KSP 206SC Series - SFIC 6-Pin Construction Cores

The KSP 206SC is a 6-pin small format interchangeable core (SFIC) meant to run the jobsite. It drops into any SFIC-prepped lock, lever, padlock or cylindrical housing so trades can be keyed on a temporary construction key while the building is going up. When the job turns over, the core comes out with a control key and the owner's permanent core goes in, with no disassembly of the lock itself. That is the whole point of the format: the keying changes, the hardware does not.

Ten keyways: A, B, C, E, F, G, H, J, K and L. Those are the standard SFIC letter keyways, so the core you pick has to match the keyway family already running in the building. If the permanent cores going in at turnover are, say, C keyway, order the construction cores in C as well so the same key bitting families and blanks carry through the job.

The lock has to be SFIC prepped. A small format interchangeable core seats in a figure-8 core cavity and is retained by the control key, so it only goes into housings built for that cavity: SFIC mortise cylinders, SFIC rim cylinders, SFIC-prepped cylindrical and mortise locks, and SFIC padlocks. It will not drop into a standard key-in-knob cylinder or a conventional mortise cylinder. If the doors were not specified with interchangeable core, you need SFIC housings before the 206SC does you any good.

Yes, a control key is required. The control key retracts the core's lug so the core lifts out of the housing, and it is a separate key from the operating key. The 206SC is sold as the core itself, so plan on ordering the control key and construction operating keys for the matching keyway alongside the cores. Without the control key on site, nobody is pulling these cores at turnover.

Match starts with the keyway. The 206SC is built in A, B, C, E, F, G, H, J, K and L, so pull one of your existing cores and identify its keyway letter first, then order the construction cores in that same letter. Same keyway means the same blanks and the same eventual masterkey system. A different letter keyway will not accept your keys at all, no matter how it is cut.

Both are 6-pin interchangeable cores used to lock a building during construction and then swap out for the permanent core at turnover. The KSP 206SC is a small format interchangeable core (SFIC) construction core supplied in satin chrome, and it is offered across keyways A, B, C, E, F, G, H, J, K and L, so it can be matched to the keyway the rest of the SFIC hardware on the job is cut to. The Corbin Russwin 8000-CT6 BLUE is a 6-pin interchangeable core supplied as a blue construction core, the blue body being the visual cue on site that the cylinder is still the temporary one. Choose by which core format the housings on the doors accept and which keyway family the job is keyed to.

Function, not form. A construction core is a throwaway temporary core, keyed to a construction key so every trade on site carries one key, and it is expected to be pulled and discarded at turnover. A permanent core is cut to the building's real keying schedule and masterkeyed into the owner's system. Both share the same figure-8 SFIC body and both swap with a control key, so you order construction cores by the count of openings and permanent cores by the keying schedule.

Small format interchangeable cores are built as 6-pin or 7-pin in the same figure-8 body, and the KSP 206SC is the 6-pin build. The pin count has to match the system you are keying into, because a 6-pin core cannot take a 7-pin masterkeyed bitting. Most commercial SFIC systems that need deep masterkeying run 7-pin; 6-pin is common where the keying schedule is simpler, and for construction keying it is frequently all a job needs since those cores come out at turnover anyway.

That is exactly the use case. Put a KSP 206SC in every opening on the renovation, all keyed alike to one construction key, and every trade carries a single key for the duration. Nobody is cutting extra permanent keys that walk off the job. When the work is finished, the control key pulls all ten keyway options back out and the building's real cores go in, so the temporary keying never becomes a security problem you inherit.

Not necessarily. The 206SC is specifically a small format interchangeable core, so it seats in the figure-eight SFIC prep found in SFIC cylindrical locks, mortise housings, padlocks and rim housings. The Corbin Russwin 8000-CT6 BLUE is described as a 6-pin interchangeable core and a blue construction core, but the core format it is built for is the 8000 series housing, so it needs to be confirmed against the housings on the doors before it is treated as the same part. Where the openings are SFIC, stay with the 206SC and order the keyway letter that matches the permanent cores the job will be turned over with.

Satin chrome, across all ten keyways. On a construction core that is mostly a non-issue since the core is temporary and comes out at turnover, but if it is going into a padlock or a rim cylinder that stays visible through the job, satin chrome is what you get.