I'm locked out, how soon can you get here?

I HEAR THOSE WORDS FREQUENTLY BUT USUALLY FIND SOMEONE THERE WHEN I GET THERE.

The other day someone called for a locksmith and asked how soon can we get there? When told twenty to thirty minutes went shopping with a friend. Wow, what a surprise when I arrived twenty minutes later to find no one at home or at the neighbors home like was told to my receptionist. I waited fifteen minutes and then called the number I was given, after several rings it went to voice mail and I hung up.

I am now at the thirty-five minutes for this job and haven't seen the caller yet. I called fifteen minutes later this time I left a message. Again I waited for fifteen minutes then called and left another message.... by now my wife was growing impatient, now at over an hour we decided to leave.

I just got two blocks away when I got a call, the customer saying they had gone shipping and would return in a short time. So me being a big sucker decided to go back and wait. Well another twenty minutes later a car pulls into the driveway.

I got out grabbed my tools and headed to the front door and started to pick the lock when the customer asked if I was a convicted felon. I was shocked by the question at first then replied that our president couldn't do my job because I have to run finger prints to the D.O.D., F.B.I. and Homeland Security.

I kept working as the customer slipped around the garage side of the house. A few minutes later upon returning I was informed the customer had broke in. So I questioned the customer saying "You broke in" to that was a reply of yes I broke in.

I then asked what I should do keep going or what, and I saw the look of I broke in on the customers face and started putting my tools away. Then came the big question am I getting paid and if so how much. I thought an hour and a half of time should be worth at least the service charge but not the customer because I didn't open the door.

The customer watched me put away my tools then headed for where the break-in happen, I heard said I would have given him $xx.xx but not the full amount.

 

YES I'M LICENSED

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Keyway Types

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.

Protecto Keyed: Re-Visited (Again)

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.

Protecto Keyed: Re-Visited

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.

Drill or not .... and where I drill!!

I seem to be running across this type of damage more and more. Someone with half a brain ruins a Schlage combo on the front door of a bank repo and replaces it with a cheaper lock.

Mind you I use these locks on repos myself, I just try to find a less expensive way to get into the house. This house having a side garage door with a Kwikset combo. Here is from $80.00 to $120 worth of locks.

This guy really knew a thing or two about locks. He took a deadbolt from the security door and put it in place of the Schlage on the main entrance door without the latch, then installed this knob in place of the Schlage knob.

I noticed the matching Kwikset knob was still on the security door so I opened the Nu-Set lock, re-keyed the Kwikset knob and the dead bolt and replaced it with the one matching the dead bolt. I did have the latch for the deadbolt in the van so I installed it then the dead bolt.

This house wasn't too secure because the garage exit door had not been changed or re-keyed!!!