75ZT Community

Some better photos! The crop photos are a little off but I wanted to show what I look at when making these things!



This has been machined onto the reverse. This key has the same pattern on both sides now. However I have learnt some important lessons






Notice the jagged edges and the circle pattern in the surrounding edge border. The jagged edge comes from using a dull bit. This is hard to combat even using a new bit on each key. You would have to use a new bit on every side or invest in some very expensive bits that last. You can't actually tell just by looking. Even getting the key up to your face and really looking its hard to tell! I always take a photo and zoom right in too see how the cuts look. This is perhaps a little OCD but if you compare it to the following photo of the other side, notice the difference?






Quite smooth edges! The big difference is the tooling marks inside the grooves but just looking at the key they look like little specs of dirt. One thing I'm struggling to remove is the circle inside the outside edge on the previous photo. I am working to tolerances of .1mm and it shows up everything less than perfect. It is noticeable if you look for it. Just glancing you don't notice it. I think that might end up being something that needs to be carefully filed and polished later. Not something I'm very good at unfortunately.






This picture shows what happens when the key isn't in the same position when machining the reverse side! Notice the lip on a few of the edges? That edge is probably about .1-.2mm! Close tolerances exaggerate the flaws






This is the first side. In my opinion, perfect! I'd be happy to let these go like this






Notice the smooth edges compared to that of the previous sides?






Again, smooth, clean and lovely edges!