Jammed lock...... broken spring

[gostone]

Just got some old cylinders from a locksmith, lots of picking practice! The Schlage I just picked, got caught at the halfway mark. Piece of spring caught. I part of it out, now the lock will not open with key. The key was hard to get in. Any ideas on getting this plug out now?

[Deathadder]

ok, 1 of 2 things happened...( i think)
A)
I think ive heard of this happening, may not be the same scenario.
anyways... you could take a shim(thin piece of metal) and slide it in there up under the spring if its caught.
B) did it get caught 180 degrees in the cylinder (aka: upside down)?
if it did what most likely happened is the top pins fell in through the bottom of the keyway... take the back of your pick or tension wrench and try and push all the pins back up into place so you can turn it

Please elaborate on your situation in either case, its kind of confusing to tell what you're saying.

[What]

if a small piece of brass that looks like a very small pin came out then it was master keyed and you picked it and the master keying wafer(tiny pin) fell into the bottom of the key way at 180...

[gostone]

Thanks,

It seems the spring above the upper pin got caught at the 180 degree mark, guess it's not good to turn the plug all the way around. The spring got snagged, and is shot. Now it is not pushing the upper pin down, and the pin seems jammed up ( first pin )

I guess I will just have to free that first pin so it can come down below the shear line.....

[Deathadder]

a good way to prevent this is to (if you have the keys to the lock) take the key and unlock, check to see if it needs to be turned beyond 170 degrees (just to be safe) to unlock it fully, then lock it again.
if you ever come across this problem again dont try and force it to turn, just take the back of your pick or tension wrench like i said and push the pins back into the hole, however if its masterkeyed you might be screwed because the spacers can fall out. .

[xxgonzoxx]

I've had this happen to me when rekeying a Schlage. As you said the spring broke. best this to do is take the lock apart. If it's the first pin, it'll probably be easy to use a pick to push down the spring enough to get the plug out of the cylinder. You can buy new springs fairly cheap. Always good to have a few extra laying around.

[2octops]

Ok, lemme get this straight....you picked the lock, turned the plug 180°, one of the springs came down and got caught in the bottom of the keyway? Now, the lock will not work with the key?

Here's the way it works and why it happened. Each pin stack should be a minimun height so that the top pins stick out of the chamber when the key is not inserted in the plug. This is what stops the plug from turning with no key. If someone uses a short bottom pin and a short top pin, the top pin will sit below the shear line when the key is not in the plug, allowing the spring to enter the chamber below the shear line.

Now, if pinned wrong, you have a 50/50 chance of having both top and bottom pins in the plug including part of the spring. When you turn the plug, the spring gets caught and pulled around the plug.

To get it out, simply pick the lock and force it apart with a follower. Then remove the damaged spring and make sure there are no barbs inside the upper chamber in the bible or plug.

If the key worked before but will not work now, insert the key and rap the cylinder on a hard surface to bounce the pins a little while applying light turning pressure. There is probably a barb in the chamber of the bible causing the bottom pin to stick a little. The bottom pin must be stuck, because the pin met the shear line before the spring incident happened.

[Deathadder]

or the bottom pins could have fallen in the keyway (along with a peice of the spring) when he turned it 180 degrees, then he forced it back, catching a piece of spring... i dont see how, by what you're saying, it could have managed to turn 180 degrees in the first place.