Specifications

I
have had many requests to report where the people are in
my “Scattershooting” segment. I hear from some, but not
always. I thought I would pass along all the Scattershooters I
have heard from to date: Steve Ziet is working for Home Depot
in Florida; Rex Parmelee is working for a promotional items
company that sells primarily to schools and colleges; Bob
Dickie is living in Vermont and has a VCR repair shop; Barbara
Bass is still working with Acme in New Orleans; J. Flynn is
doing well and living in Dallas; Len White is retired and
spending a lot of his time with his children, and I am sad to
report his beloved wife Arlene has passed away; Mike Miller
has left our industry and is now working in the roofing
industry; Joyce Laurie is doing well, living in Dallas, and is a
proud grandmother. In the future I will keep you up to date just
as soon as I find them.
Q. I just opened my own lock shop and, unfortunately, missed the
yellow page advertising. What do you suggest I do until the new
book comes out?
A. This happens all too often with locksmiths. I still think the
best form of advertising is face to face with your customer
prospects. Attend the different clubs in your community and
give brief talks on how you can better protect their property.
Every person is interested in better security and we are blessed
with being in the security industry. Use that to your advantage.
Also, don’t forget the police department. Get to know
them...work with them. They are still your best source for new
business. Finally, many cities have more than one phone book.
Check this out and see if you can get into another. Many times
they come out at different times.
Q. I want to get more involved in the motorcycle lock business,
but not real sure how to do it. Any suggestions?
A. If you are talking about repairing motorcycle locks, you
won’t have too much business since most locks will go back to
the dealer. The biggest money maker for motorcycles is
replacing lost keys. You can impression both the wafer locks as
well as the pin tumbler locks. You can also sight read the wafer
locks very easily. If you do need to rekey or repair the tumblers
in the lock, you can get a pinning kit from Auto Security
Products. Most wafer locks will have three or four depths.
There is a good book in print on these locks titled
“MOTORCYCLE LOCK SERVICE” and can be purchased from
Security Resources for $15.00. Simply call [phone].
Q. What is a “Slide Chart”?
A. This was invented in the late 70’s by my good friend Gerry
Finch. This chart will help you determine the sizes of your
bottom, master, control, and driver pins in masterkeying. By
the way, if you ever need masterkeying help, there are a couple
men who have written on the subject and in my opinion, know
it all. Gerry Finch is one of these men and Billy Edwards is the
other. Both men have written EXCELLENT books on the
subject.
Q. What are Beta keys?
A. Beta keyways are designed by ASSA for exclusive use for
the locksmith. There are two types of Beta keyways, the
Regional and the National. Regional assigns each locksmith
one or more states as their boundaries. The coded key will not
be reassigned in that area. The National assigns each
locksmith one sidebar for the entire country.
Q. I have had trouble cutting the Chicago XF code series cam
lock. It seems to cut perfect, but won’t turn the lock. Any
suggestions?
A. Assuming you are cutting the key correctly, you might try
using Chicago key blank K101H instead of AM101. There is a
small spring loaded device that needs to be seated in the side of
the key before the cylinder will turn, and the K101H blank has
the dimple to take care of that. If you like to do everything the
hard way, you can Dremel your own dimple.
126 • The National Locksmith
Yours For Better Security,
Bill Reed
Reed Report
Scatter Shooting
while wondering
whatever happened to
. . . PAT HOLDER
Aug. 17,18 Okla. City, OK
Aug. 31 Salt Lake City, UT
Sept. 5 Philadelphia, PA
Sept. 15 Syracuse, NY
Oct. 13 San Mateo, CA
Oct. 29-31 San Diego, CA
Nov. 1,2 San Diego, CA
Nov. 9 Honolulu, HI
If you'd like to attend a Bill Reed seminar,
choose from the following. For more info,
contact Bill directly at [phone].
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