The Locked Door Mystery

[Tyler J. Thomas]

Yes, we have a mystery door on campus. It's a common bathroom with a privacy function mortise lock. For those of you lucky to not have to memorize functions, that's a thumb turn on the inside to throw/retract a bolt and an emergency override on the outside. This particular mortise lock is a BEST 45H - it's emergency override isn't like the typical kind you can use a dime or your finger to unlock. This override requires a special key (basically just a removable thumbturn) that is inserted into the lock/door to allow the bolt to be retracted. In other words, this door cannot lock automatically.

But oh no, it definitely locks automatically according to the cleaning crew. I got a call at least once a week to go unlock it. Seems that someone had learned how to lock it from the outside.

Finally I just stopped responding and, wouldn't you know it, the door stopped locking itself. Hmm.

I truly despise the cleaning crew at work. They cause more work than actual students, who are by far the most destructive demographic in the world. I don't even care about sales literature and purported cycles and all that anymore. If it can last a year on a dorm room or other high traffic area, I'll use it. If not, I don't care that it met ANSI/BHMA standards - it's garbage.

[billdeserthills]

I had another good 'locked door mystery' job today, my client just finished moving out of the home he was renting and after cleaning everything up, he left the keys
on the kitchen counter and went out the garage door, using the garage door opener to close up. When he arrived today, to meet with the landlord to do the checkout
he found the deadbolts on every door, including the garage door were all locked. All the keys he left on the kitchen counter were still laying there, so someone else
with a key let themselves in, and locked the garage door, then let themselves out

Which is exactly why I rekeyed our house the day we moved in

Ditto.

Gordon

You didn't replace them all with Medecos? [/quote]


I'd like to & I have a good amount of Medeco locks on hand, in a variety of functions & colors.
What's the point, when the crook will break a window, anyway?

[C locked]

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSfaMLLAjGgrPusEYtml36IRrFV4-eyA7dMiKe3fRa133S-9MuL

If its this sort of lock
Sight unseen
Id guess a dry or dirty lock
And worn spring/cylinder cam combination on locking mechanism
And as such the mechanism unlocks 90 percent
One good slam and the bolt drops
While it isnt usually locked properly
You are still locked out

And yes i too have had a locked door mystery
On a lock with a similar mechanism
2 call backs to find out what was wrong
And unlock and retrieve the keysW

[billdeserthills]

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSfaMLLAjGgrPusEYtml36IRrFV4-eyA7dMiKe3fRa133S-9MuL

If its this sort of lock
Sight unseen
Id guess a dry or dirty lock
And worn spring/cylinder cam combination on locking mechanism
And as such the mechanism unlocks 90 percent
One good slam and the bolt drops
While it isnt usually locked properly
You are still locked out

And yes i too have had a locked door mystery
On a lock with a similar mechanism
2 call backs to find out what was wrong
And unlock and retrieve the keysW

That was the type of lock used on my 1st Locked Door Mystery, but it had been locked from the inside when I arrived

The 2nd Locked Door Mystery was with a kwikset pin tumbler deadbolt lock

[billdeserthills]

Just got back from my newest 'Locked Door Mystery' call, a young man called and wanted to know how much I charged to pick open his door lock ($80) and what type of credit cards I accepted (visa & MC). I had some difficulty picking his baldwin knob so when it finally picked, in the wrong direction, I pulled off the knob and used my hemostats to unlock the door.
Before allowing the 'dude' into the room I told him I would need to get his key, unfortunately his declaration of 'Oh, I don't have a key' instantly raised my suspicion that he wasn't supposed to be in that room, and I said as much. I put the knob back together and locked the knob, and asked for his payment, while still blocking the doorway. He tried to hand me his gold Amex card, which I thought odd, as I had explained about only accepting Visa & MC on the phone, previously. He told me he was sorry, that he only had the one card, and as I pulled the locked door shut I told him "that's OK, I'll just leave you as I found you" He was still thanking me as I headed out the door, but I'm sure that he has figured it out by now

[ltdbjd]

I had one yesterday. Corbin-Russwin ML2057 mortise lock. A storeroom function lock; always locked on the outside, always unlocked on the inside. People are complaining that when this particular door closes, it always locks. I've been through the door a zillion times too, and it's always acted like an entry function. I have a bunch of people who say it's never been locked before. I pulled off the latch plate thinking maybe it has a function change switch, but it doesn't.

So I pull the cassette out to take a look. Not only does it have the stop screw (AKA little red screw), but it surprisingly has the fixed stop too. I say surprisingly because I don't think I've run across more than one or two where I work that still has them. They seem to be as rare as the nylon lever bushings. For the non-locksmith readers, the stop screw is what prevents the lock from being able to be opened by simply pushing down on the lever. Generally speaking, you can put one in to make it a storeroom function, put two in to make it an institutional function (always locked on both sides), or remove them both to make an entry function (lock on one side with a key). With the stop screw and fixed stop in place, it shouldn't be able to be opened without a key.

I was/am stumped. I can't picture what could go wrong in the cassette to make a storeroom function with the stop screw and fixed stop work like an entry function, then revert back to storeroom. Before I pulled it out of the door and saw the stops, I figured it was an entry function and something came loose and dropped into the cam. But with the stops?? I was curious, so I wanted to open the cassette and see what was going on in there. But I was smart enough to resist the urge since it was Friday afternoon on Christmas weekend, which happened to be my last day before taking 10 days off vacation. Those of you older than 10 and own at least one screwdriver knows what happens if you do ... an explosion of parts flying everywhere.

Maybe somebody with more experience than I have (or less experience and are smarter than I am) has run across this before can enlighten me.

[billdeserthills]

Sounds like you need a fixture to hold the mortise lock body. I have one Baldwin sent me years ago made out of wood with two metal dowel pins
pounded into the wood block, one pin is small, like 1/4" dia, to hold the t-turn cam in place, and the other pin is larger, like 3/8" that holds the
lever cam. When I pull the cover plate off a Baldwin mortise lock, on the fixture, everything but the deadbolt cam spring (flat steel spring) stays
in place, then you can work on the thing.

I also made a fixture out of a steel plate, that has threaded steel rods to hold the lock innards in place, it is a different size than the Baldwin fixture

I like to charge a fee to remove the mortise lock and then another separate charge to split the case, and while it's apart I apply some Superlube teflon grease
when the client feels how smoothly their lock works after that they are glad to pay & the locks lasts longer