Can a lock be too secure? | Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter
I heard through the grapevine today that the local housing association responsible for the door and lock maintenance in the Wolverhampton area have decided to do a U-turn on upgrading all its doors to the all singing/dancing anti drill/bump/snap locks.

It seems the locksmiths employed by the housing association have been struggling for some time opening these locks when the tenants lose keys or get locked out and despite being trained at a local locksmith training school, still lack the techniques and tools to open these locks effectively.

I must admit i have been waiting for this for some time and surprised they managed for so long. I also recently spotted a small out of hours locksmiths contract offered online by the company.

Having worked on these monster doors in the past i feel for the inexperienced carpenters and handymen that get pushed into these tricky jobs.

Typically the doors comprise of a good quality composite door and frame, well fitted and equipped with all the extras; letter box guards, proper cylinder guards that bolt through the width and breadth of the door, high quality anti drill cylinders such as Roto, ABC trap pin or Mila Evolution.

Its fair to say that picking a good quality cylinder such as these is well out of the capabilities of a handyman and indeed a lot of locksmiths, drilling can be a hard slog when met with off center anti drill posts and stainless pins; without correct drill bits it would be nigh on impossible.

Snapping is well and truly out of the question without causing considerable damage. The anti snap guards inside the doors are collossal and hold very well against destructive attack.

So the question arrises..

Can locks be too secure?

My opinion for what its worth is that lock manufacturers have been in such a rush to address the lock snapping problem and/or just jumping on the bandwagon that the products user friendliness and maintenance capabilities have been overlooked, possibly to the extent that these locks could actually cause as much harm as good.

Don't get me wrong here its important that security issues such as lock snapping and 'bumping' (if that is a problem?) are dealt with in new designs to conform to insurance requirements and to meet BS standards but should also be designed to be removed easilly by the end user should keys be lost or damaged locks needs changing.

Changing a vandalised euro is going to be much more hassle for the locksmith called to replace it if he cant just remove the interior handles to snap it out and prices in the future will increase to reflect that.

Im hoping that this issue will become more aparent to the manufacturers in the future and that solutions are developed to create a more user friendly lock.

I think a little more functionality and a little less impenetrability would make for the best lock!

Seasonal Lock Problems | Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter

At certain times of the year a locksmith will expect to see an increase in seasonal door and lock problems.

I would define this as a lock problem caused or amplified by the change in weather.

In the colder weather leading to the winter season the most common problem I come across as a locksmith in Bridgnorth is upvc door contraction.

As the temperature falls the door shrinks a few millimeters and can throw the locking mechanism out of line.

Usually this problem can be cured by adjusting the hinges and/or keeps to match the warping in the door and is a fairly straightforward job for a locksmith in the majority of cases.

However the increasing stiffness of the lock is often ignored resulting in additional forces being applied to the lock in order to get the key to turn.

Eventaully something gives and you have a whole different problem to deal with. Unjamming a upvc door lock can be a complete nightmare and prices will reflect that!

Again in the Summertime the exact opposite can occur and you can find yourself with a door that seems too big for the hole with rollers catching on the frame when closing.

Some doors will swell so badly in the heat that they no longer open at all, particularly the darker brown colours that attract more heat.

A tip given to me by another local locksmith for this scenario is to run a cold hosepipe over the door to cool it. Sounds ridiculous to a customer but it works and saves using a door spreading tool.



Those two issues are rarely seen in the more solid composite doors however when choosing a new composite door I would always recommend a customer to choose a lighter colour.

Again with some of the darker shades of door a lot of heat is retained in direct sunlight which can cause the resin shell to blister and eventually crack, particularly in the cheaper range of composite doors.

Padlocks are prone to freezing in the frosty weather, furthermore when we are unfortunate enough to have a downpour beforehand.

In this situation you should NEVER try and force the key. Its not going to happen and you are likely to bend or snap the key making for a tricker opening.

There are a couple of methods I have used in the past from pouring hot water from a kettle onto the padlock, warming the key with a lighter and inserting, or heating lightly with a blow lamp on some of the more extremely frozen locks.

Unfreezing the locks to your car is pretty much the same process however i dont expect anyone to be silly enough to take a blowtorch to their vehicle... I will not be held liable for any burning cars :-D

This is probably my last post this side of Christmas so I hope you have a good one and thanks for reading. Merry Xmas

Rick

Willenhall, Lock Capital of the World | Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter

As most of you know I work as a locksmith and am based in Willenhall, possibly the most famous lock town in the world.

Half the people I work for as a locksmith in Willenhall will talk to me about relatives that used to work in the lock making industry if they haven't themsleves.

Willenhall has its own lock museum and many of the lock makers descendants still operate in the area.

Iv decided to dedicate a small section of the blog to name and offer a little exposure to some of the local lock companies still in the area.

Lewis Locks
http://www.lewislocksltd.co.uk/
furniture locks + supplier of other locally sourced products

Imperial locks
http://www.imperiallocks.co.uk/
High quality lever lock & mortice case manufacturers

Willenhall Locks 
http://www.willenhall-locks.co.uk/
Specialised mortice and safe lock manufacturer

A&E Squire
http://www.aesquire.com/
Furniture and cabinet lock manufacturer

Croft Architectural
http://www.croft.co.uk/
High quality brass and architectural hardware manufacturers

There are also the larger lock names based here in Willenhall such as ERA and Assa Abloy Group both of which offer a large range of locking products assembled using imported parts.

If iv missed you off the list please feel free to email me with a little more info and i'l see what i can do.

Is SEO important to a locksmith? | Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter

As a lot of locksmiths are now discovering the main bulk of their work is now coming from online leads.

Times have changed dramatically and iv seen virtually all of the major local competition vanish within two years beacuse they thought they could survive on reputation alone.

I was lucky to discover early on that the most important part of running a successful locksmith business is Search Engine Optimisation.

I cant stress how important this is!

Nothing to do with locks, not taught on any locksmith course i know of and completely baffling to the oldschool generation!

75% of the actual physical work i do is sat here at the computer optimising my websites (note the pluralisation).

The likes Thomson Local and Yellow Pages are single celled organisms online compared to the goliath that is Google and although they offer web based advertising products you can do so much better for your money and if you know what you are doing can exploit various aspects of their system to get FREE online advertsing that out performs their paying customers.

The typical online directory listing is £200 upwards per area and will be lost in a sea of other adverts usually in the shadows of large national locksmith advertisers. A website with hundreds of pages can cost you £30-60 a year plus SEO fees if you dont know how to do it yourself.

SEO is still considered a dark art and with Google constantly changing the rules of the game it can feel like you're the donkey chasing the carrot.

As my SEO knowledge has grown I have attracted the attention of other websites and locksmiths asking for help so have begun to take on a small amount of private search engine optimisation work.

I dont intend to make a big business out of it nor much money, its something i enjoy and beneficial to my own locksmith business.

If you would like me to get involved with improving the search engine optimisation of your locksmith website then you can contact me on
07724-828289 or email me at placeborick@hotmail.com and we can come to some sort of arrangement.

________________

We support free and open internet!

https://www.google.com/takeaction/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=hpp&utm_campaign=12032012freeandopen_en

Stale Summer / Locksmith Training - Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter

Its that stale summer period again and theres not much happening in the way of work, news or anything really and therefore nothing much to report.

I do have a few good items to post later on when i have a bit more time to write them up properly though:

-Femurats manifoil safe lock manipulation guide/experience: An interesting insight into a newbies first NDE safe cracking.

-Thumbturn wires: How to make your own thumbturn wire and how to use it properly

-Locksmith handy tips and tricks: useful nuggets of knowledge to make life easier.

Keep stopping by and keep me posted on any new developments in the locksmith world!

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uPVC mech replacement parts - Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter

A few days ago i was called out to a failed upvc mech.

Upon removing the handle i saw it was a Millenco with the dual spindle cams however only used the upper cam.



The door was unlocked easilly using the second cam below and i soon had the MPL on the floor.

The lock was in great condition, however the cheap cast cam had snapped off when the customers grandaughter had been swinging on the handles.

I agreed with the customer that it wasnt neccessary to pay the massive cost of a replacement unit and i would swap the top and bottom spindle cams to repair the lock.

It took a few minutes and we had one working mech again, at the fraction of the cost of replacing the unit, not to mention the time saved fetching another one.



Which leads me to ask the question;

Why dont manufacturers sell replacement parts for these locks?
(If they do i havent seen any yet!)

Obviously its better for business to be selling whole units....

The cost of repairing a failed upvc mech is pretty high with certain models, Millenco especially as they have non-replacable gearboxes.

I often find myself appologising to my customers for the cost of repairing their door when in reality it is the lock manufacturers pocketing the lions share of the money.

Is it time we started demanding replacement parts for these locks in order to keep costs down? Afterall there is a considerable difference between the £50+ MPL's and a couple of quids worth of cast metal.



Next time you are ordering a part from your supplier; Ask for the part to fix the existing lock. Its a long shot but one day they may respond to the demand by offering these parts for sale.

In the meantime i will be stripping and sorting my old mech parts for future use.

Locksmith snapper bars, and custom tools
Topic: General Chatter

Im currently suffering the slipped disk of hell in my lower back to bring you this update, sitting on this chair is murder so i hope you appreciate my sacrifice :-D



Unfortunately, this weekend saw the death of one of my favourite locksmith tools, the snapper bar. It was only a budget SKS job but its seen me through hundreds of jobs before finally cracking up, leaving me right in the shite on an important job, Anyone thats had to open a thumbturn euro with a rounded off end will undertsand how difficult it is to hammer the plug round whilst engaging the cam in the lock... Not my finest moment but another experience point earned.



Anyway, i replaced the old tool with a new (i think its a pink's) budget snapper bar that has removable ends that screw into the main bar. An interesting design, however i fear the weak point may be the bar itself. I can see the tubing splitting further down the line around the threading...only time will tell.

Its been one of those quiet weeks thats seen me pottering around my shed making things and counting stock. One of my experiments was to make one of those key turners for curtained deadlocks.

Using only the junk i could lay my hands on and a tad of dremmel work i came up with this design; i think you will agree the handle is pretty cool salvaged from a battered old combo padlock from the pound shop.

Also managed to get a bit of lock picking practice in again. I really have lost my mojo as of late, thus the heavy usage of my snapper bar.
Best pick of the week was probably this garrison padlock picked with a half diamond southord pick, although brand new out the box wasnt going to be too awkward.

uPVC Door Locks - Common Problems
Topic: General Chatter

I wrote this article for the benefit of locksmiths who would like to add a little useful content to their websites.

Please dont copy and paste!

I would appreciate a link to this page in return for the use of the information.

 Common upvc door lock problems

 Door not locking properly / Stiff handle...

There are several reasons why your upvc door could be failing to lock correctly:
If the handle has been feeling a bit stiff and the key wont fully turn anymore, chances are that your upvc door is out of alignment. This can be caused by swelling and contracting of the upvc door at differing temperatures or from general wear and tear on the upvc door due to repeated slamming or hanging on the door itself. This can be sorted by adjusting the hinges of the door to re-align the keeps in the frame. once the lock is operating smoothly without obstructions the key will turn.
You can get similar symptoms due to debris in the upvc door frame preventing the door from shutting true. Regular cleaning of dirt and stones out of the frame will prevent this.

Door will only lock from one side...

If you find that your upvc door only seems to lock from one side of the door and the other will not allow a full turn of the key, then you will need a replacement lock barrel. This is caused by the central cam of the lock cylinder slipping out of alignment. General causes seem to be due to worn keys and lock components often as a result of heavy use and substandard quality locks,
You will need to call your local locksmith to replace the cylinder with a new one of correct size.

This  is a relatively quick job if there are no other complications.

Handle is spinning all the way round, not opening the door...

This is often the aftermath of not getting your upvc door adjusted when it has been feeling stiff.

Prolonged forcing of the handle puts massive strain on internal parts and eventually they WILL break!
You have broken the spindle inside the lock back box and will need either a replacement backbox or entire locking unit, depending on the type of multipoint lock fitted.
You will need to call a local locksmith to open the upvc door and order the new parts which can be pricey therefore it is important that you get your door adjusted when early symptoms of stiffness occur.

Lost Keys / Locked out...

This is definitely a job for an emergency locksmith,

DO NOT attempt to force the upvc door open as you may cause more serious damage to the multi-point lock. An experienced locksmith should be able to pick or drill the lock to open the door cleanly without permanent damage. Once the upvc door is open the lock cylinder can be removed and a new one fitted,

Lock Cylinders

Often, the cylinders fitted in new upvc doors are not the best quality and may not be suitable to satisfy your insurance requirements. Exterior door locks need to conform to BS3621 and should display a stamped kitemark on the lock. A good example is the new Yale antisnap lock.

These upvc locks will be more expensive than bog standard ones, however provide considerably more protection against drilling, snapping and picking or bumping the lock.

There are many brands of lock that exceed the British Standard rating and offer incredible protection against unauthorised opening. These demand a high price but would be well worth investing in for protecting high risk premises.

The lock cylinder should not protrude more than 5mm from the handle of the door, ideally they should sit flush.

Locks that stick out from the face of the door more than 5mm are a considerable security flaw and you should contact a locksmith to arrange the fitting of a correct sized lock.

Sorry its been a while - Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter

Im sorry its been a long time since i updated the blog iv been incredibly busy both working and optimising my locksmith site to get even more work.

So im routing through my photobucket account to see what iv been upto lately, i forget myself sometimes...

A few weeks ago i had a clearout of all the old locks i had knocking around, i really didnt realise that id saved up so many and have been flogging them on LP101 10 for £12 (free postage),theres still a fair few left if anyone fancies some cheap locks to pick.

I havent done much hobby picking at all lately the last lock i picked was an AZBE cylinder sent to me by Mike at Sheffield Locksmiths, which turned out to be an easy one, i had this lock open in under 60 seconds.

The lock was very sloppy and poorly manufactured making for a very simple pick with little opposition other than the tight keyway of the cylinder.

Going back even further i managed to pick a DOM (of some description) sent to me by Femurat of LP101. Again not much trouble at all once id worked out where the active side pin was hiding.

It might be worth mentioning that iv recently purchased  a load of MT5 padlock corescomplete with reg cards and the plastic retainer which should be a direct replacement for the old classic style padlock. Contact me if you would like one ;-)

Lock Buying Guide - Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter
A new addition to my locksmith wolverhampton website is the 'Buying a lock guide' aimed at customers looking for information on choosing the best lock for their door at the right price.

Feel free to take a look at the site (currently under construction) and i would be greatful for any feedback or ideas to improve what i hope will become a popular resource.

Sub-contracting, Is it worth the hassle? - Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter
In the UK most locksmiths have either worked for or definately heard of the main contractors; Reactfast, Lockaid, Able Group; that supply work all over the country to self employed locksmiths like you and I and pay you a cut of the money, typically 40-60% minus your CIS deductions.

These companies charge heavilly and often encourage a huge markup on parts. As the subcontractor you are deployed to complete the work and deliver the bad news (the bill). Its often an uncomfortable position to be put as a lot of your customers tend to be poor or elderly folk, easilly mislead and manipulated over the phone.

Its rare you find a lockie that enjoys working for these companies, however as a new start up its an essential stepping stone in gaining experience and meeting new customers.

I myself knocked two contracts on the head after a few months, mainly because I wasnt tough enough to rob from the poor to give to the rich... I often found myself charging as little as possible so that the customers didnt go away and hang themselves afterwards.

Secondly, when it came to pay day getting your money was usually an ordeal. As most of you know all monies generated are to be sent to the contractor on job completion and then you are paid your share and reimbursed for your expenses at the end of the week/month.

Payment rarely arrived on time and i often found myself out of pocket the end of the month and chasing my money. Able Group and Reactfast were particularly skilled at delaying payment and i eventually resorted to threats of removing locks I had installed.

Initially Lockaid werent too sloppy on the paying up side until I began negotiating a higher percentage for work further afield. Needless to say im still awaiting payment to this day for that work....
I have also been asked to perform underhand tactics such as 'go back and see if you can charge a bit more on the parts' and to perform work without receipts. Lockaid are indeed a very shady company to the extent i cant publish some of my suspicions.....
and that was the last bit of sub-contracting i did.

My accounts are just the tip of the iceburg, iv heard stories of big lockies being shafted for thousands by non paying contractors thats seem to turn on the subbing locksmith for no apparent  reason.

It will always be a risky area to work in and undoubtedly an uncomfortable one. It all boils down to how badly you want the work, unfortunately for the newcomer its pretty much essential to get the ball rolling and to meet new customers.

Finally Back Online - Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter
Aghh, moving house was far more stressful than i imagined but im now finally back online and back in business.

Had a wonderful 2 weeks in the Maldives and was suprised to see an interesting lock in use on our apartment door. (My wife was delighted to see me wasting our cameras memory snapping locks...)

Made by Fontaine, Paris is appears to be a crude tubular style lock with a big brass key. Unfortunately i didnt have my tools with me (under threat of death from my wife)

I cannot find much info on the lock to link to other than a youtube video. A translation would be appreciated from any of my overseas subscribers :-)

Lock For Alcoholics - Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter
One final post before the internet provider cuts me off...

I stumbled across this amusing lock design whilst searching on the internet.

The alcoholic's groove ensures no drunkard ever misses the keyhole and gets home safely...

Whether its a real design or just a joke, im not sure.

Il let you decide :-D

Moving - Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter
Things may be quiet here for a few weeks as im about to get married and move house all in one go. It will take a while to get unpacked and get the internet back up and running. No doubt i will have plenty more to post when im back.

Happy picking and il be back soon

Getting with the times - Locksmith Blog
Topic: General Chatter
Its getting harder and harder these days to find any decent information on Locksmithing via the internet, as most forums and internet groups seem to withold information for themselves and rarely share the stuff we all want to know.

Iv been a member of a certain lock forum for quite a while now and despite jumping through all the hoops and contributing more than my fair share in order to fit in, i still never 'made the grade' for their advanced section....



Anyhow i decided to get with the times and create a blog, where i can discuss anything without offending and breaking rules.

Im a working locksmith and have LOTS of information to share and discuss with locksmiths and hobbiests alike.

I will be updating quite frequently to get the ball roling.

Hope you enjoy reading and have fun.