Frozen Door Locks

Although Portland does not considered much of a colder city in comparison to Seattle or other places in the Northwest that usually see snow frequently, it does endure colder temperatures during the pick months of winter. Along with colder temperatures, some weather related inconveniences may occur as well such as bad road conditions, and frozen locks as well!

It can be a frustrating experience coming home from work only to be denied entering your home because the lock on the front door got frozen. A locksmith will be able to assist in these types of situations in addition to provide a solution to the problem making sure it will not occur again. However, on some scenarios of frozen locks, you could try resolve the situation by yourself without having to call a locksmith.

When it comes to the lock on the front door of your home being frozen because of the colder temperatures outside, all that needs to be done is bringing some heat to the lock. First, it is important to remove the ice around the cylinder and key-way. Once the ice is out of the way, the key can be inserted without much difficulties. The cylinder internals may still be frozen a bit, so inserting and removing the key few times might help clear some of the ice from the inside. Be careful not to force anything as the key might break inside the cylinder.

If the situation seem more worse that it is, heating the key is the second option. If you have a lighter with you, it could be the easiest way to heat up the key. If no lighter is available, you can try by improvising something with your vehicle such as starting the vehicle and placing the key under-hood somewhere that will heat up quickly. Once the key is hot, you can try inset it an play with it inside the lock cylinder which should do the trick. The cause of the locks getting frozen during the winter could be moisture that penetrated the lock during the summertime. Lubricating the lock before it gets cols outside should take care of the moisture and anything else that might bind the lock during the winter.

For more information about locks, lock repair and maintenance, contact NorthWest Locksmith Portland (503) 825-2124.

Cylinder and Lock Mix

Being a true professional and problem solver in the locksmith field means thinking "outside the box" most of the time. Not all jobs the professional locksmiths face have the solution written in the books black on white. Sometimes, to find a solution that will save time and money will require to be a little creative. Regardless of the type of job I had to do residential, commercial, or automotive, there were times I had to improvise in order to come up with the best solution and work with what I had available to me.

I recently got called for a big job installing brand new lever handled locks on around 100 units apartment complex in the area. The locks that I was replacing seem to be a mix of older Schlage type locks from A and G series. Since there wasn't any requirement by the management to re-key the new locks, I thought it would be a good idea to use the new cylinders with the new locks. The cylinders were all standard front door high security 5 pin type, so I had to come up with some spacers in order for them to fit with the new locks.

At that point, I figured my only option was to machine these spacers by myself using an aluminum bar I could find laying around in my van. After I bore the bar and started cutting few pieces, I looked at the spacers already made and realized I was making an aluminum faucet washers. Figuring it might be easier to just buy them at the local hardware store than making hundreds of these, I made the short trip to purchase a pack of these which only costed me few dollars. They seem to fit even better then the ones I made, so I was able to complete the job sooner than I expected.

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Cylinder Picking Tip

In the locksmith business, you never get to old to learn more tricks. During my years in the field, I ran into many type of jobs that required picking locks. Sometimes, picking locks can be easy which means completing the job in several minutes. However. other times, I found myself struggling working on a cylinder lock with my pick tool set. Usually in these situation, there won't be many options but to scrap the cylinder, but on a job I did a while back, I discovered there may be a different way.

I got called for a job not too long ago where the customer was complaining he couldn't work the key anymore with the lock in the front door of his home. I decided to take the job and was headed to the customer's address. When I got there, I saw that the door was actually open and the customer told me that the problem is intermittent, but probably require attention sooner then later. I then grabbed my tools and started taking the lock apart from the door. The door had a Mortise lock and seem to me as the cylinder probably needed a replacement. Luckily, I did have few replacement cylinders laying in my van.

The best cylinder I could find in my van that had close fitment with the customer's lock was a Yale cylinder. However, as I was trying to pick it, I noticed I wasn't going anywhere using this method. I decided to call a fellow locksmith of mine for advice, and he told me I could use an uncut key blank and shim the cylinder to open it and so I did. I grabbed a Yale key blank and started playing with it in and out of the key-way while shimming it from the back and after about 20 seconds, the cylinder was open! Once I got that part done, it didn't take me a long time to get the Mortise lock back together and finish the job.

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GM Key Make Tip

After many years as a locksmith technician, you tend to pick up some tricks to get the job done in a fast and easy way. I got called recently to make a new door key for a Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am. During my years in the field I ran a lot with these types of GM vehicle models and new what I had to do in order to get the job done as quickly as possible. To my knowledge and experience, most GM vehicles has a separate key to unlock the door and trunk. These keys are normally a 6-cut type keys.

Approaching to a job like this there are few options, The first one is taking apart the lock from the door in order to get the 6-cut code. This can be a very time consuming since it will require taking the door panel and locking mechanism for that as well. The other option (and the one I usually take) is to take apart the glove box lock. Although the glove box lock only gives 4 of the 6 cuts code, I usually can progress the other 2 cuts without any issues. However, on some GM models, the difficulty in going that rout would be getting the plug out of the lock since it might be squeezed inside a plastic housing.

T

he way I normally deal with that type of situation is very simple. The first step to do is to grip the entire lock plastic case with a pair of pliers while the cylinder itself is facing up. It is important to be careful not to squeeze the cylinder too much otherwise it will get damaged. With a special ring pliers, I expand gently the plastic tabs of the lock case which lock the sides of the cylinder to the lock itself. For the final step, I use an auto center punch tool in order get the cylinder plug out of the lock case. All that is left now is to progress the other 2 cuts, make the key, and put everything back together.

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Security and Safety

In this country and all over the world in general as well our country today, as well, residents, employees and students all want to feel safe at the place the spend most of their day such as work, school, at home or during traveling even. Business owners and employees require different levels of "safety" to compliment their products and their personnel.

Interchangeable cores is able to offer that extra level of security to anyone. An apartment resident can be confident in the fact that their place of living is safe and secure by using an I-core system. Secured access to authorized individuals does not involve the hassle of keys exchanging hands or leaving the property unlocked for an indecisive amount of time. In the event of a lost key, secured access by authorized individuals will not fail and does not involve the situation of of leaving rooms, restricted access areas or exterior doors unlocked for any period of time.

Teachers and administrators can easily change I-cores to make changes in their security situation. The same is true for government complexes such as post offices, federal buildings, utility operations and large-scale prisons and detention centers. That same degree of security exists for hospitals, clinics and scientific labs. Factories, plants and other commercial sites can change security levels quickly and easily as well. One must not forget small to large retail operations such as outlet stores and fast food places where there may be a situation of a large turnaround of employees burdening on security.

Without having to call a professional locksmith, an interchangeable core system offers an easy and reliable solution to maintaining a safe and secure environment. However, it does not mean that a professional  locksmith technician is not necessary. To the contrary, repining, expanding a system, and maintaining it, will require a skilled locksmith technician that is fully trained doing interchangeable core work.

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Kwikset Cylinder Removal

Our locksmith company got a call recently to re-key two Kwikset key-in-knob cylinders. I used my A-l Quik Pull to pull the first cylinder and replaced it with a ready-keyed cylinder that I usually keep in my service van. It looked like the job was going o be as easy as I thought and I would be on my way to the next job. I used my tool to work on the second cylinder and snapped the blade on it. I put a new blade on the tool and tried again. The cylinder wouldn't move at all.

I took the knob-set off the door, pulled the spindle, inserted a Kwikset removal tool and bent it trying to get the cylinder out. I got another tool out and tried again, but without any luck. I told the customer that if the cylinder won't come out, most likely I would have to replace the Knob-set. He said that it was OK and that the cylinder probably wouldn't come out because it "fell" out one day when he unlocked it, tried to put it back in and it wouldn't stay. He said his son super-glued the cylinder in.

I got a new lock out from my inventory, keyed it to the new key and left. This job took me nearly an hour more than it should have because I kept “trying" to get the cylinder out of the knob. Learn from my mistake, don't waste time trying to do something the traditional way if it doesn't work the way it's supposed to. Check out the following link if you need a similar locksmith service in your area.