Key cutting apparatus

Key cutting apparatus, for cutting a plurality of longitudinally spaced notches in the blade of a key blank, comprising:

• a base;
• a cutter secured to said base;
• a main carriage movably mounted on said base for motion toward and away from said cutter, said main carriage having a plurality of index holes therein;
• a sub-carriage carried by said main carriage and movably mounted thereon for independent motion perpendicular to said main carriage motion, said sub-carriage having an elongated slot therein;
• positioning means mounted on said sub-carriage for positioning said key blank to a predetermined first position with respect to said cutter;
• clamping means, secured to said positioning means for clamping said key blank to said sub-carriage;
• means operatively connected to said main carriage for moving said main carriage toward and away from said cutter;
• an indexing arm having an elongated slot intermediate its ends, said indexing arm pivotally connected at one end to the main carriage and provided with an index hole engagement means at its other end;
• and
• means for having said sub-carriage in equal increments, said means extending through both said slots and securable to said index arm at a predetermined position.

Apparatus for cutting a plurality of notches in the blade of a key blank wherein the first notch is spaced a predetermined distance from a reference point on the key blank and the remaining notches are spaced a selected equal distance from each other and the first notch along the remaining portion of the blade, said apparatus comprising:

• a base;
• cutting means secured to said base and defining machine datum;
• a first carriage movably mounted on said base for motion toward and away from said cutting means and parallel to machine datum;
• a second carriage mounted on said first carriage for independent motion in a direction perpendicular to machine datum and the first carriage motion;
• means connected to said second carriage for spacing the reference point on the key blank a predetermined distance from machine datum;
• means operatively connected to said second carriage for clamping the key blank to said second carriage;
• means connected to the base for moving the first carriage toward and away from said cutting means;
• and
• means operatively connected to said first carriage and said second carriage for sequentially moving said second carriage in selectable equal increments in a direction perpendicular to machine datum.