Daley Ponderings

I heard about bump keys recently, and had a little time to play around this morning.  I read an article about them, and watched a youtube video, and away I went.  It took about 15 minutes to hand-file a key.  And then another 20 minutes to try the "pull-back" method, file the key a little more and switch to the "minimal-movement" method, spray a little WD-40 in the lock -- tada!  I was kind of surprised that it actually worked.

I tried again, and it took me maybe 10 minutes to open it.  You have to bang harder than you might expect.  The next time was maybe 2 minutes, and then 30 seconds.  I switched to the door handle (I had been working on the deadbolt -- there apparently is some risk of breaking the lock, and I figured if I can only choose one lock to have working, I would rather have the handle lock working) and I opened it in about 10 seconds. 

I am not going to run out and buy new locks, but it is interesting that you can do it.  I hadn't really realized how a pin-tumbler lock worked before.  There is actually a good bit of physics involved - so I guess that means we should teach it in our schools.

Heather didn't really believe that a key that looked like that could open our door.