[644] TAG5 Industries Key Impressioning Light Box

this is the lock-picking lawyer and today I have a remarkable la compression in product that you've probably never heard of before this is the tag 5 industries fifth generation la compression in light box to understand this product I think you need to understand its creator and the owner of tag 5 industries Russell he's an Australian who comes from a multi-generational family of locksmiths and was trained in the craft starting from when he was a child rather than using his talents in civilian life helping with lockout Sandri keen he found his way into government service where he spent his life traveling all over the world and practicing his craft as a covert entry specialist now one of the mainstays of covert entry is key impression which makes some sense if you think about it it can either be done all at once or incrementally over time without ever spending more than a few moments in front of the door in either case you end up with a working key afterwards so you own the lock this light box was conceived and constructed to allow covert impression though it also has a lot of uses for normal civilian locksmith who impression in the field most often when you see la compression in Lock sport it's done on a bench with very bright lights and a large magnifying lens or jeweler's loupe to allow the impression ER to see the tiny and often subtle marks that are left on a key blank obviously that's not an option in the field while you're trying to be covert so with that in mind let's take a closer look at this product the light box is actually designed to be worn by the user by placing a lanyard through this hole on the back and around the users neck then while impression you can place a key through these plastic flaps on the side and look through the magnifying lens at the marks on the key the light box has two different color LEDs inside that were selected especially to highlight impression embarks the orange LEDs work best for brass keys like this one and it also has blue LEDs that are a little better for nickel silver by using these two buttons the LED colors can be used separately or in combination with each other in varying degrees of brightness and as a personal note Here I am not very good at impression but these colored lights really do make it easier to see the marks now the light box was also made with light discipline in mind a concern undoubtedly born from Russells years in the field the plastic flaps that you can see on either side of the light box are pretty good at keeping the light in right now I have both sets of LED lights on and they are breathe blazing at their full brightness and you can see very little light coming out of the front here or from the side it's just a tiny bit in the cracks now I want to give you a demo of this but I am a pretty mediocre lock impression err so tomorrow well tomorrow for me 30 seconds from now for you I'm having a surprise guest to show you how this works someone with many years of lock impression experience and I want this to be a real test so we're not going to be using a master lock or a quick set I'm going to give him this kryptonite KS 82 padlock a lock with remarkable tolerances and not coincidentally a lock that I failed four times in a row to impression so I'm gonna cut the video and I'll see you tomorrow okay folks I'm back and with me now I have Russell who is the owner of tag 5 industries and because I am an absolutely abysmal lock compression er he's going to give us a little a little demonstration on how we use this tool to impression a lock so the first thing Russell has already done a little bit of prep work on the case so if you can take us through what you did I'd appreciate it sure so you have a key blank the most important thing about doing your impression is setting up your spacings and not to go too deep for your first cuts zeros are typically the height of a key blank in some keys and some manufacturers it may even be number one step the biggest thing with impression is just your spacings filing straight and correct all the time making sure you don't diverse off and move into any other real estate of each other cuts so you can see here I've done some small cuts with the file now with the filing the file only cuts in one direction and that is the forward stroke and what you should do is while you're falling forward is use the full length of the file and lift off don't stop on the key because the key is then going to get messed up by the file and be difficult to see the marks if we go any further can you tell me what the tool that's holding that key is this is a pin vise that's typically used by jewelers it's a quick release type of situation it has a screw head the clamps on both sides of the key and it's a flat surface I find this to be one of the best handles ever I've tried many handles vice grips precision-made handles for impressionist the best unit that that you could use for impressionist mall very discreet to use and nice and easy in the hand okay well let's get to impression show us how it's done right so what you do is you I always call this 12 o'clock meaning the cylinder is up and down the pins are in the key can move in and out what you need to do is put a bit of twisting pressure on the key not enough to rake the head off but just to bind the pins as if you're picking the lock and then you just do a small bump I typically do two bumps then I bring it and turn it back to what I call 11 o'clock which is back back the opposite direction as far as it can go and bind and do two bumps in there and now we will check for the cuts on the key or the paint the marks on the key okay upon testing or inspecting the key blank I've got a mark on number four so the rule of the of impression is the only file where you see the mark do not file where there are no marks do not guess so I take a stroke on number four and do repeat the process turn and bump turn and and just do it two times each side now we test again so on this check I saw a map on on position 1 position 2 and position 4 so I'm going to take the file and stroke through all those and retest the key again okay I'm testing this inspection I've found a mark on one two and four I'm seeing a mark come on three but it doesn't look like a proper mark as yet so I'm going to draw the file and we go insert the key again and now we'll inspect the key again okay inspecting the the key we have a map on two four and five so we're going to go through one on filing suppose I was in an awkward spot being on the tip of kid I use my finger is that is it guide to keep the file straight if you want to you can scribe lines down the side of the key blank to give you as a guide put the key back even for fun now inspect the key okay inspecting the key we had a fabulous mark on number one and it was one of number three but it was a bit iffy I'm not gonna guess guess that I'm different going to take that number one and then we'll check so now we'll put the key back into the padlock and bump and inspect the key again on inspection we had one three and five so again single stroke on the file and put it back into the cylinder bump and inspect affecting that one we have a mark on three and a map on five so I will push through them three and okay and we'll test again now inspect all right on inspection I noticed on spacing one and two the pins and are not marking but they're polishing the top of the cuts that's indicating to me that they are at the correct height and not to touch them as I said before if there's no marks don't file if you file these marks thinking that they are indicators you will then start impression in the top pin because there is a spring top pin and bottom pin the bottom pin is the one that we're impression or getting to height the top pin will then also start to fine and will cause marks to be on the case that be conscious of what you're looking at marks are typically in the center and you'll see that the differentials between them as as you go along so I'm going to hit number three which was an indicator and number four and now will inspect okay on inspection no sir a mark on on number three and number four I kind of missed that follow-up but I'll just do one now I'll put it back in the cylinder and test each side and now inspect okay on inspection we had a mark on number three and mark on number four again all right we'll put it back in with the cylinder the test and now inspect okay on inspection I made comment before about number one and two we're doing a Polish now that actually you have marked again and we have a mark on one two three and four so I will follow all those uh now we'll test and inspector right on inspection the number four pin was marking put this one through and test okay now we inspect okay on inspection we're actually getting polish marks on all of them at number three is the prevalent prevalent unit number five is also putting a little bit of a spot in there but I'm not going to follow that one because I don't want to be tricked okay in intestine and inspect okay on inspection we have a mark on number four and number five so I'm gonna take you out one five and test and now inspect okay on inspection we had a mark on one and a mark on four the mark has changed says getting close to being - almost been opened so the farm again and test and inspect okay on inspection this one was indicating in number three so far back at Ministry and test and inspect all right inspection which indicating at number one and number four okay Russell is gone and I hope his demo was helpful i spliced some pictures into this video that I took during the demo through the lens of the lightbox but to be honest they really don't do the tool justice I should also note that I neglected earlier to mention that this tool does come with a very nice case that I do not have to show you but you can see it on the tag five website and I will leave a link in the description below now for the bad news this is not an inexpensive product it lists for four hundred and eighty dollars so while this is probably the best new impressionnant product that I have ever used with excellent build quality that innovation and quality does come at a price so is it worth it well I think it depends on how much impression in you do I can say from personal experience that this did make impression and easier for me and it also transforms impression into something that can be done anywhere at any time so that's all I have for you today if you do have any questions or comments about this please put them below if you liked this video and would like to see more like it please subscribe and as always have a nice day thank you

Channel: LockPickingLawyer

Views: 488,778

Rating: 4.7935123 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: p0euhqTq_9o

Length: 19min 0sec (1140 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 24 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Nemo_Griff]

I love any information having to do with impressioning and I STINK at it! lol.

I have been struggling with the idea of paying over $75 for a plastic impressioning handle and I have never been able to pull the trigger. I have tried using vise grips and no matter how tight I think I have the key on, the key always slips because the jaws are not flat. Only the very tip of the grips hold onto the key and the limited surface area is what causes the loss of the grip on the key.

Thankfully this came up and I went a research spree trying to find the "pin vise" that was used here. The only thing that came up was pen sized tools meant to hold drill bits. Looking further into the research hole I believe I found the tool and it is being sold as a "Lowell Pattern Hand Vise" and the retail price can range from $16 to $32. Some found have the same failings as the vise grip where the tools grip doesn't close flat but only at the tip. However, the fact that the hand vise is wide enough to grip the entire width of a key, that may mitigate the loss of grip issue.

I hope this information helps others :)

[u/M_Ray]

Great video! Any chance you could do a video on his disc detainer pick?

[u/butrejp]

that's a nifty little tool there. if only it were cheaper. I'd be happy to pay $100 for it, but $480 is just asking way too much