Frozen Lock Fix

Here in Portland the winter does not get too much call, but sometimes during the hard winter months such as Dec, Jan, Feb I would get many calls from customers that will experience the locks on their vehicles being frozen. I notice for some reason it will happen mostly  on the door locks rather than the trunk locks. In order to resolve this recurring issue I came up with a neat way that will solve the issue within 30 seconds.

What I would usually do during those hard winter months is keep a small can of WD-40 (which any locksmith technician should have) in my service vehicle with an addition of an electric baby bottle warmer for the purpose of heating the WD-40 ca. Luckily, the type of bottle warmer I got plug right into the cigarette lighter plug, so when I'm on my way to the job that is when I'm gonna warm the can. That way, by the time I get to the job site, the WD-40 can will be nice and warm and ready to serve its purpose.

Once the warm WD-40 is being sprayed into the vehicle's door lock, it will de-freeze the internals of the locks instantly while releasing the sticky pins or wafers inside it. This portable baby bottle warmer can be found at the baby isle in almost every department store for the price of around $10. Usually, the WD-40 lubricant would be enough as is to free the frozen lock, but it may take some time for the lock internals to de-freeze. Using the warmer on the can will help it to be effective immediately.

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Exit Devices

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Broken Key Extraction

Broken key extraction can be a very stressful experience at times, especially on most foreign makes and models. The following method I am about to describe, I've learned from a fellow locksmith technician who had more experience with broken key extraction than I had. The first time I tried using this process was on a customer vehicle's door lock who just wanted the broken piece out so he can use his spare key to open the door. Ever since, I had only success using that same method in order to extract broken keys from foreign vehicles.

The only things a locksmith technician needs in order to execute this method is a power drill, spiral extractor, and steady hands. At a point where it is determined that the standard key extraction method will not work, use a 3/64 bit with the power drill and drill a small hole in the larger part of the broken key piece that is stuck inside the lock. Next, the spiral extractor will need to be used on the hole drilled. The extractor will be used the same way as you would usually use it with the exception of using of using pulling pressure instead of turning pressure in order to remove the broken key piece.
It could be a situation where the wafers or pins will prevent from removing the broken key piece out of the key-way. In such case, you could use a curved pick in order to lift each wafer or pin out of the way.

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Residential Lockout Service in Portland

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Schlage Re-Key

During my years as a locksmith technician, I got called many times for a job to re-pin a Schlage type removable cores. Once the cylinder cap is removed on the Schlage removable core cylinders, a Weiser Cylinder Cap Tool with the round notches can be used and should work just fine. However, the hole that is found on the tool, would need to be covered with a finger possibly in order to prevent the retaining pin from flying away in case the tool will get off center. should the tool get a little off center.

When doing a re-key job on these cylinders, it is a good practice to develop a habit to hold the finger over the control pin as the pins are coming out of the plug. Otherwise, it can be a hassle and a waste of time searching for this specialized pin among the scrap brass or the floor of the service vehicle. Quickly, a control key can be made for these cylinders from a standard 6-pin blank by filing the shoulder back to match a 7- pin blank. Next, the customers key can be duplicated, and in the seventh space cut the key to a #6 depth. Now, the cut would need to be ran off the tip of the blank so the tip would be flat.

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Transponder Key Fix

Transponder keys are very common throughout the car industry in Europe, and are very much popular in the U.S. as well. I came across a way for servicing one of these units when a key has been broken and a proper blank or a special device to re- program the new key is unavailable. One my fellow locksmith technicians was out working and had to deal with such case of a broken transponder key. He chose to go with this following option as a temporary fix to get the customer back on the road.

The locksmith technician duplicated the key on a compatible key blank by using both pieces of the broken key. Next, he taped the broken bow of the transponder key onto the duplicated key which was without a transponder bow on it. This allowed the vehicle which was a Fiat Punto, to be started and moved to shop that will be able to service and repair it. Our company has used this process in two separate occasions, and I think there is no reason that it would not work for other types of transponder keys as well.

As you may of you noticed by now, the transponder keys adopted a very large bows which is reasonable since the bows contain the electronics that makes this type of system work the way it was intended to. However, this large bow gives the vehicle owner more leverage when turning the key Which may cause a higher rate of broken keys.

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Mortise Commercial Lock System

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