A cylinder lock is a lock constructed with a cylinder that a locksmith can easily unscrew to facilitate rekeying. The cylinder may contain any of a variety of locking mechanisms, including the pin tumbler lock, the wafer tumbler lock and the disc tumbler lock.

The first main advantage to a cylinder lock also known as a profile cylinder lock, is that the cylinder may be changed without altering the boltwork hardware. Removing the cylinder typically requires only loosening a set screw, then unscrewing the cylinder from the boltwork. The second is that it is usually possible to obtain, from various lock manufacturers, cylinders in different formats that can all be used with the same type of key. This allows the user to have keyed-alike, and master-keyed systems that incorporate a wide variety of different types of lock, such as nightlatches, deadbolts and roller door locks. Typically, padlocks can also be included, although these rarely have removable cylinders.

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