Removing A Lock

[Bob]

This is a lock on a KR-61 Supper Chest that I wish to remove and get re-keyed. The nut will not come off the lock housing because the cam bar is in the way. The bar appears to be crimped to the lock. How do I get this disassembled?

[J.A.F.E.]

The nut should slip over the cam but it may be a bit of a dance. The hole in the nut is actually larger than the hole in the lid. But it may not be necessary to rekey the lock - a good locksmith should be able to impression a key for it. In fact that likely would be the better option since to get the cylinder out of the lock body the cam will have to be removed which means grinding the staking off.

[Bob]

The nut did slip over the cam nicely and then the lock assembly slipped out of the hole. I wasn't sure if it going to work that way or not.

I have Snap On boxes and only have keys. It would be nice to buy the locks from Snap On and use the same key for all of them but the locks are no longer available. I need to check if they all take the same type of key and go see a locksmith.

[J.A.F.E.]

While the original locks are NLA the replacements SO has will work just fine.I have purchased locks from the dealer that are keyed alike and absolutely will work in the older boxes. The new ones are a bit different than the original (yours has a single sided key the new ones use a double) but they will work. The lock dimensions have not really changed over the years and there are only three or four basic lock configurations Snap on uses. I would think a knowledgeable dealer would be able to fix you up if you have a lock/key number you want to match.