How to Make Keys

Video Transcript

"I'm Jim Koch and today we are going to be talking about how to make a key and in particular I am gonig to show you a couple of different methods. There are quite a few different ways to make a key but there are only a couple basically that locksmiths are usually commonly. The first one we are going to cover is going to be the code machine. This is what they call a punch down machine. It is a real simple system. You insert your key there. You set your code on the bar now and in this case the key we are cutting are going to be all 6's so I won't have to change anything. You just punch it down. Each time you punch it down it is cutting a notch in the key and that is giving you your actual key code and here you can see it is 6's all the way across. The second more common way of cutting a key is just a standard duplicating machine. This machine actually traces the existing key and makes your new one. So what you do is insert your existing key in and make sure it is tight, up against the stops, lock it down, we've got our new key in already and you just turn the machine on. Now this is a fully manual machine. They actually have a automatic version that you can buy. I prefer to have the control of full manualism. Once you've got the first cut you back trace it so you don't miss anything and pop your key out, do a quick little cleaning on the airbrush there and voila, you have an exact duplicate of your original key."