How does a key make a copy at the store?
The Key Copy Dance
How does a key make a copy at the store?
You walk into the hardware store with your house key, and ten minutes later you walk out with two identical keys that both work perfectly in your lock. How did the machine make an exact copy so fast?
Your original key is like a secret password made of metal. The bumps and valleys along its edge are a specific pattern — high here, low there, high again — that matches pins hidden inside your lock. The machine's job is to read that pattern and carve it into a blank key.
