Greetings and services question.

[BDvs]

Hello Members,

My name is Brad and I am newly registered but have done some reading here in the past. Firstly a thanks to locksmpicking101 for making the forum available and secondly to you Members who make it possible. Greetings.

I have recently completed a basic and "advanced" locksmith course, as well as studying a DVD course. Admittedly I am green, but have a sincere love for the Craft and have resolved intentions to pursue the trade. I currently work in oil and fortunately have a sufficient amount of time to devote to my studies. My question is, are the below listed services sufficient to offer as a beginning Smith? By sufficient I mean respectable. I will be moving from my current state to my home town which is significantly smaller and basically want to be able to offer a reasonable amount of services to my community while growing my skills and abilities.

Lock bypass for commercial, residential and automotive.
Re keying services.
Commercial and residential installations.
Master key systems.
Key control systems.
Interchangeable core systems.
Key duplication and keys by code.
Filing cabinets services.
Safe combination changes.

Any guidance you may be willing to share would be much appreciated and I thank you in advance. Look forward to participating on the board where I can.

Brad

[billdeserthills]

I don't see why not, you can make additional money by stocking a few of the inexpensive PLS import deadbolts
and install them for your clients, along with a few cheap knob or lever locks. Right now Master has some good prices
Branching out into doing rural postal mailboxs (in the US) won't take much more
than $25 to stock a few mailbox locks. I had one today, I opened it & installed a new lock & charged $115 and the
lock might have cost $8.50.

I'm sure you have a pin kit and some key blanks & a key machine, as time goes by you will want to stock some latches,
you can find some nice assortments on e-bay from time to time. The important thing is to start

[BDvs]

Billdeserthills,

Thank you for your post. I hear what your saying. Thanks for sharing from experiance and the info about Master at the moment. Most of all thanks for the encouragement of the "most important thing". As im sure you know; The hardest part is believing you can pull the trigger.

Appreciative.

[BDvs]

P.S

I am equipped as you mentioned. Got a couple of the big hitters in blanks. In honesty im in the process of tracking down what blanks i should stock. The DVD course i am working with included a recommended inventory list which has proven useful to say the least. I still have some items i need to acquire. Keep chipping the stone.

Brad

[billdeserthills]

P.S

I am equipped as you mentioned. Got a couple of the big hitters in blanks. In honesty im in the process of tracking down what blanks i should stock. The DVD course i am working with included a recommended inventory list which has proven useful to say the least. I still have some items i need to acquire. Keep chipping the stone.

Brad

If you want to open cars, you need a tool set & a good book,
I have broken plenty of glass, the book is cheaper.

One of the scariest things I see in my area is a lockout service truck
That is all they do, open cars & homes/business and they only charge $35

You can be doing the same thing, I would prefer you make a living wage though, some people give it away too cheap

[Sinifar]

Like everything in this trade, it will require practice. Some cars open just by walking up to them and pointing the tool at the thing, others will require a struggle. (Toyota) Some maybe impossible. Trust me after opening cars for 50 years it can be interesting.

Finally, never force anything. There are ways to get into almost anything. You need to know which ones work best for the situation, and form experience know which one will be faster / safer / easier.

Sinifar

[MBI]

Deleted your last post BVds, lightly edited Sinifar's.

Please remember folks, on lp101 discussion of automotive lockout tools or techniques is restricted to the advanced forum.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=715

[BDvs]

Deleted your last post BVds, lightly edited Sinifar's.

Please remember folks, on lp101 discussion of automotive lockout tools or techniques is restricted to the advanced forum.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=715

My apologies. Wont happen again.

Brad

[BDvs]

Like everything in this trade, it will require practice. Some cars open just by walking up to them and pointing the tool at the thing, others will require a struggle. (Toyota) Some maybe impossible. Trust me after opening cars for 50 years it can be interesting.

Finally, never force anything. There are ways to get into almost anything. You need to know which ones work best for the situation, and form experience know which one will be faster / safer / easier.

Sinifar

Sinifar,

Thank you for your post and the direction. My last post asked some specifics that I didn't realize was reserved for the advanced section of the forum. However I believe I caught your recommendation. Is it safe to say a lot of this experience will come through on the job in the moment learning ? Obviously that can be a bit stressful at times, but I have heard it said more than once that this trade is a school of hard knocks. Thank you gentlemen for the post, I take any experience from those who work in this field very seriously and read it carefully. It is appreciated.

Brad

[MBI]

Sinifar and Bill both clearly have a lot of experience, and it's good advice they've given here.

It's handy to learn the basics from a locksmithing course, but you really can't beat the value of experience. A little ingenuity doesn't hurt either.

As already mentioned, a lockout book can be invaluable.
Also insurance and bonding is a good idea as well. It's pretty easy to mess up a car while doing auto lockouts.

[zeke79]

I will also chime in and say that when starting on auto lockouts a salvage yard is a gold mine. Call around and find a place that will let you roam around and practice. I gained a lot of hands on experience this way for the cost of a couple cases of natural lite.

[BDvs]

Thank you gentlemen. Appreciated.

[lockworksokc]

This was a great thread. I enjoyed reading it. Thanks for the activity.