A typical day

[licehunter2]

Yet another Q for the lockies out there. Care to tell us what a "typical" (for your own definition of typical) day would be like for you? What occupies most of your time? What kind of services are the most profitable? What services do you like/hate the most, etc.? Just curious

[Ezer]

If you're wanting to know what it's like to be a locksmith, have you read through this yet?

viewtopic.php?t=2304

[licehunter2]

I have indeed, in fact it was a mention of the subject matter on that thread (IIRC) which inspired this post. I am thinking now, though, this question might have been more appropiately posted there, or at least on that branch.

At any rate, I would appreciate any comments, especially on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th questions, which I don't think I've seen answered on any of the posts I've read so far (which are of course only an infinitesimal fraction of the 64634 posts on the site at the time of writing this).

While I can't realistically become a locksmith due to time and availability constraints, nor do I wish to leave permanently my current line of work, I keep daydreaming about it. Eventually, I hope to be able to attend a training course or perhaps work part-time with a locksmith.

[acl]

Licehunter ,in answer to your question,a typical day.......
6am alarm ,shit warrants at 8am ,kiss beautiful wife and cute kids godbye even though they are fast asleep.
Turn up to meet warrant officer in the cafe(ok we get a good breakfast)gas/electric fitter turns up 30 mins later ,5 jobs to do ,each of which is a change of tenancy or a meterfitted.If youre lucky you may get a Yale to slip open.
You are finallly set free at 2pm,3 cylinders to change in various places,a comb change on a safe in Watford, plus a stroppy woman in Henel who NEEDS her locks changed bfore 6pm then home ahhh,untill you get called to change locks inLuton but not till 8pm.
Get home 10 pm kiss beautiful wife goodnight,wonder if kids are still that cute ,quick beer and slleep
6am alarm..........
And all for a grand a week eh??

[sportsguy]

Licehunter ,in answer to your question,a typical day.......
6am alarm ,road apples warrants at 8am ,kiss beautiful wife and cute kids godbye even though they are fast asleep.
Turn up to meet warrant officer in the cafe(ok we get a good breakfast)gas/electric fitter turns up 30 mins later ,5 jobs to do ,each of which is a change of tenancy or a meterfitted.If youre lucky you may get a Yale to slip open.
You are finallly set free at 2pm,3 cylinders to change in various places,a comb change on a safe in Watford, plus a stroppy woman in Henel who NEEDS her locks changed bfore 6pm then home ahhh,untill you get called to change locks inLuton but not till 8pm.
Get home 10 pm kiss beautiful wife goodnight,wonder if kids are still that cute ,quick beer and slleep
6am alarm..........
And all for a grand a week eh??

Um. actually doesn't sound too bad - especially when I consider that 1000 pounds is going for about $2200 Canadian - hmmm, 2 grand a week - yep, I'd be happy with THAT workload.

Thanks for the run-through. Sheds life on the non-9-to-5 aspects of the job.

[Shrub]

Yes but what you are not taking in to account is the fact that Andy is a very good locksmith, well established and knowledgble, it takes time to get to be EARNING that much a week.

[acl]

The grand a week bit was a tongue in cheek remark as a lot of training companies over here claim youll be earning that after youve done their course which im afraid is a load of tosh. I wouldnt really start discussing earnings on here sorry if i mislead you.
Shrub hows it going?
Andy

[Shrub]

Well mate, obviously not as well as you

Seriously after starting up again im very happy and getting on well, van back on duty

You?

[raimundo]

I did that gig in SF cal in the early 70's, Monday and Tuesday were spent repairing the weekends burglaries, and seeing how they were done, usually a lot of force but sometimes applied in interesting ways, and as the junior worker, there was a lot of rebuilding doorclosers, nowadays, they are disposable, not rebuildable. And there were interesting calls to movie sets to make locks that the actors could pick easily, (one pin or no pins) and occasional calls to ships at the docks, work for safeway grocery stores, and for fancy department stores, (lifting herculite doors into place) The occasional Zen Center call or whatever, San Francisco was an interesting place to do it. And the job was a good insite into all the stuff that was going on around the city. Recommend gettign a job at a well established shop in an interesting city, you get around like a taxi driver, but you learn more about the stops.

[Shrub]

Next you will be telling us youve had the fabled woman handcuffed to the bed

[Luke]

I saw 4 kids handcuffed to the flag pole in their boxers last week ... didnt offer assistance

[Shrub]

Like me, only go over if your asked otherwise you get stuck doing a feebie (i know its slightly differant for you luke but i still would have done the same except i would have taken some pictures for the local paper )