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Dropped $75 on a knockoff panel key at a supply house in Dallas, and it stripped on the second job
I picked up a cheap can key at a supply house off Harry Hines in Dallas for $75 because the real one was backordered. The metal was so soft that it rounded off the set screws on a customer's panel in Plano, and I had to drill them out. That cost me two extra hours and a $40 replacement lock. Has anyone found a decent off-brand key that actually holds up, or should I just eat the cost and wait for the OEM one?
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dylanbell4d ago
That line about rounding off the set screws hit home for me. I used to grab whatever cheap key was on the shelf because I figured metal is metal, right. Then I had one twist apart inside a lock on a Friday afternoon and spent my whole weekend kicking myself while the customer waited. After that I started paying attention to the steel and the heat treat, because a soft key does not just fail, it fails at the worst time and takes the lock with it. Two hours of drilling plus a new lock is way more than the $75 you saved. Waiting on the OEM is cheaper than losing a day.
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