Time to dig out some of my DEC XX2247 keys

For a cylinder (Yale type) key, it is trivial to cut a copy if you can get the blank. The blank has the side grooves already cut, you have to cut the 'jagged row of notches' in the top to make it the right key. At least one person here has a keycutting machine to do that. The problem comes if the blank is 'restricted'. Sometimes locks were made with unobtainable blanks to prevent keys being copied. Often the side grooves are a mirror image of a standard blank. For example the keys to my bedsit and the keys to the place where I worked were like that. The former blank could be obtained, the latter could only be obtained (and reputable locksmiths would enforce this) if you had the right paperwork from the owner of the local (== company where I worked in this case). Makes a lot of sense. Of course with a milling cutter you can make just about anything. But as with all locks the idea is to make it more attractive for the criminal to go somewhere else :-) I would be surprised if the blank for the 11/05/GT40 key was restricted. After all you can bypass that secutrity with a screwdriver and a bit of wire. But it may well be that it is a non-standard blank that most locksmiths don't carry (at least in the UK), and that they would rather not take on the work. I have met countless examples of that from all trades in my life The same might be true of the ACE key. It takes a special keycutting machine to cut those, and most of the high-street key cutting places over here don't have it. The next issue is making a key if you don't have one but do have the lock. This is considerably harder than copying a key, and again the keycutting (only) companies can't do it and locksmiths may not want the work (or may think you won't pay a fair price for it). Often if you have the bare lock mechanism they will make a key if you are prepared to pay, on the grounds that you have got past it anyway, so having the key is no risk to security. But you have to talk to them. In the case (!) of the IBM5170 lock, you can remove it by opening the case (Hard if locked, but a screwdriver in the right place will get it free), then taking off the LED panel, removing the label I think this is shown in the HMS manual. Now, the lock will come apart. On the side is a metal pin. Either drill it out, or drill and tap a centre hole and use a screw to pull it out. The latter is preferable in that the pin can then go back. The internals of the lock all slide out, scattering pins and springs everywhere. IIRC there are 8 springs and bottom pins (all the same) which go in the housing and 7 upper pins which go in the rotating disk. By changing the latter you can make the lock take any key. I have often thought I should re-pin my 5170 to take the XX2247 key (it will fit apart from the pinning). Kits of pins are available, but not easily, and locksmiths don't like selling 7 pins (or any other spare parts). Whether they think you are taking work from them, or whether they have the incorrect idea that anybody who fiddles with locks is up to no good I do not know. But.... I am going to have this problem soon I think. It appears the key to my P854 was one of the (far too many) things to go walkabout during the move. I want to keep that machine original, so I am going to have to dismantle the lockswitch (Yale type key) and cut a replacement... Oh well... -tony