Where to start....

[NKT]

G,
you mean I wasted all £2 of my money on these washers? I bought two of every type! I had to not buy a whole euro cylinder to cope with the expenditure... and where will I store such a huge amount of stuff? My left pocket is already almost full up, I'll have to use an old 'baccy tin.

[lostlink]

Luck me, I have the best of all the worlds........

Today one of my jobs I had to rehang a stay hold door closer arm bracket
that pulled out of a wafer thin aluminum door frame.......

Tomorrow I get to punch a dozen keys, then down in a tunnel I go to shut off water supplies to a comercial kithchen sprayer faucet so I can replace it with a new one.......I'll most positively sweat some valves under the sink for future service.....Then resurface the wooden cutting/block/table.

Thursday......Lay out and install an electric strike, with 2 push/release buttons and a DL 3000 programable keypad.

Friday size up and replace heat tape for a defrost pan and pipe for a comercial walk in freezer.

Next week I start cleaning coils on 30 Trane Voyager roof top units....these are of the split coil variety in which you have to disasemble a good part of the unit to do a proper job......a real PITA.........

[marky_lad]

Cheers Taylor,


I take on board what you say, however I'm not trying to take on a whole new profession, just diversify as I already have a large customer base that includes a lot of work for estate agents / letting agents and landlords. I carry outmore then just plumbing work for these guys for 2 reasons, one I know what I'm doing and two they trust me to carry out the work to a high standard.


I can't quite understand why some people would choose to be so hostile on here. I have a degree in IT and when making the transition into plumbing never had anywhere near as much hostility. I could spend hours nit-picking at the attempts of the truly amateur web sites of some of the members on here, but choose not to because it doesn't give me satisfaction or make me any better then anyone else, if anything it shows me up to be rude, narrow minded and ignorant.


When a layperson asks me for advice on plumbing I'll be the first to offer assistance. When someone from another trade wants to know how to carry out a plumbing task I see no problem in helping them because (if they are good at their trade) I suspect that they'll take the same care in any other work they carry out. I don't worry about competition as I don't need to. Fitting locks (not lockpicking itself) is like plumbing in that it isn't rocket science. I'm not expecting to be an expert in 2 fields, just be able to carry out the basics in fitting a lock or two. Because I like to be able to try most things I'd like to take on the challenge of picking locks, believe me I won't be making money out of that as I won't be advertising as a locksmith.


Remember that I only asked a simple question. I thank Taylorgdl & Raimundo for their views on the matter. If nothing else it has made me aware of a view bits that I obviously wasn't aware of. Any further help of that nature is appreciated.



Again thanks to those who have been helpful,

Mark

[taylorgdl]

Easiest way to fit locks?

Go down to B&Q/Wicks and pick up a leaflet, it will save you paying out for a course that will probably not teach you that anyway.

[taylorgdl]

Easiest way to fit locks?

Go down to B&Q/Wicks and pick up a leaflet, it will save you paying out for a course that will probably not teach you that anyway.

I also work for several estate agents, but only sorting out locks.

The reason I do this is because their maintenance man started trying to do a MPL and smashed the entire mechanism.

Cost them for an entire mechanism, plus handles (wrong ones fitted).

[UWSDWF]

Mark,
The lockies in the UK you will find to be very protective of their trade and with no disrespect to them, will on a large part be uninviting in regards to this matter. Though there are always an acception.

[marky_lad]

Yeah it seems so, tradesmen are always protective of their trades, plumbing is no exception.

Not sure why it is, especially given that I'm in a different part of the country to them. I dapologise if I've offended anyone in anyway but thought that this forum would be a good way of dipping my toe in the water (no pun intended).

Mark

[UWSDWF]

Well stick around you may have atleast found an interesting hobby.... I'd try to help but lever locks are more of an enigma to me then what goes on in a woman's head

[ponsaloti]

where you from mark cos they may be everywhere

[toomush2drink]

If you start fitting locks you will at some point get asked to open them, after all "you fitted it" as customers quite often say.
Go on a woodwork course and make sure you dont split any expensive doors whilst fitting locks. Also when you have to fit a lock to an old aluminum door make sure you have liability insurance for the possibilty of the glass breaking.

As with plumbing there is far more to it than meets the eye except plumbing is made easier these days with push fittings. Locksmithing is actually getting harder due to the variety of locks out there.

I do stacks of work for landlords and would never dream of taking on plumbing jobs for them after all "jack of all trades and master of none" seems a fair comment at this point

[raimundo]

but some are polymaths

[chip]

''Best way to fit a lock'' ?

Call a locksmith!

[79commando]

It can sometimes seem that we are very protective of our trade but we also genuinely try to help out; it's just that sometimes people aren't looking for the answers that we give them.

Sure most people can take on various roles and as long as they know their limits they might get away with it. I've personaly rewired a shower and plumbed in a washing machine having initially been called out to change locks.

I've also advised many people to think again about becoming a locksmith and to-date none of them have listened. I even met one this weekend at a locksmith open day whom I had advised not to set up in my area as there was very little private work. Two months and three jobs later he is begining to believe me. I've just recieved this years Yellow Lying bast*** Pages to discover four new locksmiths in my area and about a dozen from outside my area advertising as no doubt their area is also overloaded.

For anyone out there thinking about it work on every 30,000 population giving you about ten lockouts per day. Then google to see how many locksmiths there are in your area and multiply it by five to allow for the National companies. As a rough guide for every lockout I compete with about five other companies, only the fact that I am non-destructive and reasonably priced means I pick up one in five of the jobs. I am also well known so I get about four jobs per week direct and I also have all the letting agencies accounting for about three jobs per week.

Someone new on the scene will not get the direct work, letting agencies and probably only about one in ten of the jobs. In short if you have a good job, stick with it or if you work in an area with next to no locksmith coverage become a locksmith. Remember every failed locksmith could retrain to your profession whatever it may be and the wheel will revolve again.