PROUD SPONSORS
OF THIS PAGE
hints&tips
‘The PitchBlack
Pack’ Camera
Infrared System
‘Extreme Letterbox
Tool Kit’
who appreciated our down-to-earth,
reliable approach for Customer Service,
enjoyed promoting our tools and giving us
feedback, buying each tool as we released
it.
For a considerable time, fellow
locksmiths had pointed out a number
of shortcomings of the original LBT. The
difficulty was, that locks and security
had moved on significantly since the
original was first designed, and while it
was still an excellent tool, we felt that it
could be improved and updated to suit
today’s level of security. We decided
on metal connectors, which offered far
greater strength and rigidity, featuring
our ‘SureLock’ button system which we
had made provision for in ‘The Rattler’
,
and which allowed positive locking of
sections together, allowing for pulling,
as well as pushing with no risk of section
separation. A great number of advantages
were introduced, including multi-function
attachments, which allowed one LBT
attachment, to carry out several different
tasks. This simplified and speeded-up the
choice of tool selection by the locksmith.
A quick-deploy mirror was also included
in the ‘Extreme Letterbox Tool Kit’ ‘The
.
Visi-Clamp’ enabled Warrant locksmiths
,
in particular, to hold letterbox flaps out of
the way, and use the built-in mirror where
a fast entry was essential.
While we had been prototyping what
was to become the ‘Extreme Letterbox
Tool Kit’ we had also been experimenting
,
with a ‘Super-SideWinder’ which was
,
to offer greater reach, far more torque
and other refinements. We looked at a
variety of ways of achieving our goals, and
considered making it battery drill-driven,
but felt that it would be less controllable,
and ultimately prove to be less reliable. We
To read more, visit www.locksmithjournal.co.uk
looked at conventional drill drives which
are sometimes used in a power drill, to
enable sanding discs, or wire brushes
to be used in confined areas, but these
were never designed to allow highertorque applications, such as drilling, or
using screwdriver bits etc. In fact, most
specifically state that these drives are not
guaranteed for these purposes, - even the
very expensive high-end drives are simply
not up to the job that we required for
our ‘DirectDrive.’ We then had meetings
with specialist companies which produce
direct drives for British Aerospace,
NASA and the Automotive industry, in
an attempt to improve on our original
‘DirectDrive’ but they could not produce
‘we had to effectively
become experts in direct
drive technology’
anything that offered enough torque,
without making it shorter than the 1.5m
our ‘SideWinder Evolution’ utilises, or
making it around 25mm diameter, which
again was unacceptable, as this precluded
it being used on narrow, high-security
letterboxes, which rarely allow more than
a 20mm section to pass freely. They would
have also been so expensive that it would
be unrealistically priced. We decided
to go back to the original ‘SideWinder’
production ‘DirectDrives’ and make
,
some changes for the ‘Super-SideWinder.’
Along the way, we had to effectively
become experts in direct drive technology,
calculating such factors as ‘helixing vs.
length vs. maximum torque vs. diameter
vs. flexibility.’ ‘Helixing’ is a phenomenon
which causes a direct drive to coil up. This
is caused when one end of a cable cannot
be turned (because of a very strong spring
etc. on a nightlatch knob, or a screw that is
in extremely tightly, - effectively stopping
one end from moving completely), while
the turning force is s ѥ