ALOA isn’t going anywhere, and, in fact, the future for the national locksmith organization is bright.
That was the general consensus of the latest meeting of Locksmiths United, led by Wayne Winton of Tri-County Locksmith Services in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
Several members of the board of directors at ALOA spoke at the meeting and conceded that although the organization has had its issues, many of the problems of finances and direction were firmly in the past, and the organization is ready to move forward.
Suggestions for how to move forward include the need to engage more via social media and promote ALOA’s focus of providing quality locksmith education.
“The best education in the world doesn’t mean anything if nobody knows how to find it,” Winton said. He noted that despite an overabundance of “education” on the internet, “80% of it is junk.”
Ideas for further attracting applicants and boosting membership included free classes to new members and to current members who recruit new members.
Winton noted that attending ALOA for a week could cost him as much as $10,000 in expenses and potential lost revenue, but he concluded that the cost was worth it. That not only is because of the classes offered, but also the networking opportunities with manufacturers and distributors that the convention provided that would lead to acquiring lower cost products down the road.
“You have to prove the value of this,” he said.
One person who saw the value was Jeff Moss, a locksmith in Maple Heights, Ohio. Moss, who has been in the profession a few years, received a scholarship to attend the recent ALOA convention — otherwise, he said, he wouldn’t have attended.
“The biggest takeaway I got out of [his experience] was the value of the cost of membership,” he said, adding that he applied to join ALOA as a result.
Winton said there has been discussion online about forming a new national association out of the large Locksmith Nation Facebook group, but he quickly shoots down such discussion.
“There’s already [a national organization] here,” he said. “There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. We just need to turn the wheel just a little bit.”
Go here for a video of the full discussion.
Locksmiths United
Locksmiths United is a monthly Zoom presentation to discuss locksmithing and provide information to others in the industry. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, the first Monday of each month. All locksmiths are invited. Contact Winton via Locksmith Nation’s group page on Facebook for the Zoom link.
At the Convention
As far as new products go, an app by startup company Keys Inc. was named the outstanding new product for 2022, although it isn’t a product that locksmiths will use. It’s a consumer-focused app aimed at connecting consumers with nearby locksmiths if they have a lockout or other emergency situation.
Among products that locksmiths will put to use in 2022 and beyond, a few things caught our eye on the show floor at Las Vegas:
What’s Old is New
Although battery-powered — two AAAA (yes, quadruple-A) batteries provide 40,000 cycles — the Pearl is manual locking in that it has to be relocked by using the latch. It doesn’t relock automatically. Changing the batteries is performed from the front and requires nothing more than a pen. You slide down the faceplate where the latch is located and then place a pen tip in the “keyhole” at the top of the lock to pop open the face and change the batteries.
The Pearl comes in four cylinder lengths: 7/16, 11/16, 1-3/16 and 1-3/4 inches, and it can be ordered in four orientations: vertically with the keypad above or below the latch or horizontally with the keypad to the left or right of the latch.
Lou Galvao, distribution channel manager at CompX, says Pearl will have MIFARE and DESfire card access “down the road.”
More info: compx.com
Easy Does It
As you might expect, key machines were prominent on the show floor. Several distributors and manufacturers had tables of various models lined up for demonstrations. Ilco was one of those manufacturers, displaying a dozen or so of its Silca brand cutters, including the latest model, the Poker Pro, which arrived in North America in summer 2022.
The Poker Pro resembles the brand’s high-end automatic Futura line and in fact is built on the Futura platform, in much the same way that certain vehicles by the same manufacturer are built on the same platform. This makes for speedier and lower cost assembly.
But that’s where the similarities end, because although the Futura key machines are meant to handle a number of tasks for multiple types of keys, the Poker Pro has one job: automatic duplication of flat edge-cut (single- or double-sided) or cruciform keys.
“It mimics exactly the key being copied, including the wear, which is good, because that also mimics exactly the wear in the cylinder,” says Ryan McGee, product manager at Kaba Ilco.
He adds that the machine is aimed particularly at new locksmiths because of its operating simplicity. All you do to cut a key is insert the key, using the shoulder stop to line up the key correctly, in the clamp, before doing the same with the key blank in the other clamp and pressing the green Start button. The machine does the rest.
An LED in the cutting area shines blue during the cutting, green when the key is cut and red if there’s a problem that stops the machine, such as if the shield were raised inadvertently during cutting.
More info: www.ilco.us
View of the Future
Another automatic key cutter that isn’t yet on the market that caught our attention is the Keyline Messenger, and it doesn’t have any buttons for operation. That’s because all control is through the KDT mobile app.
The Messenger is expected to arrive in November 2022, and at that time, the app will work only on Google Android phones and tablets, although a version for Apple devices is expected in 2023.
The key machine is “geared to having all control on your device,” says Marco Gallo of Keyline.
The Messenger could be considered a companion machine to the Gymkana 994 “with more residential” cutting capability, says Dan Brower, a Keyline warehouse technician. However, it’s also aimed at locksmiths “on the go.”
The Messenger weighs 22 pounds — much heavier than it looks — and has a handle for toting. It also has battery-power capability (along with plug-in), and Gallo says the battery will hold enough of a charge for the machine to cut 30–40 keys before giving out. And, with a width of less than 8 inches, the Messenger has a profile that could fit on the back of a motorcycle, as well as in the back of a work truck.
The Messenger will include two clamps, one for laser and dimple keys and one for flat edge-cut keys, and Gallo says the machine even will cut keys for high-security Medeco locks. The new clamps will be available across the spectrum of Keyline machines.
As with other Keyline machines, the Messenger has a flip-down decoder that allows for duplication, although Brower says the machine won’t be able to copy a flat key “unless you know some things about it,” including the blade type.
More info: keyline-usa.com
Will Christensen | Senior Editor
Will Christensen is senior editor at Locksmith Ledger International. He has been an editor and reporter at magazines and newspapers for more than 30 years.
