Protecto Keyed: Re-Visited

The other day I received a call from a lady who had protecto keyed locks on her house, she was calling because she had just gone down to the hardware store and had keys made, needless to say the keys did not work. She told me that the locks had protecto stickers on them. She also said that she had read my blog about protecto keys on locks.

I told her that keys made in those new machines sometimes don't work because of the wafer thin master pins that are used to protecto key a lock. The machine they use at some of the hardware chain, they just put your key in one slot and a blank key in another slot then the machine just cuts the key site unseen.

Notice the pile of seven pins at the edge of the dime!

I once had to have keys made it one of these big chain stores and the guy put the keys in a bag. I went to my job only to realize that the keys were not made correctly, they looked like the Gormogon's teeth on one of the episodes of Bones (i.e. very sharp and pointed).

But I digress, the thing is those machines might cut a key slightly smaller or slightly larger than your master key and some of those pins that they used to make the protecto keyed locks are very thin and may catch on the edge of the key when you try to open the lock.

I told her that I recommend having the locks re-keyed by a locksmith and for her to request of the locksmith that they take those pins out so she would have no further problems with those pins binding up her lock. She lived quite a ways away from my business and I told her it would probably be cheaper for her if she got somebody to do the work locally.

She thanked me and we ended the call.