Do it your self rekey kit

[Gantry]

Found this rekey kit in a hardware store for the home owner. It was $13 U.S. and can rekey 6 locks. It does come with everything you need to rekey a Kwikset knob or deadbolt but I'm not to sure how well the "average" home owner would do using it, especially on a knob?



What really made me stop a take a picture of it is the bitting on the key! They had 2 of these kits for sale and BOTH had this some type of bitting (different bitting from each other but just as bad).
They are on clearance which is probably a good thing...

[billdeserthills]

Years ago I used a similar kit to rekey my rental home deadbolts,
I'd like to see the victim, err homeowner use the included tweezers to reload some
dropped top pins-- Also this is the first kit I've seen that includes a tool to remove the
lock cylinder from a knob lock, I bet it isn't easy doing that for the first time...

[stratmando]

Looks like the Handle also the follower

[demux]

And as if the bitting wasn't already bad enough by itself, they then go and put the key right in the front of the package in plain view where any old person can go and take a pic and post it on the internet. Darn it, now I need to go and return my "126" do-it-yourself Kwikset rekey kit that I just got the other day to lock up all my really important stuff. (Just kidding of course.)

[Gantry]

And as if the bitting wasn't already bad enough by itself, they then go and put the key right in the front of the package in plain view where any old person can go and take a pic and post it on the internet. Darn it, now I need to go and return my "126" do-it-yourself Kwikset rekey kit that I just got the other day to lock up all my really important stuff. (Just kidding of course.)

LOL, Very funny Demux!

[jeffmoss26]

Those are great for business!

[demux]

Those are great for business!

Yeah, in all seriousness, I have seen them in a few stores in my area, and my first thought has always been, "Wow, someone buying this who is unfamiliar with the internal operation/maintenance of pin tumbler locks stands a much greater chance of just screwing the whole thing up than of successfully rekeying their lock." Never actually purchased one, I've got a LAB universal set and can do many more locks of many more brands/types than you can with these, and I'd bet that I paid much less per pin on the universal set as well.

[AaronBurr]

They have the same kit on Amazon as well. I recently bought it for the pins, the plug follower (got tired of using cooking spoons), and the cylinder remover. Not for re-keying. As you might expect, the plastic tweezers that come with the package are garbage.

[jwrm22]

I like it how these are sold in the USA. If I want something similar in Europe they call me a criminal.
Seriously I wish I could just go to the hardware store and pick up blanks and stuff like this.

[billdeserthills]

I like it how these are sold in the USA. If I want something similar in Europe they call me a criminal.
Seriously I wish I could just go to the hardware store and pick up blanks and stuff like this.

I haven't seen any blanks for sale at my hardware stores
See them on E-bay all the time & they don't seem to realize standard key blanks start around .16 cents apiece in the bulk pack

[trogfield]

I got this kit on Amazon expecting the bidding to be more different, but it turned out to be exactly the same as one in this picture with barely any variation in pin depth. I got it to rekey my brother's practice padlock, but it's kind of pointless because all the pins are the same.

[demux]

I got this kit on Amazon expecting the bidding to be more different, but it turned out to be exactly the same as one in this picture with barely any variation in pin depth. I got it to rekey my brother's practice padlock, but it's kind of pointless because all the pins are the same.

Heh. Knowing how certain companies like to cut any corner possible to make an extra $0.000001, it wouldn't surprise me if there were only some very small number of these that actually existed, and everyone who's ever purchased one to rekey their locks now has the same key. Or the same one of 5, 10, whatever keys. Yet another reason to either learn how to do it right, or bring it to someone who knows how to do it right.