Re-Key Tip

Among the usual services an average locksmith technician does is a re-key services. Normally, these types of services are often in demand by a commercial or residential customers. A customer may call for a re-key if he just moved into a new place, suspect a stranger might have access to his place, or for other reasons. For the average locksmith technician, a re-key shouldn't be a difficult task. It can be time consuming, but it can be completed without any issues. However, since the lock is needed to be taken apart for this type of service, if not careful, parts from the lock can be lost which will put the technician in a jam.

A few years ago I remember getting a call from a customer who just moved into a new place and needed four locks in his home to be re-keyed. It wasn't so busy that day, so I was able to take the job without setting an appointment for later since I knew it would take a while to complete the service. After taking the customer information over the phone, I was on my way.

Once I got to the customer's place, he gave me a tour around the house, so I could take a look at the locks I would be dealing with and I noticed they were just the average standard Schlage doorknob locks. After finishing the tour, I grabbed my tools from the van and started taking apart the lock, so I could re-key them in my van. The way I usually would tackle a re-key job with multiple locks, is by completing each lock one by one.

As I finished the first two locks and moved into the third, I ran into a problem.  When I opened the 3rd lock, one of the springs from the wafers jumped somewhere in my van and I just couldn't find it. That was a problem for me since I didn't have any extra springs I could use instead. Before trying to figure what to do, I decided to complete the 4th lock first before moving on.

After finishing the 4th lock, I decided to call a fellow Portland locksmith friend of mine to see if he was in the area and could help me resolve the situation. Unfortunately, he was not, but he did mentioned something I didn't know. According to him, a new GM door lock should have extra springs in it which are the exact fit with most Schlage model wafer locks. Luckily I did have few of them in stock. Grabbing one to check, I came to find that it was true and the springs were in fact an exact fit. Lucked out, I was able to complete the job as scheduled without any further delays.