My best friend just made a copy of our apartment key. She was pretty sure the machine messed up because the key was cut very different from the original. To her surprise, it still opened our front door. How is this possible?
Assuming it may have something to do with the height or order of how the pins in the lock open/fall?
In: Other
While certain tricks exist that allow different keys to open the same lock, it is unlikely that any were used here.
A lock checks the height of a few specific spots on your key. That’s it. If those spots are right, and the key fits in the lock, then nothing else matters.
The spiky teeth on a key are the sections between these spots, left uncut when the key was produced as the cutter only cuts the spots that matter. These spikes can be whatever height, or fully removed, so long as they don’t get in the way.
A common residential lock ’round here has five pins, so it ‘tests’ five spots on the key. You [can see the six ‘test’ spots on this key as the deepest-cut parts of the key, evenly spaced down its length.](https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-euxnf32031/images/stencil/1280×1280/products/900/1601/C123_KEY__18928__98337.1663005833.jpg?c=1?imbypass=on) In this example, three are deep and three are shallower.
Locks are also not always that precise. The age and make of the lock plays a big role here. There is some leeway in the exact height of these spots. Anywhere from a few thousandths of an inch to over twenty thousandths, depending again on the quality and age of the lock.
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