Notice the subtle differences to the key-ways.
I got a call the other day to go and do some repair work on a house that I had previously re-keyed, the type of locks that were on the house were Schlage. Upon my arrival I was greeted by the owner.
We then went into his garage which were explained one of the problems to me, the door going from the garage into the house at lever locks on it and the knob itself had jammed so we could not open the door. I went to the car and got my screwdrivers to go inside to take the inside handle of the lock off when I did I tried to open the latch using the flat screwdriver and found the one I had was too small so it went back out to the car and got a bigger one, applying much more force than was really necessary to open the lock I got the latch opened. I removed the broken latch and started to replace with the new one he had purchased.
He was going to replace the lever type lock with the standard knob, he explained his children had played with the lever knobs and were making the handles loose. He also handed me a Kwikset deadbolt and wanted to know if I could put that on the door and re-key it to the same key as the rest of the house.
I explained to him that the key ways were different and unless he wanted to use two keys to get in the door from the garage I would not be able to do it. Many people have asked me this same question, some houses have a mixture of Kwikset and Schlage type locks on them and they want to know if they can all be re-keyed to the same key.
I tell them no, because a Kwikset key will not fit in a Schlage lock nor will the Schlage key fit in a Kwikset lock.
I had a call sometime ago about a lock that was sticking it was the deadbolt on the front door and the gentleman could not get it to open or lock. He had broken off his key trying so hard to get the thing to lock. When I got there I took the lock off the door and completely took it apart to see what the problem was. I took the snap ring off the back of the lock and started to push the plug out and found it to be jammed really tight, so I popped the cap off where the springs and top pins are.
I found that the lock was protecto keyed even though there was not sticker on it. After I dumped the pins and springs out into my tray I found that the plug was still jammed really tight. I tapped on the back of the plug until finally it came out and to my surprise a wafer thin master pin popped out with it.
I reassembled the lock and made some key and tested the lock.
Then I reinstalled the lock on the door and once again tested it to make sure it worked smoothly.
THERE ARE SEVEN PINS STACKED BESIDE THE DIME'S EDGE!!
Once again I highly recommend that anyone who has protecto keyed locks on their doors have the locks re-keyed and have the master pins removed. Nine times out of ten this will make your locks work much smoother and will eliminate the possibility of any future problems.
The other day I received a call from a lady who had protecto keyed locks on her house, she was calling because she had just gone down to the hardware store and had keys made, needless to say the keys did not work. She told me that the locks had protecto stickers on them. She also said that she had read my blog about protecto keys on locks.
I told her that keys made in those new machines sometimes don't work because of the wafer thin master pins that are used to protecto key a lock. The machine they use at some of the hardware chain, they just put your key in one slot and a blank key in another slot then the machine just cuts the key site unseen.
Notice the pile of seven pins at the edge of the dime!
I once had to have keys made it one of these big chain stores and the guy put the keys in a bag. I went to my job only to realize that the keys were not made correctly, they looked like the Gormogon's teeth on one of the episodes of Bones (i.e. very sharp and pointed).
But I digress, the thing is those machines might cut a key slightly smaller or slightly larger than your master key and some of those pins that they used to make the protecto keyed locks are very thin and may catch on the edge of the key when you try to open the lock.
I told her that I recommend having the locks re-keyed by a locksmith and for her to request of the locksmith that they take those pins out so she would have no further problems with those pins binding up her lock. She lived quite a ways away from my business and I told her it would probably be cheaper for her if she got somebody to do the work locally.
She thanked me and we ended the call.
