I am being shown the Australian Bi-Lock system with removable cores in the UK. As I think that the BEST brand is somewhat tired over here and somewhat too defensive, expensive and red-tape-ish, when selling to other locksmiths. Thus Bi-Lock could we a wake-up call in the substantial Community Housing market here. Does anyone else have Bi-Lock experience, as far as it competes with the BEST product?
Kind regards from sunny London,
chris
Yes, it's great. The only thing I would say is that if you are buying it from Codringtons (whom I recall where the UK distributors) It is very dear compared to Australian prices, even allowing for shipping etc.
Paul Adelaide, Australia.
We have bi-lock in the US. I am not familiar with the IC
The locks are well made, although the key is rather ugly
What actually releases the plug for removal in the quick change type? An ordinary key with a release tool, or a specially modified key. The 'Best' method (controk key lining tumblers to a control sleeve) does not appear applicable to Bilock.
In a housing estate it must not be too easy for tenants to remove cores themselves especially if they are masterkeyed.
The QCC key is a cut key with dimples in the side to allow the retaining ball bearings to move and allow the cylinder to be withdrawn. The beauty of the bilock system is that even if a tenant removed a core they would not be able to get a legitimate key made for it, and even attempting to fabricate one - assuming that they could work out the masterkeying would be a swine of a job.
Paul
I've never seen the I/C Bilock, but is there a mechanism to prevent using simply drilling holes in a change key to remove the core? If there isn't I would think that the overall security would be subtantially less than resticted keyway SFIC. Certianly Bilock is harder to bypass, but it would seem very easy, compared to SFIC to pull a core and decode the masterkey.
As far as illicitly duplicating Bilock keys, it is certainly possible with the non-ic versions. I would say that with a milling machine or a drill press, Bilock keys are easier to make than medeco, abloy or primus. It would be time consuming, but not horribly difficult to make one with hand tools
-Bob
The main thing would be making the dies to 'fold' the metal accurately into the 'U' shape. AFAIK the 'blank' is L shaped, the cuts are punched and then it is folded into the final U shape around the plastic bow, the punch and press being factory supplied.
Making 'illicit' keys (without proper blanks) is time consuming and requires reasonable trades skills - this would deter 99.9% of the cases where someone would like to obtain an illicit key.
It would be interesting to know if locks on tenanted dwellings on UK Council estates are masterkeyed. It makes sense to use masterkeyed cores for vacant dwellings but to fit a non masterkeyed core when a tenant moves in (entering a tenanted dwelling without proper permission or protocol is most probably regarded as a very serious matter).
Why would one bother to bend a blank? I have only limited experence with BiLock, but the cylinders that I've seen don't prevent constructing a key from seperate strips of metal. It would be easy enough to hold the strips together with a blob of epoxy or similar. Certainly it would be an ugly and weak key, but that isn't the point. If you look at the key from that perspective, it is much easier to duplicate, even without blanks, than say, Medeco with blanks and without a milling machine.
I have no idea how the law reads in the UK, but in the US, depending on the state, and, in some situations, the rental agreement, a landlord could certainly have masterkeyed cores. Most states simply require something like 24 hours of notice for non-emergency entrance, and have a provision for immediate emergency access.
-Bob
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That is the point, if you're producing a legitimate key. Also, if I remember the keyway correctly, trying to glue one up wouldn't be quite as easy as you suggest.
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That is the point, if you're producing a legitimate key. Also, if I remember the keyway correctly, trying to glue one up wouldn't be quite as easy as you suggest.
Well, like I said, I've never handled one of the I/C BiLock Cylinders, they maybe have a more complex keyway than the original model. BiLock's website shows a new lock system that includes a movable element in the key, somewhat similar, in function, to the ball bearing in DOM IX.
If the I/C locks in question have this feature, my comments wouldn't apply. If, however, they have the same keyway as the orginal, and a change key can be modified to pull cylinders merely by adding a pair of holes, the whole system is much more vulnerable to bypass than regular Best SFIC. In that case, even the restricted keyway SFIC cylinders such as Keymark, Peaks, etc would be vastly superior IMHO.
I didn't mean to imply that it would be easy to make a BiLock key that would work as nicely as an orginal, or look as pretty, but it is definitely possible to make an ugly and crude key on the orginal keyway.
#4 level cuts (deepest) may leave very little 'root' metal for a makeshift key, hence you may leave half of the key in the cylinder when extracting it. I had a BiLock key briefly a few days ago (to open up a meeting room at a local library), I wish I looked harder to see how much metal might be left.
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