day in the life of a locksmith

[cledry]

Just thought it might be interesting to some of the hobbyists who are considering entering into the locksmith business what a day on the job might be like. This was my day today, this isn't typical as almost each day is different, and this doesn't include the work that our other locksmiths did today. Keep in mind we are basically a commercial lock and door business, we do very little residential and only automotive work across the counter.

First job of the day. Arrived at @ 9 AM to install 52 lock cylinders into Schlage grade 1 levers according to a hardware schedule, the locks had previously been master keyed and all the hardware was clean and new. In addition I had 8 Von Duprin 99 delayed egress exit devices to masterkey on site and 3 other mortise cylinders. Then setting combinations on a VSI Thor door, this one was a monster! My cart is about waist height, and the wheel next to the two Kaba Mas Auditcons is about the size of a car steering wheel.



Finished up just after noon so headed back to the shop stopping to get lunch at The Gnarly Barley. I can recommend the Birra Del Borgo Perle Al Porci.

Back at the shop not too much going on, but there is a deck handle from a 1948 Packard on the bench that one of our other guys was unable to remove the cylinder from (damaged by the owner), so after a bit of a struggle I get that removed and pop in the new one.

Had a huge hitch with two locks using tubular keys to make keys to. The keys had been lost for over a year and this thing was full of mud. Flushed it out, and picked one of the two locks, then decoded my pick and used the Herty Gerdy to make a key, had to impression the key slightly but eventually got it working in both locks reasonably well.

Then I mostly settle down to paperwork, invoicing and ordering parts. Answering calls and dispatching calls.

A customer walks in and asks for a combination lock for his door, wants recommendations on something better than the residential Schlage lock. I determine it is on a daycare center and will get a lot of use, so I suggest a Kaba Eplex 2000. The customer agrees if we can install it today. Of course, so I ask what codes he wants for the master code and the employee codes, I also ask him which side the door handle is on when viewed from the outside. This allows me to hand the lock and program it all in the comfort of the shop. I also suspect the door might be 2 3/8" backset so take along a 2 3/8" latch just in case. The daycare is only 5 minutes from our shop and so I am out the door by 3 and back by 3:35. It was 2 3/8" so my intuition was correct.

The rest of the day was just more paperwork and dealing with normal shop business.

The strangest thing that sticks out for me about the last couple of days was the number of classic car locks we worked on, we don't do much automotive and it has been ages since I worked on an older car, but in the last two days I have made keys to a 1968 Camaro ignition, a 1965 Ford Mustang ignition, a 1959 Studebaker door and ignition, and the 1948 Packard cylinder replacement.

Typically we run about 5 or 6 calls each throughout the day for each employee. Less of course if they are more involved jobs.

Perhaps some of the other locksmiths can tell what their day was like so that prospective locksmiths can get a feel for the business.

[billdeserthills]

Sounds good cledry, here is my boring day
I arrive at my shop at 10am, and I sit around and goof off with the auto repair folks next door for 45 minutes, then I go home.
Waste time petting the dog (hardly a waste of time) until 1pm, then I'm off to my first call. Rekey 6 smart key locks, Install 2 kwikset
double deadbolts (to keep jr out of the family pool) one of the smart key locks recoded itself and my cradle was shot, so I find an old
Titan lock and rekey & swap the scalp plate on the front, so it matches & re-install it. Go home & watch TV until phone rings, client calls
two hours later& needs me to unlock his ford F150 p/u, which I do & after that a guy wants me to come & pick open his front door. I arrive
ten minutes later, client says the landlord is on his way to unlock the door also & how much do I charge for the ride over? $25 later and now
I'm cooking a steak for me & the doggy. Phone rings and someone a half hour drive away wants me to come & open his garage door, but there
is no lock to pick. He wants me to use my 'between the door top & the molding tool' which broke off the last time I used it & hasn't been replaced
I refer him to someone who cares and eat steak.

[cledry]

Wish I could afford steak.

Thanks for sharing your day.

[Mighty]

I found these surprisingly interesting. MORE! (please)

[C locked]

cut keys to lock for rifle safe opened yesterday
Repair and reinstate safe
Pick open rifle safe dropped off this morning (chinese mauer president copy)
Remove internal panel, remove chinese lock
Lunch
Fit mauer president lock, cut third key
Accidentally drop the compartment box with all the screws removed from the internal panel
Finally fit the Internal panel
All rhe while answering calls and walk in customers needing copies ofresidential keys
Finally to the cinema between movies to replace ancient door closer that has died, leaking oil
That was in the ladies toilets
Of course the minute i set the ladder up behind the door
A pack (they travel in packs) of them try come thru the door... Too busy to read the sign on the door.
Fitted appropriately rated door closer.

Head back to shop and help boss load safe into back of customers ute.(two man job for safety)
Kinda expecting another safe next workday or two as they come in threes

[cledry]

Very true about people wanting to come through doors when you get the ladder up behind it. I always either lock the door or wedge it until I get to the final step of connecting the arm. Door closers that have leaked the fluid out can be quite dangerous. One of our locksmiths was whacked on the cheekbone by a door closer arm when he released it. An inch higher and he may have lost an eye.

[Sinifar]

8 AM - get wife up, fed and cleaned up, I am care giver for her, then start my day --

Down in the bunker, get on line, check E-mails - two correspondence jobs have requests, and a service all. Things to build and send out, keys to be made and sent out - and a service call to a local factory.

Make up stuff - get in boxes and invoice the things, then toss into the truck and over to the post office to mail out. First two done. Get mail from PO box - a couple of checks and tons of junk as usual.

10 AM - over to factory - mixed bag - several locks to bring back onto the MK system, and a half dozen desk locks to make keys for - two of the locks for the thing are not compatible with system. Out to truck and pull stock, cylinders, pin on board before i go in with the locks - stuff locks in doors ... IS there anything else? -- Nope - on my way, get back here and bill.

Lunch - Wife has a couple of afternoon calls ---

1 PM - residential - rekey four locks -- nothing special Schlage -- bill collect move on.

2:30 - Another factory - this one found a missed door on the 5th floor ... fifth floor? I didn't know this place had a fifth floor -- it turns out to be an old, now new door somebody put on the "tower' area to get out to the roof, and no key ... Get lock apart, key to system. Bill later --

3:45 - wife calls, car to open, not far, buzz over there, get out "Z" tool kit, and am in a few minutes -- collect, and head back to office ...

Paper work to do, stuff to bill - checks to process, and the next day to get ready for, Keys to cut for work I know will be needed - and files and work keys pulled and set up in order of travel.

5 PM - dinner --

6:30 - stupid door on commercial won't lock up -- buzz over there, cylinder had moved out of location and the thing now is turned so the Adams Rite won't throw - lube up the lock, reset the lock, small bill and head home ...

Of course the wife has been fielding calls all day, lots of pests, GOOGLE especially - I wish they would go away -- we have a system to block some of them, but "Caller name and number blocked" won't go thru my system. Grrr...

long day on the road, but profitable.

Tomorrow is another one like this ...

Sinifar

[Permutator]

I found these surprisingly interesting. MORE! (please)

I enjoyed reading these as well. Perhaps it's just me and my imagination but they resemble chapters in a novel where the characters haven't crossed paths yet. Like one of those bizarre interconnected plots where the tension continues to build.

[femurat]

Maybe you already know that, cledry, perle ai porci means that you're giving pearls to pigs. It's not a good beer name. Well, actually it means the beer is very good but who is drinking it is unable to appreciate its value.

Cheers

[cledry]

Maybe you already know that, cledry, perle ai porci means that you're giving pearls to pigs. It's not a good beer name. Well, actually it means the beer is very good but who is drinking it is unable to appreciate its value.

Cheers

Yes, I know what it means, it is I hope meant tongue in cheek.

It is an oyster stout from an Italian brewery, Birra Del Borgo, it was their limited release for the month of March this year.

http://birradelborgo.it/blog/birre/3131 ... ario-2016/

[femurat]

Now that I've seen the label, I'm sure it's a joke.

Salute

[jeffmoss26]

I enjoyed reading these quite a bit...keep em coming!

[Tyler J. Thomas]

I'm an institutional locksmith at a college.

A good number of my time at work is spent doing lockouts and filling key/rekey requests. Also spend a bit of time repairing locks and doors.

The rest of the time is spent on projects - some I do, some I manage due to the way funding is handled. The two big projects at the moment are two campus rekeys: all exterior doors on all buildings and a piecemeal of all interior doors on a new, patented keyway.

I'm also managing a project to incorporate ~50 doors into our access control system. The crux of that project is to lay out the specs and meet with vendors to survey and quote the job. From there, I put the quotes together and submit them up the chain of command. This happens quite a bit. Sometimes the projects go through, sometimes they don't. I'm hoping this one does.

Two busiest times of the year are graduation and the first two weeks back. Otherwise it's a pretty relaxed job.

[shutterstuff]

Yesterday was typical. 9am go install 4 new deadbolts on an older home and detached garage. Involved drilling new holes in all 4 doors. Back home just to get a car lockout call. Easy and close by. After lunch go and rekey an apartment by using the next code on her MK system as she had to evict them. Go back home and goof off online for a while and get another car lockout call. A 1976 Chevy truck. Got to use the slim jim for the first time in a while and talked to the customer at length about his great restoration job on the truck! get home and BBQ some chicken for dinner and throw the ball for the dog. Small towns tend to be boring.

[Tyler J. Thomas]

My favorite part of the job happened today: schooling a grumpy contractor.

Due to laws and regulatory compliance, we often have to sub contract jobs (capital money, Title III funds, etc.). I hate it but what can you do? Sometimes I'm involved, sometimes I'm not. If warranty work has to occur on a project, I'm usually the one that spearheads it.

We had a pull handle come off a recently installed pair of aluminum store front doors today. I called the contractor. He wasn't pleasant from the start. He was hesitant to even warranty the work. Told me he shouldn't because someone "must be abusing those doors". Finally I had enough. I wasn't very polite when I told him that on commercial applications, you through bolt when possible. It doesn't much change aesthetics and it results in a much stronger and longer lasting installation. I told him I felt silly having to teach someone this as it was one of the first things I learned. I told him that it's actually cheaper and faster for him to order his doors prepped with 2 through bolt holes. Rather than fumble around with Allen wrenches to tighten either 2 or 4 screws at awkward angles, you can simply drive the 2 through bolts into the handle with an impact driver and never have to worry about it again.

Some people.