new found great source for free locks

[machinist]

So I'm walking up some stairs with a friend of mine at a local movie theature and I spot the cylinder of a deadbolt lying on the ground wedged underneath a door frame. I say to him "Do you think anyone would mind if I purchased a real door stop from a hardware store and replaced that thing?" he asks why I want it and I explain I'm always looking for new/used locks to play with he then replies "You know when we do demolition (his family is in construction/demolition) we have a half a dozen locks we have to cut or just unscrew and throw away"
"really do you think your pops would mind if you saved them and gave them to me" "I don't think so we just toss them out and we have to pay for every dumpster full that gets hauled away anyway..." Long story short his father (the foreman) said it was ok and the next time they pull apart a building I'm getting all the used locks. Sweet deal huh? They might save a couple of bucks and I get free locks.

Like the story goes I'm a close family friend of the boss and bosses son (who works for him) so I don't know how many construction sites will be open to it but, it worked for me. : )

[pickmonger]

Thats a great idea. Sometimes you can get permisson to go on site yourself and harvest the locks.

Offer the foreman $$$ and you might just get an "all you can catch" fishing license.

On one job site we found a collection of 100's of keys. Ended up with a lot of working cylinders with keys, for a $50 payment to the boss man.

Like a fool, I sold them to a locksmith for 2 bucks a piece, rather than keeping them.

[keysman]

In addition to the cool locks don't forget you can often find a safe or two in there.. great project for you when you get bored with door/ padlocks.

Who knows what it may contain.

[Shrub]

Mentioned many times before but a good idea non the less that isnt mentioned nearly enough,

[HeadHunterCEO]

if you could convince this guy to let you install all those locks then you could buy any lock you wanted