day in the life of a locksmith

[dll932]

Another one from today - customer brought in an old Emhart/Russwin knob that he needed replaced. Only the latch was bad...


Sold him 2 Arrow knobs keyed alike with 20 keys, tore apart the old lock and got myself a nice D1 keyway knob cylinder!

A customer once came in a mortise lock that was stuck with the bolt extended...so he took a sawzall to it. I was able to braze a chunk of brass to the stub and file it to shape. I wonder what the frame and door looked like?

I actually had to open a mortise lock with the bolt extended, turns out one of the cam screws had fallen out and was blocking the bolt from retracting. I sawed through the bolt, I still have the rebuilt mortise lock in my shop--I did nick up the frame a bit but the builders fixed it all
back up again. It was their fault the screw fell out in the first place

I've come across thumbturn cam discs with broken springs, where the cam drops down and jams the bolt. I've been able to open those occasionally by sticking a curved stiff wire in the keyway and flipping the cam.

[Sinifar]

ONE of those days.

I know I haven't been around much lately,but been reading so I thought I would drop in and say HI!

You get a call to go out and rekey on office, MK and four change keys. No problem, do that in my sleep.

Getting on site, they have ONE key which fits only the front door and nothing else. There are two other doors with two locks each, as it turned out those four locks were all keyed different -- then there were the office locks, another six locks and no keys - all Schlage F lever locks.

Glad me and the bump are on good terms. The only way into the F lines. The others were pretty much the same, a Schlage Deadbolt on each door with a F below. Of course the only lock which had a key was the front door deadbolt....

One wonders how an office got into the mess in the first place? Probably went to Mr. Box and bought a bunch of locks and when they left, they tossed the keys -- most of the locks were relatively new -- so you guess.

Nice billing, got out of there in about two hours all total.

Just another day on the job for an old timer I guess.

Just to say HI!

The Sinifar

[cledry]

Your office with no keys seems like a regular occurrence around here.

[CMS_SAFECRAKR1]

That Vault Structures door is massive
Id hate to have to drill that. The smaller ones are terrible, Cant imagine that monster

[billdeserthills]

Had an interesting job yesterday, client with a rural mailbox couldn't turn her key all the way, so the door wouldn't open up her mailbox--I noticed the key would turn a little bit before it stopped, so I figured her mailman must have found a way to block the cam with a package. I made her a duplicate key, then cut the blade about a 1/4 inch forward of the shoulder. Then I stuck my key piece into her lock & pressed it in, which left me a bit of room for a flat blade screwdriver, which I used to apply extra turning force & that allowed the cam to cut through the side of the box that the mailman had crammed into her mailbox, thus opening the door.

I let her know I would be glad to serve as her witness to the poor job the mailman had done, that wound up costing her $55, if she wanted to put in a claim to USPS

[bitbuster]

Good luck with the claim. I worked 30 years for USPS and put in 1 claim. I ripped a pair of jeans on a piece of movable equipment. The rip started at upper leg and stopped at cuff. Jagged tear. No injury to my leg. I submitted a $15 claim for a new pair from WalMart. Denied because I didn't have the original receipt The jeans were about a year old.

[billdeserthills]

I was really more up for getting the mailman to start paying more attention--This is the same guy who left an Uzi in a box with a gun store on the return address sitting outside my gun shop 8 years ago. The guy seems like he's always in a daze for some reason, I suspect it's always 4:20 somewhere

[billdeserthills]

I had a call to open a Browning gun safe the other day, seems the old man had one a them senior moments and forgot the combo--The hardplate was pretty good, but I'm still working off the same hardplate drill bit now for 3 openings, thanks to my minirig keeping the bit so well on path.
I even got to put an S&G 6120 on after I got done with the opening. Strangely enough there was not enough room for a Lagard basic or any of the other digital locks I have with wires coming out of the back, because of an odd metal lip inside the safe door. This safe has a punch-proof member which was a bit of a pain to get off and interestingly enough no relocker.

[Sinifar]

How to make a permanent customer --

So the phone rings at 6 AM today. Looking at the called ID I know this is trouble. Seems Tony, the local store manage has a slight problem. Some goof just destroyed a Detex exit alarm on his back door, and could I help him?

Where exactly do you get a Detex exit alarm on a holiday weekend? Out of the truck! Where else? Inventory can be a major pain. YOU wonder if it is going to sell, then there are times like this when it really saves your butt and you come out shining like a star.

Got over there, installed the new Detex, repaired another one which was giving them trouble. No extra charge for a Holiday weekend -- just doing my thing and making the world safe for business.,

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to all on this board.

Sinifar

[billdeserthills]

I went on a warranty call today, the client said I had actually worked on this very same door back on 3/6/19 and it was acting up again. When I got to the building I noticed they have 4 doors and although I didn't recall which door I had formerly repaired, I was suspicious because I really didn't think it was the door the receptionist showed me. Anyhow the problem was the A/R type lock was outfitted with an open/locked indicator & I have noticed these tend to start sticking here in the desert, cause they receive no lubrication & for a quick & inexpensive easy fix, I just pull the pin out that causes the indicator to move, grease up the lock and usually call it good. However, when I removed the screws holding the indicator on I instantly noticed that the pin had never been removed, so I knew these bastards were trying to screw me out of my fee, by claiming this was actually the door I had repaired last time. I was so shocked that this jerk along with his receptionist & other staff were all insisting right to my face that this was the door I had worked on last time that I just put the indicator back together, minus the pin & left, after quietly mentioning that that there is no way this could be the actual door I charged them to fix last month. Believe it or not the owner actually called back & left a voice mail assuring me that it was indeed the very same door.

As I can see no profit in telling any of these liars the reasons why this cannot be the door I charged to repair I remained silent, after promising myself that any further work done for them will be at a new specially inflated rate

[Tyler J. Thomas]

I went on a warranty call today, the client said I had actually worked on this very same door back on 3/6/19 and it was acting up again. When I got to the building I noticed they have 4 doors and although I didn't recall which door I had formerly repaired, I was suspicious because I really didn't think it was the door the receptionist showed me. Anyhow the problem was the A/R type lock was outfitted with an open/locked indicator & I have noticed these tend to start sticking here in the desert, cause they receive no lubrication & for a quick & inexpensive easy fix, I just pull the pin out that causes the indicator to move, grease up the lock and usually call it good. However, when I removed the screws holding the indicator on I instantly noticed that the pin had never been removed, so I knew these bastards were trying to screw me out of my fee, by claiming this was actually the door I had repaired last time. I was so shocked that this jerk along with his receptionist & other staff were all insisting right to my face that this was the door I had worked on last time that I just put the indicator back together, minus the pin & left, after quietly mentioning that that there is no way this could be the actual door I charged them to fix last month. Believe it or not the owner actually called back & left a voice mail assuring me that it was indeed the very same door.

As I can see no profit in telling any of these liars the reasons why this cannot be the door I charged to repair I remained silent, after promising myself that any further work done for them will be at a new specially inflated rate

Glad someone is keeping this thread going! Cheers Bill!

[billdeserthills]

Just got a call from someone wanting a 'love lock' she says it is a padlock in the shape of a heart,
to be used as a wedding gift-- sorry, all my locks are for securing materials

[Tyler J. Thomas]

Just got a call from someone wanting a 'love lock' she says it is a padlock in the shape of a heart,
to be used as a wedding gift-- sorry, all my locks are for securing materials

Just great, Bill, now someone's going to steal her heart....

[billdeserthills]

Just got a call from someone wanting a 'love lock' she says it is a padlock in the shape of a heart,
to be used as a wedding gift-- sorry, all my locks are for securing materials

Just great, Bill, now someone's going to steal her heart....

I actually have a heart-shaped padlock, but she wanted something made out of precious metals

[billdeserthills]

I had a call to open a Fire Fyter floor safe today--I already spent the last week calling the company to get the combo it left the factory set to, with no luck ever getting my call returned because the Fire Fyter factory doesn't care about their clients.

Anyhow so I arrive at the house, get down on my knee pad & spin the dial just for fun, then I gave the lid a tug--imagine my surprise when the safe opens!
Then I noticed the safe was actually locked open, with the door just resting upon the bolt. Looks like the contractor never even tried to open the safe, just assumed it was locked & told the homeowner to call me--turned into an easy $75 so no complaints on my part