Habitat for Humanity ReStore = Newbie paradise

[tballard]

So I convinced my wife to go down the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore with me on Friday. (For those who don't know, these are salvaged/recycled construction materials The one here is Austin is the original one, so it may be bigger/better that others.)

There were two different lock sections, both with hundreds of locks. Seriously, I suspect the larger section had easily 700 - 1000 cores. Almost all of the locks were Kwikset, and the vast majority were key-in-knob. There was also a healthy number of Schlage locks as well. I spent at least hour digging through the bins, looking for treasures. Every time I though I was done, the staff dragged over another bin full of locks, and the digging started again.

Unfortunately, I didn't find anything other than Kwikset, Schlage, and Weisser locks which didn't have keys. (There were a few moderately nicer locks, but they were still in their retail packages and had keys, but only 3 or 4, and I didn't feel right buying them out from under someone who might actually need them to keep their house locked up)

I pulled three Kwikset deadbolts, a Kwikset Titan, a Weiser, and five Schlages. Nothing spectacular, but enough to give me something to practice on. The best part was the price. They weren't marked, and didn't have keys, so it's up to the person behind the counter to set a price, so I didn't grab a ton since it was all more of the same. Checkout time, the total price: 1 dollar. For everything. Couldn't convince them to take more!

The Kwiksets and Weiser were open with a few minutes, but are good confidence locks. The Schlages are still a challenge for me, and I'm hoping at least some of them have security pins. (The one I have picked so far didn't....)

Anyway, if you're a newbie picker, you can not beat the price here. More experienced pickers might come up empty handed, but I intend to return and pick through the piles again, and hopefully find some treasures.

[cppdungeon]

I LOVE that store SO much. I gotta go to the bigger one though, mine doesn't really have bins of locks...Where is your store located?

--Cpp

[tballard]

Austin, TX. More specifically:

310 Comal St, Austin, TX 78702
http://www.re-store.com/

There was a ton of cool stuff there, not just locks. Best part is that my wife and 3 year old loved it too. I should have taken pictures of the bins, they were too heavy to lift, and there were at least 7 of them. (And almost all Kwikset, which sorta sucked, but hey...)

[MacGnG1]

yea there is an older thread about this, but anyway.... unfortunately the restore near me only has dummy door knobs most of the time

[ridinplugspinnaz]

Another quality pull from the ReStore. Funny you should mention it, I just spent the better part of the day shimming one of the Schlage cylinders I picked up from my run to the ReStore that I was never able to pick. Unsurprisingly, the thing was full of gunk which made it somewhat harder to pick -- feedback was terrible. No security pins, but even then I can only pick this thing with 4 of the 5 pin stacks populated. Frustrating, but I'll get there someday. Right now I'm finding that it's really hard for me to maneuver my short hook around the paracentric SC1 keyway. More than one low-high bitting combination, and my pick will overlift the stack halfway into each attempt.

Anyway, didn't mean to derail your thread, but I definitely feel your pain on the Schlage cylinders. I've opened at least a few padlocks with security pins, but this one simple residential lock is driving me up the wall! At any rate, very nice find at the ReStore. For those of you starting out, definitely check for one of these in your area, the locks per dollar ratio is unbeatable!

[tballard]

spinnaz-

Nah, don't worry about the derail. The one I got open via SPP was pretty gunked up too. I'm trying to decide if I should clean them up, or leave a few gunky for a more "real-world" feel.

As far as the fun of picking the keyway, I've got some picks I ground special which flex sideways diagonally up into the keyway. I can post pictures if you like. I also made a set of top-side tension tools (and posted a semi-howto here: Schlage tension tools)

I still suck at picking them, but these tools help me at least blame myself and not my tools.

[Squelchtone]

Since this is the 3rd ReStore thread in as many months, here's a link to the 2nd one for the sake of easy searching and continuity. Perhaps someone would like to find the original?

http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=42119&start=0&hilit=restore

Cheers,
Squelchtone

[ToolyMcgee]

Here's one called "Great places to find locks" with some good pictures from a couple months back.
http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?p=306371

I would consider those shiny new Weiser and Kwikset deadbolts good restore finds even without the Titan.

-Tooly

[tballard]

Here's one called "Great places to find locks" with some good pictures from a couple months back.
http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?p=306371

Thanks for finding that for me. I probably should have appended there instead of starting a new thread... opps.

I would consider those shiny new Weiser and Kwikset deadbolts good restore finds even without the Titan.

Actually, the Weiser and Kwiksets are depressingly easy. I can generally pop all of them open one after another in about 2 minutes total, without rushing. Interestingly, the Titan doesn't seem to be any different than the other Kwiksets. It opens with either SPP or raking quite readily. (The Schlages on the otherhand are kicking my rear rather severely, I'm fairly confident I've identified at least one spool in one, but getting it properly set has eluded me, and I'm not willing to admit defect and cut into the bible just yet...)

[op-sec]

Right now I'm finding that it's really hard for me to maneuver my short hook around the paracentric SC1 keyway.

I never really thought of the SC1 keyway as paracentric.

This keyway is paracentric: http://www.op-sec.us/keymark.JPG

It's the hardest keyway I've ever picked. Had to modify even my smallest hook to even fit into the lock.

I've got to find my local ReStore though. Sounds like a goldmine!

[ToolyMcgee]

The Titan should have 6 pinstacks instead of 5. More room for adding security drivers. The weiser and that other quickset are really shiny for restore bin locks, easy though they may be. The first mushroom and spool drivers I ever found were in old restore KIK schlage's, so it's entirely possible that they are factory pinned with security drivers, or by a locksmith. Give it a week or two before you do any drastic dissassembly. I'm sure you'll have more luck picking them once you get accustomed to the keyway. Until then you've got a fistful of other locks to occupy your time.

Treasure your Restore, I just stopped by mine today and they have ditched the bins of keyless and otherwise incomplete locks. Everything used is complete and close to retail price however beat up it has become. 5 bucks for a used privacy knob? 10 dollars for a cruddy old chinese Kwikset knockoff! I'm gonna go get out one of the old finds I never got around to and restore it. I'll never again take my beat up old second hand junk for granted.

-Tooly

[tballard]

I made another trip to the ReStore this weekend. Came home with 42 locks. The checkout person had some odd ideas she was using to sort and price the locks. As a result, my average price per lock skyrocketed to close to 50 cents!

Still a fantastic bargain, and I'm certain there is a special circle in hell for people who complain about prices in a charity shop.

I didn't come across anything exotic, but that's fine. I took a few quick pictures with my phone, for those interested. (The thumbnails below are clickable)

outside of the ReStore


bins of locks and other door hardware...


one of the lock aisles

(Taken about halfway down the aisle, and there are maybe two or three aisles worth total. (A fair amount of hinges, knobs, strikeplates, and other crud are mixed in)

checkout time

approximately 10 pounds of metal.

stripped, sorted, and ready for picking

I still need to cut down the tailpieces on some of them, but at least they are now easy to carry around.

Final Haul
9 Kwiksets
1 Kwikset Titan
2 Schlage cylinders
6 Schlage cores
3 Master cores
4 Weslock cores
5 unlabelled SC1 keyway cores
5 unlabelled KW1 keyway mortice cylinders
1 Wieser cylinder
1 Wieser cores
2 Dexter cores
1 EZ-Set cylinder

Of course, on the way out the door, I noticed they had a bunch of brand new Yale deadbolts behind the glass. So I picked up one for $8.99.

[MacGnG1]

man!!! the restore by me doesnt have 10% of the locks at that one

[JK_the_CJer]

Thanks for making this thread; I didn't know about ReStores. I made a visit to my local one today and came out good. There was a $10 minimum to use a credit card, so I had to throw in some "expensive" knobsets to meet it. I spent $15 and ended up with this:



SFICs for 10 cents each was a nice surprise indeed I have no idea what "Magnetic Owner-Guard" is, but I'm about to find out.

[tballard]

I went to the local ReStore this weekend for non-lock-related reasons, and was pleased to note there had obviously been at least one other person mining this treasure trove.

What was not so nice was when I discovered a lot of the boxed sets of locks had been opened, and just the lock cylinder had been removed, leaving the rest untouched. Now, I see no problem stripping a keyless core out of a knob or something, but pulling just the core out of a complete set deprives non-lockpickers of a functional, working lock which they might need just so you can get a shiny core for 15 cents rather than 6 bucks.

A mother/daughter pair was looking through the locks for something to use on their house, and I offered to help them. It took me a good 10 minutes to find a decent Schlage deadbolt with keys which hadn't been cannibalized!

I encourage everyone to check out their local ReStore, but please be considerate when doing so. The prices there are already fantastic, and there are more than enough locks without keys to go around. If you really must have one of the keyed locks, please buy the whole thing.

(BTW: Don't bother buying the Yale double cylinders behind the glass at the Austin ReStore. They are normal five-pin locks, with crappy tolerances. No harder than a Kwikset. I always wondered why they have those behind the glass, perhaps they already have noticed selective cannibalism? I hope not... )