Guides
How to decide between new and used locksmith equipment
New versus used locksmith equipment is a cost-per-year question plus a condition audit. Both are written here as procedures you run on the machine in front of you.
What to take away
- Compare cost per year of service, not purchase price. A used machine with a short remaining life and no parts supply is the more expensive option by a wide margin.
- Condition is auditable. Cutters, jaws, carriage and spindle can be inspected and tested before money moves, and a seller who refuses that has answered the question.
- Parts availability sets the ceiling on any used purchase. A machine whose consumables are discontinued has a life measured by its remaining cutter.
- Accuracy failures are the expensive kind. They arrive as callbacks weeks later rather than as a machine that stops.
The new against used argument is usually settled by budget and justified afterward. Both halves of it can be calculated and inspected instead.
The cost-per-year comparison
For any candidate machine:
Cost per year formula
- Purchase pricewhat you pay
- Immediate refurbishmentcutters, jaws, carriage
- Consumables per yearfrom cutting volume
- Expected yearslimited by parts availability
Cost per year of service = (purchase price + immediate refurbishment + expected consumables per year x expected years) / expected years of service.
Purchase price is what you pay. Immediate refurbishment is what it needs before it is fit for work, which on a used cutting machine usually means cutters, and may mean jaws or a carriage. Expected consumables per year comes from your own cutting volume. Expected years of service is limited by parts availability, not by hope.
Then add the term people leave out:
Cost of accuracy failure = expected mis-cut rate x (return visit cost + replacement key cost + reputational effect you are willing to name).
Return visit cost = travel time x loaded hourly cost + vehicle running cost for the distance.
A machine cutting slightly out of tolerance does not announce itself. It produces keys that work in a new cylinder and fail in a worn one, and the callbacks arrive weeks later attached to jobs you no longer connect to the machine.
The condition audit
Run this before agreeing a price on any used machine, in this order.
Used machine condition audit
- Ask use and volume history
- Inspect cutter for chipping and glazing
- Inspect jaws and clamping surfaces
- Check carriage or slide travel
- Test spindle or motor under load
- Cut a key and measure against gauge
- Cut same key three times and compare
- Confirm parts availability with supplier
- Ask what it has been used for and at what volume. A counter duplicator that ran all day for years is a different proposition from a shop machine used weekly.
- Inspect the cutter for chipping, glazing and uneven wear. Ask when it was last replaced and whether replacements are still available.
- Inspect the jaws and clamping surfaces for wear, burring and play. A worn jaw does not hold the key in the same place twice, which produces variance rather than a consistent error.
- Check the carriage or slide for play and smooth travel across its full range. Rough travel at one end usually means wear rather than dirt.
- Test the spindle or motor under load rather than unloaded. Bearing noise appears when it is working.
- Cut a key and measure it against depth keys or a gauge. Whether the key turns tells you very little.
- Cut the same key three times and compare all three. Repeatability is the property you are buying, and one test cut cannot show it.
- Confirm parts availability with a supplier, not with the seller. Cutters, jaws, belts and calibration parts are the constraint on remaining life.
If steps six and seven cannot be performed, treat the machine as untested and price it accordingly.
Where used makes sense and where it does not
Where used makes sense
Used is usually reasonable
- Duplicator
- Low-volume shop machine with parts available
- Code machine
- Recent, calibrated, with current data available
- Hand tools
- Almost always
- Cordless tools
- Only with new batteries costed in
- Vehicle shelving
- Frequently
- Safety equipment
- Never
Used is usually a false economy
- Duplicator
- Ex-counter machine, worn jaws, no cutter supply
- Code machine
- Older machine whose depth and space data is unsupported
- Hand tools
- Anything with a safety function
- Cordless tools
- Where the battery platform is discontinued
- Vehicle shelving
- Where restraint and load rating cannot be verified
- Safety equipment
- Always
Safety equipment is the one absolute row. Eye protection, hearing protection, extinguishers and anything carrying a rating are not places to save money. The OSHA safety program guidance starts from the position that the control has to actually work.
Used equipment: reasonable or false economy
Used is reasonable
- Duplicator
- Low-volume shop, parts available
- Code machine
- Recent, calibrated, current data
- Hand tools
- Almost always
- Cordless tools
- New batteries costed in
- Vehicle shelving
- Frequently
- Safety equipment
- Never
Used is false economy
- Duplicator
- Ex-counter, worn jaws, no cutters
- Code machine
- Unsupported depth and space data
- Hand tools
- Anything with a safety function
- Cordless tools
- Discontinued battery platform
- Vehicle shelving
- Restraint and load rating unverified
- Safety equipment
- Always
Financing and recording the purchase
Match the funding term to the life you have just estimated, not to what a lender will offer. A three-year facility against a machine with two years of parts left is a bill that outlives the asset.
Record the purchase
- What you bought
- When you bought it
- What it cost
- Refurbishment needed
- Expected life
Record what you bought, when, what it cost, what refurbishment it needed and its expected life. That record lets you test your own estimates next time, and it meets the standard in the IRS guidance on business records, which asks for a system that clearly shows purchases and assets.
Before you buy either way
Check that the machine matches the mix rather than the ambition. The reasoning tying tooling to service families is in the locksmith equipment and setup guide, and what belongs in the van is listed in the locksmith equipment checklist.
Check who will operate it. A machine only the owner can use accurately is a bottleneck, and training a second operator is part of the purchase, which the locksmith hiring and training guide treats in detail. If the purchase is part of adding a technician, the selection questions in reliable staff for a locksmith business come first.
Check whether the work it enables sits inside your permissions. Some service lines carry registration consequences that vary by state and city, and the approach in the locksmith licensing and compliance guide is to ask your own authorities and record the answer.
Do not let a purchase turn into a claim. Buying programming equipment does not justify advertising coverage you have not tested, and the FTC expects advertising claims to be substantiated.
Common questions
Is a used code machine ever a good idea?
Yes, when its depth and space data is still supported, when it can be tested for repeatability before purchase, and when consumables remain available. Those three conditions rule out most bargains, which is the point of checking them.
How do I estimate remaining life?
Ask the supplier how long consumables and service parts stay available for that model, then take the shorter of that answer and your own judgment about wear. Remaining life is limited by parts, not by metal.
What about a machine sold as fully serviced?
Ask what was done, by whom, and what was replaced. A service record with parts listed is evidence. A claim of servicing with nothing behind it is a sentence. Either way, still cut three keys and measure them.
