27 May
2007
27 May
'07
7:08 a.m.
On 5/26/07, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Yes. I wasn't counting those.
Or real madmen with a lathe/mill and a dividing head
can machine it
themselves from metal tubing ;-)
My brother is a locksmith... he machined himself a 7-position tubular
_lockpick_... 7 feelers and a restriction collet - you sort of twist
and press in a particular motion, and the feelers eventually (60
seconds?) slide to the right positions to open the lock. One thing
that's cooler than picking an ordinary pin-tumbler lock is that you
can take the tubular lock pick to a tubular key cutter and make a
"real" key from it.
I have only ever encountered one machine in 25 years that didn't have
the default key.
Well, later DEC machines (11/44, etc) take the smae-sized key, but there
are no pins in the lock. Any thing that will fit into the lock and engage
with the grouve in the central it will work. The official DEC key is just
a plastic moulding with a ridge inside. Obviosuly an XX2247 will work too. The 11/05 , 11/10 and GT40 had a Yale-type cylinder
lock with a flat key.
3 wafer tumbers IIRC, very easy to pick if you're so inclinded (or of
course you can dismantle it from the panel casting quite easily.
Yes; not those either (I have an 11/05)
Or are you saying you had an 11/750 (or similar) that
needed a 'proper'
tubular key (with the notches) but it wasn't an XX2247?
It was a PDP-8/L - when I got that first PDP-8/L at Dayton 25 years
ago, it came with a "mate" for parts (no front panel, no core stack,
broken chassis, some damage to the backplane...). That second CPU had
a key that was *not* an XX2247.
-ethan