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day in the life of a locksmith

Pull up a chair, grab a cold one, and talk about life as a locksmith. Trade stories of good and bad customers, general work day frustrations, any fun projects you worked on recently, or anything else you want to chat about with fellow locksmiths.

Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby shutterstuff » 8 Sep 2017 18:37

Tyler J. Thomas wrote:Also working towards my CPL certification - hope to have it by ALOA next year so I get to wear a new ribbon on my name tag. Plan on start proctoring tests in Atlanta regularly since that's literally the only reason I haven't moved past CRL since 2009 or 2010 or whenever I got it. There hasn't been but one test in this state since.


I would love to get my CRL and then CPL (maybe even CML just to honor my late mentor who lost his battle with cancer last January) but there have boon no tests anywhere in the Northwest in many years. I appears ALOA does not know we exist...
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby billdeserthills » 9 Sep 2017 17:15

While I was sitting around I saw the latest edition of The National Locksmith,
and an article by one of Lockpicking 101's members http://www.thenationallocksmith-digital ... pg=64#pg64

Congrats on the great article TT
I was gonna put down on Sal, but it's just too easy
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby Tyler J. Thomas » 10 Sep 2017 12:31

Thanks Bill.

If you only knew what was in the pipeline.....details soon!
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby tpark » 10 Sep 2017 21:02

Tyler J. Thomas wrote:Thanks Bill.

If you only knew what was in the pipeline.....details soon!

I'm glad to see that you're getting articles published :) I only see them in the print copy - I haven''t looked at the online version.

--Ted
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby billdeserthills » 28 Sep 2017 20:17

I had an interesting call the other day, my client had an Amsec square door in the floor safe with a push button lock
I believe it was the ESL-10. They complained that it would not open or even beep when pressing the keys. When I got
there, I replaced their ever ready & gold star batteries with (2) 9vt Duracell and the keypad was dead. Looking over the
insides, the only verifiable damage I could see were that the battery contacts looked abused, which would be enough to
keep the safe lock from working. Fortunately I
had an Amsec ESL-20 lock I bought like 10 years ago in the van, so I unplugged the client's keypad & plugged in my new keypad,
put in the new batteries, entered the combo & Bingo, the safe dialed (kinda) open! This is the third time (I recall) that I've been
able to pull this off, not a big deal really, but it seems like it is to the locked-out client--Until the big bad invoice comes
out, that often puts a damper on all the happiness. Of course the hitch is ya hafta stock a bunch of different digital safe
locks, to have access to the right keypad.In the past I have swapped keypads and dialed open safes using an LG Basic keypad,
an S&G 6120 and now an Amsec ESL-20 so it does work & it's so much easier & cheaper than drilling


Oh & Tyler J. Thomas, when you get the Tricks & Tips Forum I wanna use this for my first Trick
back when Jake ran Tips & Tricks I used to win some great stuff from time to time with my tips&tricks
I'm sure those manufacturers who donate prizes don't mind in the least doing that
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby Tyler J. Thomas » 1 Oct 2017 10:02

Well, it appears October was TNL's last magazine. I still maintain that TNL was the greatest technical resource in this industries' history. Sure, people can rag on them for this or that towards the end but the wealth of information found in those magazines was second to none.

With that said, myself and a few others (Jeff Moss, David Lewis) are being proactive, however, and filling the voids left by Foley Belsaw and now TNL.
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby billdeserthills » 1 Oct 2017 16:25

Since my subscription is payed up through 2019 I'm a little irritated, but if it means never
having to look at Mark Goldberg & Sal Dulcamaro again I guess I'll live
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby Tyler J. Thomas » 1 Oct 2017 17:48

billdeserthills wrote:Since my subscription is payed up through 2019 I'm a little irritated, but if it means never
having to look at Mark Goldberg & Sal Dulcamaro again I guess I'll live


Yeah, I have no clue how they're going to reconcile subscriptions that extend beyond, well, this month.
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby shutterstuff » 1 Oct 2017 17:50

I have heard a rumor that there are talks going on right now to keep TNL going. That is all I know at the moment, but this came from someone who has an interest.
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby Tyler J. Thomas » 1 Oct 2017 19:29

shutterstuff wrote:I have heard a rumor that there are talks going on right now to keep TNL going. That is all I know at the moment, but this came from someone who has an interest.


Interesting!
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby billdeserthills » 1 Oct 2017 19:41

Tyler J. Thomas wrote:
billdeserthills wrote:Since my subscription is payed up through 2019 I'm a little irritated, but if it means never
having to look at Mark Goldberg & Sal Dulcamaro again I guess I'll live


Yeah, I have no clue how they're going to reconcile subscriptions that extend beyond, well, this month.



I'm sure they'll do the same thing that Reed's Security Reporter did--renege
it's all the fashion these days and it almost sounds nicer than bankruptcy
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby Shecallsmesir » 14 Oct 2017 20:49

New here and newly hired as of a few months ago. My day usually starts with a Lockout and about a dozen more as the day goes on. Along with a few key cuts and programs and rekey along the way. By far my favorite story is the one where they paid the dealership to program the key; then hired me afterwards to cut it. I cut the key and go around the car and make sure it works in everything it’s supposed to and all of the buttons work on the fob, if present. Turns out the car won’t start. I pull out my programmer and take care of it after explaining what may have happened. After looking at programmed keys, the dealer actually never programmed it but was happy to take her money. I hear this so often, and most times I tell them they paid a dealer to do something that they didn’t do, and somehow I’m the bad guy. I calm the customer down through various means and collect payment and move on with my day.

While I’m here; why do so many people not know what ownership paperwork is? Seriously? I have to explain it every time I do a Lockout or cut keys. Prove to me you own this car. Insurance cards don’t count, drivers license doesn’t count, unless it’s to supplement your proof. I’m sorry for my first post being a rant sort of, it’s just been a day.
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby GWiens2001 » 14 Oct 2017 21:05

Shecallsmesir wrote:New here and newly hired as of a few months ago. My day usually starts with a Lockout and about a dozen more as the day goes on. Along with a few key cuts and programs and rekey along the way. By far my favorite story is the one where they paid the dealership to program the key; then hired me afterwards to cut it. I cut the key and go around the car and make sure it works in everything it’s supposed to and all of the buttons work on the fob, if present. Turns out the car won’t start. I pull out my programmer and take care of it after explaining what may have happened. After looking at programmed keys, the dealer actually never programmed it but was happy to take her money. I hear this so often, and most times I tell them they paid a dealer to do something that they didn’t do, and somehow I’m the bad guy. I calm the customer down through various means and collect payment and move on with my day.

While I’m here; why do so many people not know what ownership paperwork is? Seriously? I have to explain it every time I do a Lockout or cut keys. Prove to me you own this car. Insurance cards don’t count, drivers license doesn’t count, unless it’s to supplement your proof. I’m sorry for my first post being a rant sort of, it’s just been a day.


Am I correct in thinking that you are referring to cloned keys from the dealership? All the manufacturers I have worked for require the key to be turned on/off in the ignition as part of the programming, so the key would need to be cut first.

Gordon
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby tpark » 15 Oct 2017 0:00

GWiens2001 wrote:
Shecallsmesir wrote:New here and newly hired as of a few months ago. My day usually starts with a Lockout and about a dozen more as the day goes on. Along with a few key cuts and programs and rekey along the way. By far my favorite story is the one where they paid the dealership to program the key; then hired me afterwards to cut it. I cut the key and go around the car and make sure it works in everything it’s supposed to and all of the buttons work on the fob, if present. Turns out the car won’t start. I pull out my programmer and take care of it after explaining what may have happened. After looking at programmed keys, the dealer actually never programmed it but was happy to take her money. I hear this so often, and most times I tell them they paid a dealer to do something that they didn’t do, and somehow I’m the bad guy. I calm the customer down through various means and collect payment and move on with my day.

While I’m here; why do so many people not know what ownership paperwork is? Seriously? I have to explain it every time I do a Lockout or cut keys. Prove to me you own this car. Insurance cards don’t count, drivers license doesn’t count, unless it’s to supplement your proof. I’m sorry for my first post being a rant sort of, it’s just been a day.


Am I correct in thinking that you are referring to cloned keys from the dealership? All the manufacturers I have worked for require the key to be turned on/off in the ignition as part of the programming, so the key would need to be cut first.

Gordon

I thought that the "master" which you need to prove to the system that you have a valid key had to turn, but the new key did not have to turn before it was fully validated to the ECU. My thought was that this allowed the locksmith to verify that the key could be programmed before taking the irreversible step of cutting the key. I bet it varies from system to system though.

I don't see how some key punch tools are workable for situations where the blanks are so expensive. I know that wafer locks have a lot more slack, but even so, I don't know if it's enough to be confident to use certain punches. For locksmiths, I bet that skills like "Never screws up cutting restricted/expensive keys" and "drills mounting holes perfectly and can install locksets perfectly every time" counts more than being able to pick locks well.
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Re: day in the life of a locksmith

Postby GWiens2001 » 15 Oct 2017 0:15

The systems I am most familiar with all use an antenna that wraps around the ignition key cylinder entrance to send/receive a signal to/from the transponder chip in the key. The system does not know to read the chip until the key is turned.

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