John, If I were you I wouldn't lock the lid. In the winter when you have your heat on, the wood in old phonographs can shrink just enough to make opening a locked phonograph very difficult. It has happened to me with several phonographs I owned. Once I thought I might break the lock or the key before it opened. If the dolphin key you have will fit in the escutcheon I would just leave it there unlocked. It will look fine. RMV -----Original Message----- From: phono-l-bounces at oldcrank.org [mailto:phono-l-bounces at oldcrank.org] On Behalf Of john robles Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 1:12 AM To: phono-l at oldcrank.org Subject: [Phono-L] DD Lock help? Hi all I have a beautiful DD A-250, and I was having trouble getting the locking mechanism to work. After a long search I found an original dolphin key, but this machine uses the early key with just one notch cut in the tooth, not two like later keys. The key fits the lock, but didn't work. Finally, after having had this machine for 7 months, I realized that the reason it didn't workis that part of it was inside the lid escutcheon. Apparently, the machine was locked at one time and the owner lost the key. they used a hacksaw blade to cut the lock mechanism and open the cabinet. When I removed the upper escutcheon, the cut off portion of the lock fell out (the part where the two litle tabs come out and lock the lid down). Now the $50,000 question - Does anyone have one of these early DD locks? The later one will fit it, but before I go that route I want to try and find an earlier lock. I am a stickler for originality... Any help here? Thanks John _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org