day in the life of a locksmith

[Tyler J. Thomas]

I have one question. On the Trident did you move the install toward the hinge to compensate for the aluminum of the weatherstrip? If you did you have to space the strike out otherwise you can often push the bar enough to get out without the bolts locking in the retracted position and then the door slams shut with the bolts extended. I always test to make sure the door cannot open before the detent locks the bolts in the retracted position.

Funny you should mention that.

We only installed the Tridents. Not the doors or weatherstripping or closer or anything else. The guy that installed the weatherstripping did a horrible job. Granted, there was no hardware for him to shut the door to mark it but, then again, we didn't have hardware either when marking. Anyways, you could push the door with all your might and some of the door would hit the weatherstripping, some would not. No door was in good shape in the sense that there were no gaps.

Also, the entire unit cleared the weatherstripping when retracted, by a comfortable margin too.

Once it was time to mark for and install the strike, we tried to install it with as much use of the weatherstripping hitting as possible. Sometimes we could cover for his install, sometimes we couldn't. No install required excessive pulling, however, and by the 4-5th I realized the strike being flush with the soffit was the best bet.

The top and bottom bolts sucked though because it required the hole saws pilot hole to hit literally on the edge of the weatherstripping. Had to be very careful with how you started the hole to make it work.

[Tyler J. Thomas]

I put some of my older articles on my website for anyone interested. 7 articles that showcase what a day, or two, in the life of a locksmith is like. Most of them were institutional jobs and not typical of every locksmith out there but hey, we're not all the same.

[jeffmoss26]

I downloaded them and will peruse them when I have some time - thanks again for sharing so much!

[Tyler J. Thomas]

Penned an article about installation tips for Trident locks.

Also had a pleasant safe lock out last night. Facilities personnel swore it was a battery issue but the manager said that wasn't the case. Went out to the store, at 11:30 PM, and made my way to the safe with an LG Basic and a few new 9 volts in hand. The manager saw the batteries and immediately started dismissing the need. Here we go. We get to the back and she's able to open the safe. "See of course now it's going to work!" I take off the keypad and see that it's an Energizer and a Duracell. Hmm. I put in two new Duracells and we try it dozens of times, open and closed. I tried explaining how it would have worked the first time with the existing batteries but not afterwards. She didn't care. She tried blaming the "loose" bolt works. I explained the purpose behind that. She didn't care. I took the existing batteries to my truck and put a multi-meter on them. One read 9.34V, the other 5.74V. Shocking.... I showed her but she didn't seem to care. I tried explaining how particular the keypads can be with batteries and voltage but, again, she didn't care. Oh well. I tried. Sign my paperwork, have a great night.

But I got some new toys today! I'll be sure to show them in use soon enough.

[tpark]

Tyler, I can imagine the previous conversation:
Facilities guy: The battery is probably run down. The last time the safe quit, we swapped out one of the batteries with our last new one, so the other one has probably gone dead.

Manager: You ignorant retard! What do you know about safes! It's NOT the battery. I'm going to call the locksmith.

Facilities guy: Well, we could test the batteries with our battery tester, or at least try replacing them to see if that fixes the problem, if you call the locksmith now, you might be getting the guy out of bed, and it's gonna cost us to get him to come here. If it can't wait 'till morning, at least try replacing the batteries first, and if that doesn't work, then call the locksmith.

Manager: No! It's NOT the battery I told you. If you don't go away now, I'll turn you into a newt, same as I did your predecessor.

Facilities guy: Ok, fine. Have it your way.

So at the point you were called, she could not admit to being wrong, even if there is evidence provided by direct measurement by an expert. I think that one has to deal with this kind of person in all service industries.

[Silverado]

I think that one has to deal with this kind of person in all service industries.

Just as bad when you are the IT admin fixing things for people and they're telling you what the "real problem" with the computer is. Especially when they reassure you with "I just added more Megabytes to my 'mainframe' at home, so I know what I'm doing!"

[Tyler J. Thomas]

Tyler, I can imagine the previous conversation:
Facilities guy: The battery is probably run down. The last time the safe quit, we swapped out one of the batteries with our last new one, so the other one has probably gone dead.

Manager: You ignorant retard! What do you know about safes! It's NOT the battery. I'm going to call the locksmith.

Facilities guy: Well, we could test the batteries with our battery tester, or at least try replacing them to see if that fixes the problem, if you call the locksmith now, you might be getting the guy out of bed, and it's gonna cost us to get him to come here. If it can't wait 'till morning, at least try replacing the batteries first, and if that doesn't work, then call the locksmith.

Manager: No! It's NOT the battery I told you. If you don't go away now, I'll turn you into a newt, same as I did your predecessor.

Facilities guy: Ok, fine. Have it your way.

So at the point you were called, she could not admit to being wrong, even if there is evidence provided by direct measurement by an expert. I think that one has to deal with this kind of person in all service industries.

That's pretty much how it went, I'm sure.

When he called me about the lockout he mentioned multiple times it was the battery and that's all I needed to do. I told him all I had on me was an LG Basic and a box of 9 volts and if neither worked with the safe then they would have to wait. When I called to give him a status/check out, he just laughed and said, "Yeah I tried to tell her."

Just as bad when you are the IT admin fixing things for people and they're telling you what the "real problem" with the computer is. Especially when they reassure you with "I just added more Megabytes to my 'mainframe' at home, so I know what I'm doing!"

Glad I'm not alone!

[shutterstuff]

What an evening! I get a call to go secure a crime scene. I am working on repairing the front door while ServePro is cleaning up inside wearing their hazmat suites. That was weird enough but then I get a phone call to unlock a car. I declined as I was in the middle of a job. Soon my competitor pulls up looking for a car at this address. The car sitting behind the very house that belonged to the deceased! The home owners were sitting in their car out front waiting and called 911. My competitor had flammable breath so he split. The cops arrived and could not do anything as this person had not broken into the car. But the cop did get the jab in "didn't get what you were looking for did ya". Made me laugh.

And my competitor showing up drunk made me look that much better to the customer!

[jeffmoss26]

one of my coworkers is getting a new truck, so I helped him clean it out. this shelf was mounted above the bench as a nice way to store blanks and precuts. We got it out of the truck and onto a cart just fine...but when moving from the cart to the warehouse floor, this happened


this is one corner, of one pallet of stuff that came out of the truck...I think we filled 4 or 5 pallets :O

[ltdbjd]

I had a learning experience on Thursday and Friday. I had to check about 120 Medeco BiAxial mortise cylinders. Some worked well, some a little stiff (the sidebar didn't retract well), and some I almost had to force the cylinder to get the sidebar to retract. I'm a self taught Medeco person. Grabbed the manual off the shelf, bought a pin kit and decoder, and learned by doing. I learned the hard way, by trial and error. For example, ii learned that f you don't put the sidebar back in because you lost one of the tiny sidebar springs, you don't 180 the plug. You 90 it, and you can't just lift the top pins to fix it. Just a hassle if you do it on the bench. But a nightmare if you installed it and hadn't turned it the full 90 degrees prior to install, since the cam keeps you from removing the cylinder. Anyway ....

I pulled one of the worst ones out, took it apart and checked for burrs on the sidebar and/or notch in the cylinder. I didn't feel anything, but I used a fine file on the edges of the notch and ends of the sidebar just to make sure there went any small ones I couldn't feel. I cleaned and lubricated it, and it worked like a charm. The second one went the same way, except I still couldn't feel anything that would cause the problem. Instead of filing, I just put about half a drop of TriFlow on the sidebar. The lock was smooth as glass.

I went through and lubricated all 120ish cylinders putting TriFlow on the key bitting and right side of the blade, and it instantly "fixed" every problem cylinder.

Turns out the locks hadn't been lubricated in at least 12 years. I found out the guy before me would take the cylinder out, bang it on the ground a few times to "knock things loose," and put it back in. If it didn't work after that, he threw the cylinder away and purchased a new one keyed to the same key.

I have to say I was surprised how much of a difference a little bit of TriFlow made with these locks. Then I thought about how many tens of thousands of dollars of perfectly good cylinders they threw away and replaced; when all they needed was half a drop of lubricant.

[cledry]

Common problem with Medecos. Here in Florida it only takes 6 months for them to lock up solid. Squirt of lube, good for another 6 months.

[billdeserthills]

Same thing in arizona, lots of dust and dirt here will clog up a medeco lock fast. Crazy that someone would just throw away a dirty lock

[ltdbjd]

Dozens and dozens of them. Then paying $280 per cylinder for a replacement one keyed alike.

When I got the job a couple years ago, not only did they not have a Medeco pinning kit, but they didn't have a universal pinning kit either. They did all their fitting by trying to hold a pin to a grinding wheel, or by trying to file a pin down.

People have told me one of the common responses before I got there was, "They are prison locks. They aren't designed to work smoothly."

That's a bunch of B.S. Sigh ...

[Tyler J. Thomas]

Been busy as hell lately. Did finish up an article on my blog about door staining. I'm about to start putting together a string of "Field Guides" for electronic safe locks for my site. A new one every few weeks. First one will be on AMSEC electronic safe locks. I mainly put these together for myself and a friend because we got tired of Googling various operation instructions, etc. out in the field. He does more safe work than I do but we definitely don't do them enough to remember, say, every single programming step for an ESL20XL, for example.

Other than that it's been hectic at work. We've got a lot of irons in the fire for large projects. Mostly electrifying hardware but a few access control jobs here and there and of course tons of little repair jobs. Sold a few more NDE's and that customer is probably already more fluent in Schlage's ENGAGE app than I am. Came back to deliver additional cards and he already had set up fobs on his own and created a schedule.

Starting to get a lot more bank work. Pulling safe deposit boxes and replacing/match working locks. Doing a lot of Auditcon retrofits next week. Nothing neat or cool since I last posted so I won't bother with any photos but the next month or so is going to produce a lot of cool photos. This is the calm before the storm.

[GWiens2001]

Dozens and dozens of them. Then paying $280 per cylinder for a replacement one keyed alike.

When I got the job a couple years ago, not only did they not have a Medeco pinning kit, but they didn't have a universal pinning kit either. They did all their fitting by trying to hold a pin to a grinding wheel, or by trying to file a pin down.

People have told me one of the common responses before I got there was, "They are prison locks. They aren't designed to work smoothly."

That's a bunch of B.S. Sigh ...

The prison mogul locks I have work smooth as butter.

Gordon