Anything unusual about cutting old Porsche keys? (88)

[Potomac-Greg]

I brought my key and a Porsche blank to the local key cutter and he said, "Oh no. I can't cut that. It's laser cut." I'm thinking that lasers were barely invented in 1988, and they sure weren't cutting keys with them!

[KFJ]

911 keys are steel instead of brass which most keys are, I would assume 44 keys are the same. That said, I got a blank from Pelican and took it to Baldinos in Leesburg and they cut it for me no issue.

[djtalon]

just had a set cut yesterday at the local hardware store, they did not charge me because i brought the key.

[jsilverm]

I havent been able to find anyone to cut the blank I bought from pelican for my 924S. Admittedly I havent been looking too hard for someone that will do it.

[BlackTalon]

got mine copied at a local hardware store a few years ago with no issues...

[John]

Tischer did one for me during the tech inspection held there in 2006. I supplied my own blank.

[SilverStreak]

I brought my key and a Porsche blank to the local key cutter and he said, "Oh no. I can't cut that. It's laser cut." I'm thinking that lasers were barely invented in 1988, and they sure weren't cutting keys with them!

The Germans were way way way ahead of us in terms of lazer technology. They used lazers for everything back then. In early 86 I tried to get a key copied for a 1980 Mercedes, same thing, lazer cut. The car sat in the driveway for 4 months while I waited for the key to come back from Germany. :D

Just kidding, you are going to have to tell us where you heard that so we can avoid dealing with that particular baffoon. What a jackass. :lol:

[TD in DC]

I brought my key and a Porsche blank to the local key cutter and he said, "Oh no. I can't cut that. It's laser cut." I'm thinking that lasers were barely invented in 1988, and they sure weren't cutting keys with them!...

[Dr K]

...Now THAT's funny!

[Dr K]

lasers were barely invented in 1988 Actually, the story of the laser invention is very interesting. The laser (for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) was invented in 1958! The interesting part is that Gordon Gould, felt to be the original inventor although Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow at Bell Labs invented the microwave version at Bell Labs in 1954 (maser) and Theodore Maiman invented the first ruby laser, and might have beaten Gordon Gould. What's most interesting is that Gould filed for the patent in 1959, and it wasn't awarded until 1977, which meant that he got royalties during the period when the laser was coming into wide commercial use, rather than when it was just used in research, academics, and very sparingly in industry.

I used lasers in research in 1975-76 at MIT. after hours we used them for fun, too!

Peter

[Vicegrip]

You can get all kinds of stuff to lase too including cheap booze. I made a gas laser in the late 70s. Weak but worked after much fiddling. Every time I see one of the pen lasers I think that the one we made was about a tables worth of crap and made about 1/10th the output. It could have just been obscured by all the pot smoke too.