Schlage Everest & Primus Cutaways

Schlage debuted in 1920 by founder Walter Schlage and Charles Kendrick. Being one of the most popular consumer and commercial lock seller, Schlage locks are mostly generic, low security and low costing locks. However, they do have a line of high security cylinders such as the Everest®, the Primus® and the Everest Primus®. All three of these have a new high security feature incorporated into them. These are called side pins or finger pins as we call them in the lock picking world. These are UL437 listed.

The way these work is, the cut on the right side of the key interacts in a mechanical way to lift the finger pins to the correct height. The Everest and Primus are different, both use different concepts, here are the differences.

On the Everest, the key has only one cut and lifts what we call the "check pin". The one I have is a C123.







As you can notice in the photo, the Everest key is thicker then the Primus key by 0.014" as well as the stamping on the bow.
C145 999 key.


On the Primus, the key has five cuts. These 5 cuts on the right side of the key don't only lift the finger pins, but also rotates them to allow the sidebar to fall in place. The finger pins have six possible positions. The six possible positions are: UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT or CENTER. All of this on a normal six pin vertical tumbler mechanism.





Here we can see the finger pins in action. In this photo, the finger pins are in random order and are not set in the correct position. For them to be set correctly , the pins would have to look like these:

The process of the sidebar falling into the finger pins is like a puzzle. The tongues of the finger pins need to be aligned with the grooves on the sidebar to allow retraction. Heres's a photo of a finger pin in a sidebar:

Here's the finger pin (notice the tongue)





These specifications apply to both Everest and Primus

MACS = 7
Increment: .015"
Progression: 2 step
Blade width: .343"
Depth Tolerance: + .002” - 0
Spacing Tolerance: ± .001”

That is all for now. I think this article will be quite interesting and I hope you find it to.

Updates

I finally decided to add a couple of interesting things. I've been out for quite a while now (part time locksmith) , haven't had much time to add anything, but since I have a little time in my hands, i'll be posting 3-4 articles about some locks I got recently.

Here are some:

Schlage Everest & Primus cutaways
Simplex 1000 Series mechanism
Abloy Protec cylinder cutaway
Sargent & Greenleaf 6730

And some others..

The first ones i'll be showing will be the schlages since I have all the photos done, and I just need to write about them. The rest of the locks still need to be shot.

Stay tuned !

Project Abloy: Complete !

I got the parts today, assembled it, got into a couple of problems, solved them and finished it. This project allowed me to learn everything about protec cylinders and also, let me gain a sens of pride. It's been approximately 2 months i've been on this project, some poeple might say ‹‹ Jeez ! What took you so long ?! ›› well, the answer to that is, I took my time because I did not want to scrap an expensive lock.

Anyways, here are some pictures of the completed lock !

Scanlock cutaway

Another successful cutaway !
Today I decided to take apart my Scanlock just to see if it was possible to cut it away and I found that I could, so, I did it .

Again, this was all done by hand using mini-files, no angle grinder though :)

The cutaway shows the inner workings of the cylinder, example: sidebar retracting, bottom pins to shear line the side pins etc..

Here are some pictures:

Masterlock 930/6230 cutaway

Well, I had nothing to do today, so I decided to make a cutaway. I did the 930 because it has a removable core and it's easy to work with. This was all done on the angle grinder and some mini-files for the small details. For me, it's still not factory-like and it still needs some work, but i'll get it done when I have the correct tools. Here are some pictures:

Pfaffenhain "Integral" cutaway

I guess during the time this Abloy 340 is being finished, we can have a little fun. Anyways, here's the Pfaffenhain Integral cutaway. For the description, well, I don't feel like copy/pasting Han Fey's article about Pfaffenhain locks, here's the link to the pdf.

Pfaffenhain locks

Here are some pictures

Paracentric keyway
90 degree rotation
180 degree rotation
270 degree rotation

Little problem

Yesterday, May 29th, I went to three locksmiths nearly going to the other extremity of Montreal island. Anyways, I came across a locksmith called 'Serrurier du Nord'. The locksmiths were very nice and cooperative with me and were generous enough to inspect the protec cylinder for me. They told me my profile plate is a restricted plate and that I will need to replace it with a standard profile plate. Because of this, I need to order a new profile plate from the states, making this project longer and more aggravating. I will then get the keys cut.

Till then, nothing will advance.