New lockout business ??

[sixkey]

Hi,

I am just trying to start up a lockout service in my City (approx. 1mil people) and i was wondering if anybody else does this sort of thing (just lockouts) as a part time (after hours) business to make extra cash? I really love lockpicking and am fairly good so i figured why not make money at it.. My questions for all of you who have done this are:

-Is it worth it?

-How do i advertise effectively? I mean i was thinking about a decal on my car, but i looked in the yellow pages and all these smiths have their big fancy adds, but i have heard they dont like doing lockouts because it takes away from REAL business.

-What should I charge and any other suggestions?

-There are a lot of locksmiths but none that i could find that really specialize in fast effective lockouts.. also what should i pick? I really dont have to much experience with cars, but i figure i can offer a money back gaurentee for practice

Thanks,

sixkey.

[Chucklz]

Id say give a few cards to bartenders/night club people (not to say that you should let the drunk drive home ) and other night establishments. A few cards placed near pay phones probably could help you out some. Talk to your local police. Tell them you would be willing to do life threatening lockout stuff for them free of charge, you know, like babies locked in etc. and ask them to recommend your services to people who call them.

[marso]

Hi the below thread might help you a little.

viewtopic.php?t=1513

Just on the car lockouts. I would suggest you invest in the right tools and perhaps do some training, because it can be expensive to fix a car if you set off the airbags and so forth.

[CitySpider]

If you're starting a lockout business, especially if you do plan to do life-threatening lockout stuff, I strongly suggest you be better than pretty good. Or at least consider what happens if you get there and an hour later, the lock isn't open -- now you've wasted your time, your gas, and worst of all, your customer's time. And that's when there isn't a baby in the car.

[jason]

I do some out of hours work on lockouts only.

It is worth doing as a part time job, that way if you don't fancy leaving your nice warm bed at some ungodly hour of the night you can say you're already booked for another job (don't refuse outright, it suggests that you're busy which for the customer suggests you're good).

I don't touch cars simply because it can be difficult to prove ownership to my satisfaction and I did a car once as a favour for a neighbour and got blamed for a number of scratches probably caused by the previous attempts to open it.

As regards advertising, I spent out for a yellow pages ad, some people look at big ads and think that the prices will match, my ad is fairly small but with a border. Get your name on "Talking Pages" if you are in the UK, as people who are locked out use a phone and ask the operator/directory services to give them the number of a locksmith within their borough.

Don't go out, especially at night without having the contact details of the person who called you (name and phone number) written down. If the phone number is witheld and you fancy the work, call the Police as you arrive but before you get out of the car to inform them that you are opening a property as a locksmith. That way if a neighbour calls the Police it can help demonstrate that you are acting in good faith.

Carry plenty of spare locks, especially if the locks have been vandalised (glued) or you can't pick it and have to drill (use hardplate bits NOT HSS - I've been on a call out where a friendly neighbour used a HSS bit on a CEN 4 grade profile lock with multi point locking. The drill bit snapped in-situ, you can't pick it open, a snapper couldn't grip because of the escutcheon and I wasn't going to risk damaging my drill because of that!)

I had to pick the lock to the nice large security gate (rubbish padlock, then pick open the profile lock to the back door - setting off the alarm at the same time and then unscrewing the handle of the front door and snapping the remains of the old cylinder).

The client was upset with his neighbour, especially when he saw how quick the profile on the back door opened up with an electric pick gun (and no damage - his keys were inside)

[Dark Angel]

There are a lot of tols that you should really have when going out to do lock opening.
For instance:
most cylinder locks can be opened in seconds with a piece of mica
A electric pick
A letter box kit
Standard pick set
Car lockout kit and lockout book
car pick set
I have all of the above tools and use them mainly on friends properties and cars.
The average callout charge in london seems to be from £55.00 to £70.00
For the first half hour then £50 for every half hour after that

[Luke]

You may also want to think of a plan of attack.
Eg.
You get to the place, spend 5 - 10 mins on hand tools (which most probably open the lock) The spend 5 mins using a manual pickgun, if the lock just won't pop look for another source of entry - (an idea might be to carry a ladder on your car) If you can't find another form of entry, return the the front door with a battery drill (prefferably somthing good - dewalt) Then drill it out - you may want to ask a proffesional smith like Varjeal about drill points on diff locks.

So for a standard house lockout you will need -
Hand pick set
Manual Pickgun
Drill
Ladder
and maybe a pinning kit.

[jason]

Aside from a couple of ordinary carpentry tools, that's a good basic kit, I'd also suggest the following although it sounds a lot, it doesn't take up a lot of space.:

Rap keys
Tubular pick (I found one someone had put a D shackle through a set of gates)
Length of sashcord
Length of electrical flex
Bolt croppers (a couple managed to chain themselves together - don't ask! - it was hard enough keeping a straight face let alone pick a padlock - I didn't know where to rest my hand!!)
Slot headed screwdrivers (grind the blades to enable you to move the levers on a mortice lock through the hole)
Decent cordless drill (and spare battery)
Torch (mini maglite with the handle wrapped in brightly coloured electrical tape - doesn't rub against your fillings if you hold it in your mouth)
Key turner(s)
Hardplate drill bits
Steel ruler - cut a notch on the imperial scale to act as a shove knife, use the metric scale to measure out your drill points on BS locks.
List of drill points
2 in 1 lever pick
Lever picks (wires)
Plug spinner, for double locked cylinders
Record book, record dates and times, person who was on site and the ID you saw/proof you were given that they were entitled to be in the property.
Superglue
Strong magnet on length of fishing line/stiff wire
Large mirror on a stick (the one on the letterbox tool is a bit too small for my liking when I'm looking around)

That's some of the stuff that I carry (scary how much more fits in the boot of a Ford Mondeo)

[sixkey]

thanks for all the tips, i think i have a lot of the tools to start going.. because im in canada theres a lot of red tape i havent been through yet. But its just a matter of time

In regards to CitySpyders comments: I dont think i am houdini, so your totally right i probably wont be doing "life and death" stuff right away.

I have a few tools yet to get: Pick gun, tubular pick, plug spinner... (any reccomendations)

A few more questions:

-Superglue? Rapkeys (Jigglers?), Magnet? <-- Good List BTW
-What does BS stand for?
-Any good links to drill points, techniques? (After a drillout, what will i need to do repairs, should i look at a repinning ket or other equipment?) Sry, not much exp. in this area.
-A ladder, really necessary?
-For cars.. should i try to hone my picking skills and just do cars that i can pick or should i spend for a good book and slimjim kit??

As for records, i think the "calling the police" is a great idea and i allready have a template made up for the local printer to make carbon copy forms, that will have all the info and signatures, dl numbers, etc on it.. i can post it when im done..

Again thanks for all your help and patientce, i realize that sometimes locksmiths can be learly about "new blood" but i found that this forum is really quite nice.

-sixkey

[Luke]

Like i said a ladder would be useful if your seeking a alternate entery point - balcony sliding door locks are really used so spray a bit of lube in there and they should open easier than the USED front door.

[jason]

Magnet on string or stiff wire - sometimes tenants (usually students sharing a house) only have one mortice key (or a husband and wife have a barney) one of them posts the keyring through the letterbox thinking that the other is in the house. It's faster to throw a magnet in and pick up the steel keys with it.

BS is British Standard - Usually BS3621 - these are required by many house insurance companies, so they are very common over here

BS mortice locks have a curtain to stop you picking them, hardplate to stop you drilling (use hardplate safe bits), notched stump and levers, longer bolts (to stop spreading), two steel floating steel rollers in the bolt (to stop sawing) and boxed strikers to slow forced (kick) entry.

Sometimes people leave a key in thinking that it will stop you getting in, with BS locks you can't use a key turner (unless you use the ones made by RB Locktools), seeing as I don't like spending money, I use a dot of superglue on a piece of wire to hold the key still, and a small cabinet makers screwdriver to turn the curtain.

Rap keys are not like jigglers, they are designed to work on the better end of the cylinder locks (Viro, GeGe, Yale), you push them all the way in pull them out so that only four pins are lifted then whilst turning, sharply tap (hence the name rap) the bow of the key with a hammer, this knocks the pins up to the shear. Sometimes it's better than raking especially on profile locks - I don't consider it true picking, but it can be nice and quick.

I don't touch cars - I don't want the aggravation.

If you have to drill a BS lock, don't bother trying to repair it, once the hardplate has been compromised an insurance company will not accept it, so it will have to be replaced. Use modellers putty (Milliput) rather than woodfiller, it's two part (adhesive and catalyst) and doesn't slump when you fill a hole, so its fast to use. I wouldn't bother with a pinning kit, locks are so cheap wholesale it's not worth the effort. I sell for about the same price as the chainstores and still make more than double what I paid for the locks in the first place.

If you're not likely to encounter BS locks, don't bother with the drill list, you guys are lucky across the pond, you should see what we have to deal with over here!

[Chucklz]

In North America, you can basically forget the tools for lever locks and alot of the specialized profile stuff. These locks are few and far between here. Having a good set of drills is worth the money though. You may find yourself drilling through some nasty stuff somedays. Eventually picking up a Mortise lock reference with drill points may help you save the day when "none of the other locksmiths could do it". But, if your just starting, the money could be better put to other uses.

Besides the wonderful list by jason here are some things I would take if I was starting a business in North America.

Opening tools

Basic pick set that you are very comfortable with.
Under the door tool for lever handles. Not always useful, but its relatively cheap, and one use will pay for itself
Mica or something similar... It can be cut from plastic milk cartons if you wish.
Schlage Wafer picks. These are about twenty dollars online, and make opening this style of lock a snap. Where I live, about 10 percent of the houses still have these locks on them. The set I have needed a bit of grinding at the tip to actually fit into the lock.

Other tools
Pin kit, followers and such so you can also offer rekey service.
Portable key machine, powered off an inverter in your van or whatever. Code machine is preferable. This allows you to quickly generate a new key for rekeying, or to progress a key when your impressioning isnt so good. You can probably wait on this, but you may find alot of your business from a call comes from rekeying etc.

Supplies

Key blanks. For impressioning, making a spare key for the customer, rekeys ...whatever. Probably a good assortment will include KW1 and 10, SC1, Y1, M1, and any other brand thats very common in your area.

Some of those Supra key safes. These are very study, have a simplex style lock, and can be sold to the customer to "prevent" further lockouts. It may seem that you are eliminating customers one by one, but you may find the word of mouth advertising valuable.

An assortment of Door wraps, reinforced strike plates, padlocks keyable to house keys, door viewers, and lots of good quality ANSI 2 or better locks in bright brass and maby brushed chrome finishes. Get these wholeale, they can even be a "copycat brand". If you have to mica or drill or even pick a door open, especially if you do it very quickly, your customer may want to increase their security almost immediately. You may also want to work a deal with a local smith..... you open em, and they provide a security assessment etc. But at the bare minimum, you should have a few, even just "temporary" locks incase you end up drilling something.