General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: FLOOB on January 14, 2016, 12:27:08 PM
Title: Master Lock
Post by: FLOOB on January 14, 2016, 12:27:08 PM
Master Lock, made in the USA and it shows. The Master Lock corporation is an example of the very savvy and effective american business strategy. Spend little on manufacture, make a crap product and spend a lot on advertisement and lawyers. Have you ever gone to a store in america and tried to buy a good lock? Here's what you'll see, a whole bunch of different types of Master Lock brand locks and a couple of chinese EL Cheapos. To anybody who knows anything about locks and physical security Master Lock is a joke, literally. When I tell people that I pick locks often one of the first questions people will respond with is "Can you pick a Master Lock?". Which is funny for a few reasons. The only decent and inexpensive brand of US made padlock used to be American brand padlock. But a few years ago the company was bought by Master Lock. Predictably, Master Lock made changes to American brand padlocks so that they could be manufactured more cheaply, and now those padlocks are crap too. Which is why the US military stopped buying them. I expect to hear from Master Lock's legal department soon now that I've posted this thread.
Kid's bike stolen.
Open a ML 175 in 3 seconds
Tapping a ML open
Opened with a zip tie
Opened with a can of cat food
wack yo!
ML screws up again
Opened with a bamboo stick
New ML design = still junk
ML screws up again, again.
Puck Junk
Making fun of ML
If you're depending on a lock to prevent your things from being stolen, look beyond master lock.
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: BuckShot on January 14, 2016, 12:48:30 PM
This is interesting, thanks for posting.
What would you say is a good brand that can be bought in the US?
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: FLOOB on January 14, 2016, 02:39:29 PM
As far as a place offline to buy quality padlocks I don't know of any unfortunately. As far as inexpensive quality padlocks, Best brand padlocks are good, although I usually see them sold as the body without the core and the core sold seperately. Commando locks are good, last I heard they were trying for a DoD contract to replace American lock. Older american brand padlocks and steel body GI surplus locks are good. I say steel body because there are a lot of surplus brass padlocks. There's a guy selling Abus 34/55 padlocks on ebay for $10 which is an absolute steal. Normal price for the lock is about $60, and even that is a good deal for that lock. I bought three of them. Apparently the guy got a lot of about 1000 brand new locks from the New York City Housing Authority, he's been selling them on ebay for years. If you need a good padlock I highly recommend snatching one or more of those up. Just search ebay for Abus 34/55 and it should come up.
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: BoilerDown on January 14, 2016, 03:10:30 PM
How are Brinks? That's what I used on my moving pods when I moved after graduation three years ago. Bought them at WalMart based on them being more expensive than the others and little else.
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: MiloMorai on January 14, 2016, 03:38:52 PM
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: PJ_Godzilla on January 14, 2016, 03:54:36 PM
True story: I bought one of Master's crappo locks for a storage unit I was using to buffer my recent move to my most recently built house. I've sort of built a couple of houses in the last 5 years to take advantage of some really good market dynamics in my location. That's all fun and games.
The fun ended when I locked up that storage unit for the first time. I came back some 3 weeks later with a truck full of crap I'd moved out of my basement. I was ready to quickly hump that stuff into the unit so I could go do something else. I stuck the key in the lock and... nothing... it was frozen. I spent about an hour trying to unseize it unsuccessfully. Luckily, I'd had my wife bring my corporate vehicle (an Expedition at the time) as a "chase" vehicle. I'd figured something would go wrong. I took that and got my (corded - but I had an inverter in the Expo, another thing I keep around in case something goes wrong) dremel and a cut off wheel and came back and cut that POS lock off and saved it. I found it could be unseized, but only if one end of the loop (hasp?) was free to move a bit - a condition that did not obtain when it was locked.
The only saving grace for Master: I sent them a photo of the ruined lock and my receipt and they replaced it with another POS lock.
Apparently, their philosophy is that, if there's one thing better than crap locks, it's lots of them.
My life is complicated, my time limited. I want something that works and works well, reliably. Perhaps SigSauer should get into locks. Odds are, some such firm does and, had I spent the time to research, find, and obtain a better lock, I probably wouldn't have had to go through such a time-wasting pain in the aces high episode.
As for Master, I'd like to sodomize them all without the benefit of a lubricant (I can write that, I think, because it's sufficiently clinical and sincere and expresses how angry I am about the whole thing).
Sadder butthurt wiser, -PJL
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: FLOOB on January 14, 2016, 05:17:57 PM
How are Brinks? That's what I used on my moving pods when I moved after graduation three years ago. Bought them at WalMart based on them being more expensive than the others and little else.
Depends which model you bought. I know their cheaper models can even be shimmed open. What do they look like?
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: saggs on January 14, 2016, 08:31:08 PM
What would you say is a good brand that can be bought in the US?
Abus, or Paclock. American used to be good, but Masterlock bought them, so they suck now too.
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: PJ_Godzilla on January 15, 2016, 04:43:07 AM
Thanks, first of all. I've since closed out that unit. We moved in October and closed out the unit in December. However, I still have need for some good locks. I'll be retiring my masters, mainly because of the Floob vids above. (What does he do again? Does it involve working at night a lot? :D)
Abus padlocks: http://www.allpadlocks.com/ez-catalog/X380790/56 (http://www.allpadlocks.com/ez-catalog/X380790/56) It's hard to see why they'd be much better at these prices, but I'm going to see what the customer reviews are.
Paclock: http://www.paclock.com/high-security.html (http://www.paclock.com/high-security.html) To my trained aero-engin eye, these at least look the part, more like it.
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: FLOOB on January 15, 2016, 10:06:33 PM
http://www.commandolock.com/shop/
Abus are great locks, that lock I mentioned on ebay is a legit CEN grade 4 high security lock.
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: branch37 on January 16, 2016, 12:12:21 AM
In my field of work I have to go into many different local ranches to service oil wells. The vast majority of them are locked with a daisy chain of about 5-10 padlocks on the gate. 1 for each company that has a well on that particular property. It seems that when a company calls us for service, they give directions to the well, but usually fail to give us a key or combination to the gate. Just go through them and tap on the padlocks with a hammer and 1 will open 9 times out of 10. Of course I carry a 36" pipe wrench in the truck so If I absolutely had to, breaking a lock with a big wrench is child's play.
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: Nilsen on January 16, 2016, 01:02:54 AM
Never heard of Master Lock but i have plenty of Abus locks and they seem good even on use near salt water if treated right
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: pembquist on January 16, 2016, 01:58:26 AM
What about cut resistance? My cordless grinder does a good job with a cutoff wheel on grade 70 chain, I never tried it on anything harder. I once used a demo saw with a diamond blade to cut off a kryptonite lock on an abandoned bike, it was pretty instant. Are there any locks or combos that work better at resisting a meth head with that kind of equipment?
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: saggs on January 16, 2016, 06:50:25 AM
What about cut resistance? My cordless grinder does a good job with a cutoff wheel on grade 70 chain, I never tried it on anything harder. I once used a demo saw with a diamond blade to cut off a kryptonite lock on an abandoned bike, it was pretty instant. Are there any locks or combos that work better at resisting a meth head with that kind of equipment?
Nothing is entirely unbreakable. But some shackles are a lot harder to cut then others. On cheap locks a 10" pair of bolt cutters will cut the shackle easily. Some of the better ones with boron and what not will just laugh off 10" bolt cutters, hacksaws, cutting wheels, etc.. but if you go up to 36" bolt cutters or even bigger then with enough grunt even they will cut.
Most meth head low life thieves wouldn't carry anything bigger then 10" bolt cutters so better locks do make a difference, and a good heavy cable is generally more cut resistant then chains.
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: DREDIOCK on January 16, 2016, 09:51:07 AM
I was thinking about you just last week and wondered whatever became of you. Good to see you back.
My daughter's grown up now and doesnt ask as many questions anymore if you're still interested in kidnapping her.
Course being a grown up woman now means she comes with a whole host of other no less annoying issues now LMAO
HAHA howdy :)
Im good. The only thing i have become is older and dumber
How old is she? Old enough to cook for you and clean up your mess or just old enough to rob you for every dollar you got???
Still lurking the boards but mostly just to find out if Ripsnort is still employed keeping the Boeing shares lower than they otherwise would be. When he retires ill finally be able to make a ton on my Boeing share and take a cruise to switzerland.
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: Shuffler on January 16, 2016, 11:46:57 PM
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: Rolex on January 17, 2016, 12:36:42 AM
Sounds like you found a market for a next generation, high quality lock. Start a company and build it.
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: Nilsen on January 17, 2016, 01:11:07 AM
:x @ Shuffler
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: DREDIOCK on January 17, 2016, 01:28:33 AM
She just turned 19. Sophomore in college. She's replaced asking questions about everything with taking up whatever absurd cause that may offend someone.
Title: Re: Master Lock
Post by: Shuffler on January 17, 2016, 07:18:07 AM
She just turned 19. Sophomore in college. She's replaced asking questions about everything with taking up whatever absurd cause that may offend someone.