A Portable Impressioning Table Station

 A few days ago I had to make keys to a very old Subaru vehicle (keys were lost).   Impressioning  is very easy with those locks so instead of stripping down the lock I made a key by file which took less than 10 minutes,then I had one of those “how come I never thought of this before”  moment as I realised that the job could have been much more comfortable with the proper tool .

Impressioning is a must have skill for any locksmith I belive, and I treat this  skill as a pure art.I still practice it but I usually gets to do at least 5 keys a week for different locks, however there is a big difference when working in the comfort of your shop or shad than on a real door.

In my new station “table”   I’ve made some adjustments:

I use a few different plugs to mark the spacing on the popular locks I’m more likely to come across with.Using this comb or a file I mark down the spacing of the pins.

In here I use this key for a” backwords” impressioning when I have the plug in hand and need to file down a key.

 The wood has lanes for the key

Here is a picture on how it sits on my knee

All in all it didn’t take much time to bulid this and I must say I’m quite happy with this table.