Well, it may not be rocket science, but for me it is like the old Vanguard days, for those of you old enough to remember the late 1950s.
I re-sized Steve's photo to true size and used it as a template. I had been given a surplus key from a friend which was the correct thickness, (0.040") and reworked the tip to the profile of the photo. If you look at the attached photo, you will see it is not perfectly the same, but pretty damn close. Should be close enough, given the supposed simplicity of this lock.
HOWEVER, it has not been successful. The key slides in the slot easily, until the tip touches the inner wall, and the paddle portion is neatly inside the chamber. But there is no sense of any engagement, and when turning there is no satisfying "click" that anything is unlocking or locking. When I do coax it into an unlocked mode, the button will slide back and forth by a quarter of an inch or so. But this is temporary. If I latch and unlatch it several times, the mechanism seems to slide back to the locked mode. Then I have to work on it to coax it open again. So something is wrong, but what?
(1) the lock could be defective from the get-go. The guy I purchased it from never secured the middle latch, just the end ones. Perhaps it never worked, even with the original key?
(2) Maybe there were more than one configuration of this type of lock, and Steve's key is not the right one? This case was made in China, and if it was copied from a Saga or whatever, they may have used different innards? Probably not likely.
(3) Maybe my key, copied from Steve's photo was not close enough? But given what he said about the simplicity of the lock, it would seem my copy should have worked.
So, where do I go from here? I would like to have the case in an un-locked mode, so I can use the middle latch. I know the easiest thing would be to grind off the hook on the lid portion, and just use the two outer latches. I do not want or need to be able to lock the case, but nor do I want to have to frig around with it every time I open it. On the other hand, I would like to use the middle latch, and it pi**es me off that as a retired mechanical engineer, that I can't get it working, despite all the good advice and help from Steve, Mike and the rest of you.
So, that's my story, at least so far.
.....Rick
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