minifhncc wrote:cledry wrote:I am master keying 600 locks
Just wondering, were you doing that by yourself? And how long would that've taken?
Did you balance the stack (top pins) as well?
I did the bulk of it, about 300 and other employees did the rest. Other employees cut the code keys and duplicates.
I didn't time this job, but it went fairly quickly as all the locks were new and clean. It took quite a while just to unbox, remove the handle and cylinder, and rebox all of them. I would take about 40 cylinders home with me in the evening and sit at the dining table with the TV on or some music and a beer by my side and it generally took about 2 hours at a fairly leisurely pace. We had a week to do the job and we finished an hour before the deadline by rushing, then the customer didn't show up for 2 days to pick up the locks.
I did do a small MK job a few weekends ago of @ 50 locks, 6 pin Schlage C, comprising mostly lever handles but a few deadbolts and a handful of vertical rod exit devices spread out over 3 floors and from arrival to leaving it was 4 hours. These were full of graphite and I had to dump existing master pins. I prefer to use a wheeled cart with my pin kit and all my rekeying tools and go from door to door. It saves a lot of time instead of pulling cylinders and walking back to the truck, plus there is no chance of getting the cylinders mixed up this way. I probably worked faster as I get paid per cylinder on the weekends instead of hourly.
I rarely balance the stacks, and in both these cases I didn't. I know from many years of experience the chambers that will have too long a pin stack and use a shorter driver. I then test by turning the lock upside-down and checking to see if any stacks are too short or have weak springs. I don't routinely replace springs and drivers when doing a MK job. I suppose someone will chime in and say this is not proper, usually the only people I see that do this are institutional locksmiths such as colleges and large companies where they have all day to rekey a few locks. Technically they are right but most lockmiths run at a much faster pace. We schedule 2 to 3 weeks out because we are always so busy.
I did a Sargent system today, old 10 Line locks which take a bit longer to work on. On these I had some chambers with a 1 cut and a 9 cut in the same chamber, obviously I cannot use a long driver in this chamber so I dump it and use a short driver. As you know when master keying you cannot leave the key in when putting the plug back in so experience tells you what will work and what won't. This was just 35 locks in the system, install 5 new knobs and one rim exit device with lever trim, Hinge Doctor a door and remount a door closer and rehang one door and this took me all day without even a bathroom break or lunch! So you can see the type of lock and their condition makes a big difference in the time it takes to do the work.
Now when I work with Kwikset locks (local housing authority) I always have to change all the drivers.
Here's an artsy photo I took of a few of the Dorma levers.
