank, ground the new one to
match, ran a wire brush over it, charged you a quarter and you had A KEY
THAT WORKED.

The robot key machine is a piece of crap. Whatever gave them the idea
that they'd created a machine that actually worked?

It's a nuisance and ridiculous expense to go to a locksmith to have a
cheesy housekey made.

CRAP!

--
Cheers, Bev
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
"The almost universal access to higher education here in the US has
ruined a lot of potentially good manual laborers." -- Bob Hunt

[The Real Bev]

[Bob F]

The Real Bev wrote:
> I just had OSH make me a spare housekey. It didn't fit, so I had them
> make me another one. It didn't fit either. The good one has a point
> in a certain place, the bad ones have that point truncated. They
> gave me my money back.
>
> A friend had 4 car keys made before he got one that opened one door
> and the ignition. A different friend had several made, the last one
> of which opened half the things it was supposed to open.
>
> Mine is an ordinary Quikset house key. The friends had a Solara and
> Miata respectively.
>
> WTF? You used to be able to walk into any dime store, give your key
> to a PFY who held it in a vise along with the blank, ground the new
> one to match, ran a wire brush over it, charged you a quarter and you
> had A KEY THAT WORKED.
>
> The robot key machine is a piece of crap. Whatever gave them the idea
> that they'd created a machine that actually worked?
>
> It's a nuisance and ridiculous expense to go to a locksmith to have a
> cheesy housekey made.
>
> CRAP!

Jeeeze, you have a lot of problems. I haven't gotten a bad key in years. Those
machines work great. Maybe you should try Home Depot or Lowes.

[The Real Bev]

The friend who had 4 keys made had them made at Home Depot. The gas to
get to either place will cost more than having the key made by a local
locksmith, especially if I have to drive back to HD :-(

They probably all use the same machines. I don't understand how a
machine could turn out two bad keys with identical errors.

--
Cheers, Bev
"Qui custodiet ipsos custodes?" --Juvenal

[Bob F]

The machine needs servicing?

[Michael Black]

Don't they have to start with blanks that are about the same as the key
that is being made? If so, that would allow for human error, someone
putting in the wrong blank, the machine smart enough to copy the key but
not smart enough to know the blank is the wrong type.

Michael

[Rod Speed]

Yes, but that determines whether the key goes into the lock or not,
not whether it opens the lock or not.

> If so, that would allow for human error, someone putting in the wrong blank, the machine smart enough to copy the key
> but not smart enough to know the blank is the wrong type.

If that had happened, it wouldnt go into the lock.

[The Real Bev]

The blank was correct. Everything looked like the good key except that
one truncated point. The machine clearly had to make the decision to
grind that point off. Twice.

--
Cheers, Bev
=====================================================
Election 2008:
There's never been a better time to vote libertarian.

[SMS]

On 9/19/2011 10:52 PM, The Real Bev wrote:
> I just had OSH make me a spare housekey. It didn't fit, so I had them
> make me another one. It didn't fit either. The good one has a point in a
> certain place, the bad ones have that point truncated. They gave me my
> money back.

I found that, ahem, Walmart makes the keys with the best chance of
working. They have a new key machine that takes digital photographs of
the key and makes the key from the photo and the duplicates are much
more accurate than the machines where it runs along the surface of the
key and grinds the blank the same.

[The Real Bev]

If that's the way the OSH/Home Depot machines work, I can't figure out
how they could do it so wrong. PFYs used to be able to do that by hand,
and a lot of industrial processes work similarly.

--
Cheers, Bev
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Nothing in the universe can withstand the relentless application
of brute force and ignorance." -- Frd, via Dennis (evil)

[SMS]

On 9/23/2011 10:01 PM, The Real Bev wrote:

> If that's the way the OSH/Home Depot machines work, I can't figure out
> how they could do it so wrong. PFYs used to be able to do that by hand,
> and a lot of industrial processes work similarly.

I don't know, but the keys I've had made at OSH and Home Depot don't
work as well as the Walmart keys. I have one Master padlock (16 of them
with same key) that for some reason is really hard to make working keys
from, even from an original key. I bring a lock with me when I get keys
made so I can try the keys on the spot. For our Kwikset locks, the
Walmart keys fit perfectly while the OSH and Home Depot keys need to be
jiggled to turn.

Not all Walmarts may have that new-fangled machine.

[The Real Bev]

No jiggling for the OSH key, it just didn't work.

> Not all Walmarts may have that new-fangled machine.

I was at a SuperWalmart Thursday. If I'd only known...

--
Cheers, Bev
-----------------------------------------
"Not everyone can be above average so why
shouldn't we be the ones to suck?"
--Anonymous School Board Member