day in the life of a locksmith

[jeffmoss26]

LOL I would love to see that

[dll932]

Another one from today - customer brought in an old Emhart/Russwin knob that he needed replaced. Only the latch was bad...


Sold him 2 Arrow knobs keyed alike with 20 keys, tore apart the old lock and got myself a nice D1 keyway knob cylinder!

A customer once came in a mortise lock that was stuck with the bolt extended...so he took a sawzall to it. I was able to braze a chunk of brass to the stub and file it to shape. I wonder what the frame and door looked like?

[billdeserthills]

Another one from today - customer brought in an old Emhart/Russwin knob that he needed replaced. Only the latch was bad...


Sold him 2 Arrow knobs keyed alike with 20 keys, tore apart the old lock and got myself a nice D1 keyway knob cylinder!

A customer once came in a mortise lock that was stuck with the bolt extended...so he took a sawzall to it. I was able to braze a chunk of brass to the stub and file it to shape. I wonder what the frame and door looked like?

I actually had to open a mortise lock with the bolt extended, turns out one of the cam screws had fallen out and was blocking the bolt from retracting. I sawed through the bolt, I still have the rebuilt mortise lock in my shop--I did nick up the frame a bit but the builders fixed it all
back up again. It was their fault the screw fell out in the first place

[ltdbjd]

I opened my pie hole about how I would have done a much better job pinning some mortise locks at my facility than they were currently pinned. My reward ... I get to repin all 252 of them. Doh ....

[billdeserthills]

I opened my pie hole about how I would have done a much better job pinning some mortise locks at my facility than they were currently pinned. My reward ... I get to repin all 252 of them. Doh ....

Sounds like You have learned a valuable lesson, Grasshopper
Plus just think of all the character this will build for You! Might be a good time to downshift into 'union' mode
take some extra time and do a really good job

[ltdbjd]

Ha. I’m a state employee. I’m always in “union” mode! I get paid the same no matter what I do or how I do it. There’s no reason to rush through things. So I always do it well (or I always try to, anyway). Besides my reputation being I mportant to me, if I do a cruddy job, they just call me again and I have to do it over. For the mortise cylinders, the people I work with think that if the key doesn’t turn, if they force it, it will somehow magically open. So if they don’t work well, I end up replacing a lot of keys. My philosophy has always been, “It’s easier to do it right the first time.”

I made the assignment sound somewhat humorous for entertainment purposes. In reality, I submitted a proposal to do a complete overhaul on all of them. The cylinders haven’t ever had regular service. They have had graphite, Teflon, penetrating oil, and WD-40 all used (and who knows what else) without ever being cleaned. The lockshop didn’t even have a pinning kit when I got there. They modified the pins by pressing them on a grinding wheel, so “working smoothly” wasn’t a term frequently used. SQUIRREL!! That made me think of something else. I’ll make a new post for that question.

I’m tearing them completely apart, cleaning them, putting in new springs and pins, using balanced pin stacks, tossing out the ones in poor condition, doing some things to make them more secure, etc. in the end, things will work much better.

[cledry]

I opened my pie hole about how I would have done a much better job pinning some mortise locks at my facility than they were currently pinned. My reward ... I get to repin all 252 of them. Doh ....

3 days work.

[billdeserthills]

I opened my pie hole about how I would have done a much better job pinning some mortise locks at my facility than they were currently pinned. My reward ... I get to repin all 252 of them. Doh ....

3 days work.

You'd be kicked out of the union and earn the enmity of your fellows

[billdeserthills]

I had an interesting job today, a contractor had installed an Emtek mortise lock into an exterior door for his clients new walk-in wine room. Everything was looking good to the guy, until he tried the lock--Fortunately he tried it while the door was open cause when the bolt was extended it refused to retract--also the key was stuck turned 180 degrees and would not turn either way. I wound up taking all the hardware off the door, drilling a hole on the interior side right behind the mortise cylinder. After managing to unscrew the stabilizer disc from the inside of the lockset, I was able to remove both screws and the cam, which allowed me to unscrew the mortise cylinder--At least I thought it would--Turned out the guy tightened the mortise cylinder so far that it was very hard to get unscrewed & no room for a cylinder force tool either. I eventually sacrificed much of a new nickel silver key blank using it as a tool to unscrew the cylinder with. Turned out nothing was broken after all, so I put it all back together --correctly this time & that made all the difference

[jeffmoss26]

I have been locksmithing fulltime for almost 6 months now. 90 percent of my time is in-shop and we are BUSY.
I've worked on everything from gumball machines, to safes, cars, motorcycles...and of course, my favorite, the "REGULAR" lock
if it fits through the door, we will try to work on it.
Every day is an adventure and I love it!

[Raymond]

Don't you love to work on aluminum doors with the lock on the bottom. You only have an inch to get a flat screwdriver into the slot of the set screw and turn it out. I know, they make a special tool for that but I just haven't gotten one yet. I had to do 6 cylinders like that today. FYI, I recommend replacing the slotted screw with a stainless Allen grub screw for next time.

[billdeserthills]

Don't you love to work on aluminum doors with the lock on the bottom. You only have an inch to get a flat screwdriver into the slot of the set screw and turn it out. I know, they make a special tool for that but I just haven't gotten one yet. I had to do 6 cylinders like that today. FYI, I recommend replacing the slotted screw with a stainless Allen grub screw for next time.

I like to use a mirror and a General 807SX ratcheting screwdriver-- I cut off the phillips side, and file down the slotted side to fit the retainer screw, after that this tool fits in spaces under 1/2" https://www.grainger.com/product/GENERA ... iver-3ZH36

[peterwn]

Don't you love to work on aluminum doors with the lock on the bottom. You only have an inch to get a flat screwdriver into the slot of the set screw and turn it out. I know, they make a special tool for that but I just haven't gotten one yet. I had to do 6 cylinders like that today. FYI, I recommend replacing the slotted screw with a stainless Allen grub screw for next time.

Replacing the cylinder with a IC cylinder (Best or Bilock QC) could also be an option. However customer may not want to pay for this and it would mean fewer callouts for the locksmith in the future.

[Raymond]

OH YES! Conversion to IC was offered and explained. But, the manager will have a tough time convincing upper management unless they have to rekey more often. This office had 12 cylinders, with 6 of them on the floor.

[billdeserthills]

OH YES! Conversion to IC was offered and explained. But, the manager will have a tough time convincing upper management unless they have to rekey more often. This office had 12 cylinders, with 6 of them on the floor.

Due to the extra difficulty in servicing these locks I charge 3-4 times as much money,
Really helps to justify the IC changeover