protector lock key duplication

Gary Stephenson · 2023-10-02T08:55:25+00:00

were any of the companies that made protector locks Kromer, Stuv, bode panzer etc, able to cut keys just from the locks serial number and records, or did they at least need a key, or even the key and the lock to produce duplicate keys?

Tom Gordon

Gary Stephenson wrote
Cheers all, for the replies, I remember getting a load old Aldi protectors and tubes at one time Huw.
It always surprised me Tom that Chatwood would use someone else’s Locks, was it just a supply thing, where they got busy and couldn’t keep up?

They bought I think two batches of the locks before they made their own good ones

[unknown]

Gary Stephenson

Cheers, I thought they must span a much longer period of Chatwoods history, with the original pork pie (all same dimension) then the stepped protector and round lock with novum type pack on the Duplex safes being later.

Tom Gordon

Gary Stephenson wrote
Cheers, I thought they must span a much longer period of Chatwoods history, with the original pork pie (all same dimension) then the stepped protector and round lock with novum type pack on the Duplex safes being later.[/ middle one from Nat West 1930. Early ones I can’t give you details until next year

[unknown]

Gary Stephenson

Cheers Tom, so that’s what I meant, in the 1930s they could have used their own locks, seemed funny that they chose to use a competitors

Tom Gordon

Gary Stephenson wrote
Cheers Tom, so that’s what I meant, in the 1930s they could have used their own locks, seemed funny that they chose to use a competitors

Not a competitor- just a supplier.
They used American locks on some safe deposit locks (the whole idea of which they copied from America) and the cylinder lock on their night deposit traps isn’t very Chatwood (once again, the concept of which they copied from America).
On the stepped Kromer Porkpie type lock, they may have needed a more compact lock than they made themselves- or a self locking mechanism.

[unknown]

Redoubt

Huw Eastwood wrote
Back when I was working for smp we used to see hundreds of those round protectors on the big tann RDV’s used by one of the big supermarket chains.

Personally i really liked them as they were nice to work on and it was the same old problems that used to arise so were pretty predictable.

But, it was just as well the majority of problems were easy solved as the locks were held together with hardened shear screws and from memory zero parts including blanks were available. This was through the 1990s to 2000s and iirc kromer were still around back then but weren’t supplying the essential spares that were desperately needed.(just like fichet bauche). As a result, most, if not all the protectors got converted over to the 520 locks.

Hi Huw

Just a question that has nothing to do with the key locks, but supermarket chains with Tann Vaults?

Were/are they holding a lot of cash to justify a Vault?

[unknown]

Gary Stephenson

Was it a Vault in a supermarket Huw, we used to see dual safes, with a deposit drop from 1 safe to the other in some supermarkets, but have never seen a vault in a supermarket chain/ store

Huw Eastwood

Gary’s right- not vaults they were big deposit dual units- Rarely worked on the lower doors, top ones saw all the heavy use. Most problems were the protector keys and la-fetton tubes and shafts.

Gary Stephenson

I have seen the Stratford FTS vault doors fitted with protector locks, but at a bank

Gary Stephenson

the supermarket dual safes, were they martens or garny Huw?

Huw Eastwood

Unfortunately nothing that exotic Gary, they were Tann’s!

Huw Eastwood

Gary Stephenson wrote
I have seen the Stratford FTS vault doors fitted with protector locks, but at a bank

Gary, your mentioning the Stratford door reminds me of something I saw about 6 months ago that really shocked me.
Not wanting to derail the thread from Kromer too much but saw a pic somewhere on the net put up by a uk safe tech of an SLS srd.

Despite their incredible diversity of free standing safe production I’d always believed they’d only made lightweight fire and book-room doors, but this thing was a bank door with a 6 or 8 inch slab plus the boltcase- a fair sized chunk! Really surprised me.

[unknown]

Gary Stephenson

I have seen 16 inch slab sls srd’s if I am remembering correctly, very nice doors.

Huw Eastwood

Wow amazing Gary I had no idea, 16 inch slab is incredible that’s like central bank territory.
Always liked the construction of the SLS stuff and the extra details like the split cone relockers and the heavy gauge tubing to route the relocker wires from the glass to prevent hooking.
Not to mention some of their barrier materials were insane, a total nightmare to drill. Top stuff.

Gary Stephenson

I was told that only 4 of the 16 inch doors were made 2 in leeds and 2 somewhere else, I have also seen an sls brochure that mentions 5 and 10 inch doors.

Redoubt

Love the door slab chat.

Would need a very long key stem for a 16 inch slab.

Is SLS now part of SMP?

Gary Stephenson

I assume so as some SMP safes were made badged up as SLS units.

Huw Eastwood

got another surprise-apparently SMP are now making srd’s up to grade 13 EXCD !

Gary Stephenson

are they making them in house, or just rebadging someone else’s?

Huw Eastwood

Assumed they are made in house as they say uk manufactured and because they made all the grades of safes at the Halesfield factory, only subbing out small stuff like machined parts in later years.
But I don’t know what they’re up to now- it’s over 15 years since I was doing it.

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