ERA 863-32 rim cylinder broke while picking!

[Solomon]

My mate picked this up earlier today and to our surprise, we both picked it very easily. I was under the impression that, given their reputation, an ERA would be somewhat challenging... at least more so than a standard Yale, anyway. It cost £6.69, so I wasn't expecting anything spectacular, but for a brand new lock I figured the tolerances would at least be pretty high. Apparently not.

Anyway, on to the problem. We have learned the hard way that these locks aren't really meant to be turned 360 degrees without the actual key inserted... after the 5th or 6th time it was picked, the plug stopped rotating at the 180 mark - I knew from the previous times we picked it that the pins couldn't be falling into the spine groove, so I held it up to inspect the keyway... lo and behold, I could see a spring inside which had somehow escaped the chamber. How on earth did this happen?

I'm gonna get a new spring and take it apart so I can fix it, but for future reference, am I correct in my assumption that when picking this cylinder it should only be rotated up to 45 degrees to keep this from happening? Here is a pic I took with my camera phone to show you the lock in question (this was before it became stuck):



As you can see, it's a replacement cylinder for a nightlatch style lock. This is why I'm guessing it's not such a good idea to rotate more than 45 degrees, as when it's installed in a door that's as far as it would turn. Of course, when the key is inserted, there is no dead space in the keyway for whatever occurred here to actually happen. I'm still interested in why it happened though, so any info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys!

[MacGyver101]

Hrm. Without looking a bit more closely at the cylinder, two possibilities come to mind. Either you did accidentally lose a driver into the keyway without realizing it (i.e., when the plug was rotated 180°), and that allowed the spring to enter... or the cylinder wasn't pinned correctly, and both the bottom pin and the driver sit below the shearline when the key is removed.

It sounds like you're aware of (and watching for) the first problem, so I'd hazard a guess that it's likely the case that the driver is simply too short, and both pins are staying in the plug when it rotates. (That would allow the spring to enter the bottom of the keyway when the plug is inverted.) I have a similarly cheap, no-name rim cylinder that has exactly that problem on the last pin.

[mhole]

With a low key pin, and short driver its possible both dorpped into the core and allowed the spring to get caught. It's nothing to do with turning further than 45 degrees - most common nightlatches with a double locing function require a 360 degree rotation to double lock and unlock, and all 1109 cylinders are made to be rotated 360 degrees.

BTW.... what reputation? Amoungst UK lockies Era have a reputation for being good value for money, but no great shakes in the quality department, and a bit shaky on the QC!

[Olson Burry]

BTW.... what reputation? Amoungst UK lockies Era have a reputation for being good value for money, but no great shakes in the quality department, and a bit shaky on the QC!

Quite true. I've got a couple of ERA locks and they are pretty easy to pick. They have no security pins. Your average 5 pin Yale will come complete with 2 spools, my 6 pin Yale has 3.

In my opinion Yale locks like that are superior to ERA.

[Solomon]

With a low key pin, and short driver its possible both dorpped into the core and allowed the spring to get caught. It's nothing to do with turning further than 45 degrees - most common nightlatches with a double locing function require a 360 degree rotation to double lock and unlock, and all 1109 cylinders are made to be rotated 360 degrees.

BTW.... what reputation? Amoungst UK lockies Era have a reputation for being good value for money, but no great shakes in the quality department, and a bit shaky on the QC!

That crossed my mind, but I can only see the spring in the keyway... I'm pretty sure I would have felt the pins coming out, but I checked the floor anyway and there was no sign of them. I don't make a habit of disassembling locks so I'll need to get some stuff for that, so in the meantime I'm pretty stumped.

About their reputation, I dunno where I got that from . I was just under the impression that they were suposed to be pretty good... as olson pointed out, there are definately no security pins in there. Not to mention the tolerances are pretty low aswell... I definately wouldn't put one of these on my door.