It is what it says, a high security padlock that is made of stainless steel and may or may not have imbedded carbide bits to further resist drilling. The 833C is the latest version and it is doubtful you will see any available via surplus.
You can find on Ebay the older 832B version for around $50 or sometimes less. That is quite a bargain since the list price to the public used to be close to $400.00. They are considered obsolete now by the government and sold off as surplus.
If some>
I wish I had one of those on my locker back in high school...
It looks very strong...
Friggin janitor would have had to use a torch big enough to burn down the whole building to cut it off...
Evan the Maintenance Man
I am going to say it even though I think its obvious... These locks come equipped with a cylinder that has one of those 'government only' forbidden keyways... Kind of like the keyway for locks on post office boxes...
I would buy one of those if I saw it on e-Bay... Looks like it would be a total pain in the butt to try and open without the key...
BTW -- Just for future reference, how much would the replacement cylinders from Medeco cost if one wished to order some, assuming that you had locks to retrofit...
Evan the Maintenance Man
This lock is a Sargent & Greenleaf part number 833-001. The list price as of 8/27/98 revision 1.7 is $ 1024.00
As this lock is an older obsolete version as you stated, they sell in surplus quite a bit less now.
The Medeco replacement cylinder is part number 51-0100 and the list price is
82.80
$1000 lol , cheap at twice the price.
I started out as a locksmith and tired of it after a few years and moved in a different direction. I have seen the best locks in use at Ramstein USAF [Germany] high-security cages and regardless of what twaddle I hear from fools - no lock exists that cannot be bypassed in seconds with the right tools and skill.
Place that $1000 lock on the bench in front of me, and I will put $2000 next to it that says I can defeat it in 90 seconds.
Bets are open.
Lassiter ex-pat retired DSD USAF Happy easter.
Oxyacetylene doesn't work well on stainless. Oxyacetylene cutting works using a couple of assumptions: first, the material you are cutting burns in pure oxygen (which is usually a very good assumption); second, the combustion temperature is higher than the melting point of the resulting oxide. Aluminum (or aluminium for the UK folks) is one material that doesn't cut under oxygen hardly at all, since aluminum oxide (alum) melts at a much higher point than the combustion temperature (which is still very high, higher than steel's MP, which is how exothermic welding works (thermite makes a good 'lockpick' too, but don't use it within 25 feet of combustible material!)) of the aluminum. So it doesn't 'cut', although most aluminum alloys melt at a low enough point to just be melted off by a regular welding flame. Just make sure it's a nuetral flame and not an oxidizing one, or the aluminum will behave strangely.....
Stainless steel, due to the high nickel and chromium content doesn't combust as hotly as carbon steel, and the resulting oxides melt at much higher temperatures. So the torch doesn't work well, or doesn't work at all, depending upon alloy. Knowing S&G military/government locks fairly well (see the history of where I work for more), their shackles are formulated to resist oxyacetylene better than the typical boron steel shackles of most locks.
OTOH, special brass shackles don't cut at all with oxyacetylene, and if there's enough mass the shackle won't melt off either, unless you are using larger than a number 2 tip for a long time. There a saw works wonders; but I have seen deadbolts with tungsten carbide inserts in brass bolts. The same type shackle is found on some government padlocks and is very difficult to cut with anything. There is only one type of torch that has a hot enough flame to cut tungsten carbide, and very few people have them (uses a hydrazine and a hexaflouride and holds the world's record for hottest flame). Diamond of course will cut it, but by the time you work through the brass the diamond wheel (like Dremel sells) will be pretty fouled and will have a hard time with the insert.
Anything can be breached, of course, and most of the time the lock isn't the point of breach.
S&G's file cabinet padlock is one that is very diffult to breach, too, and probably is the inspiration for the 'hockey puck' type padlocks now common. (I have a couple of the regular S&G changeable combination padlocks here, and the mechanism is the same except the shackle).
The obvious solution in this and similar cases is to simply use two different tools. Or in instances where one cutting medium will work on both materials but at the cost of some fouling or other difficulty simply use several cutters.
This is all quite interesting from a technical standpoint but any padlock just like any other lock is only good for a short delay and needs to be backed up by presence of on site security, monitored alarms, CCTV or all of the above.
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