If the “gif” at http://lockitt.com/pluskeyway.htm represents your lock, I have two suggestions. First, contact the manufacturer and see if they’ll fix it (they may/might/maybe send you a new one) The key broke off during normal use. The 2nd option is to take it to locksmith who is familiar with the ABUS system.
It appears that the ABUS PLus and X-Plus key systems would require that the rest of the broken key needs to be in the channel before the broken part can be drawn thru the “floating disks”.
Based on my experience in these scenarios using superglue in enclosed spaces on metal surfaces, delivering superglue on the end of small tools has, at best, a small chance of succeeding in making a sufficiently strong bond to do useful work. It has an extraordinarliy high risk of the glue running and smearing itself on every surface except the one you want to glue, and on those surfaces it will run into the crevices of the mechanism you wish to move feely where it will bond on an atomic level with the materials. There’s a reason vandals use superglue to destroy lock mechanisms, it because it’s so damn good at it.
Yeah, I have to agree with astro. Superglue is notorious for not staying put, oozing out and sticking together everything you DON’T want stuck together. Take it to a locksmith before doing anything like that.
Generally, yes. But in this situation, it wouldn’t have anywhere to go. I’d be worried, it would just run around inside the lock, the acetone would evaporate and the superglue would re-glue itself wherever it landed.
I might try it if you could see the end of the key, but if you have to push past the pins, the glue is going to come off on them and they’re going to stick to each other.
Could you bend the very end of a paper clip and fit it in there to pull it out? That’s about the same as a broken key extractor, but I think they are mostly used for traditional pin and tumbler locks.
For the OP, this is something a locksmith can fix in about 30 seconds or less. They’ll have a set of tools that look exactly like this, and as you can see it’s basically just a thin flat wire with a hook on the end. It’s certainly possible you could fashion a similar tool yourself, but know that a locksmith can do this for you in a few seconds for just a few bucks.
I did the superglue thing once as a last resort. Last resort because I was aware that if it didn’t work, there was a good chance that I would at least be supergluing my key stub in the lock for ever. So I put the glue on the piece that I had left in my hand. I waited just a moment and then I thrust the thing in as fast as I could and held it still, hoping that it would happen to match up with the piece stuck in the lock. I held it steady as I could for about five minutes and then I let it sit for about 15 minutes more. And then, I just held the key and pulled it out, and, yes, it worked. Now, this was an old automobile ignition key and it sounds as if the OP has a more complicated arrangement that might preclude such a procedure being successful. But I’m here to attest to the fact that the plan can work. xo,
C.
