Mills locks in-depth look.

[99623]

This maybe helpful. . I found out about these locks, two different keys are used for Mills locks, they look identical except one is a snot bit wider.

This basically means that the lock will not accept certain keys, so what I have done is adjust the lock when it is stripped down to fit the Mills key.

I have both model locks, one is a square lock and one is a round lock.the square lock is the one that a larger Mills key won't fit into, see photos.

[99623]

I picked up another untouched Mills lock, these take a very long time to rekey properly, in the end they are secure just like when they were made by the factory. This is 4 total, the cash box, back door, drawer in the stand, and the cabinet door in the stand.

They are all keyed alike, to a set of keys. 3407 is stamped on the machine side, obviously it's the previous owners numbering system and I stamped it on the keys just like they did to keep track of the key system.

Keeping the aged look.

Getting it keyed up.

[99623]

Hopefully this will help you out.
Not to many locksmiths can service these locks, they are time consuming, the wafers, springs are microscopic compared to other locks, they are all brass, high quality work, and it's really intricate.

Every piece fits like a puzzle box, so I have made assembly marks on everything. It can get a bit confusing on the orientation of everything, believe me I learned it early on rekeying these locks.

[99623]

I have discovered another twist in the Mills locks. If you look closely to the #1, #2 photos, you can see the difference between the milling cuts, one is wider than the other. This plays a significant part in the locks. One thing that is constant is the locks, they can use either the small or large tumblers to fit the key.

[99623]

This the tumbler that fits into the key, the arrow points to the "nub" and that can come in two different sizes. The point is that two locks can look exactly the same, except for the wafers and that's another problem with the Mills locks.

Kinda like a Ford and a Lincoln vs Mills and Bell.

[99623]

Interesting fact.
Eagle Lock Company was the parent company of Bell locks. Bell locks were the parent company of Mills locks. That's confusing!

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