I live in an old house, built in the mid 1860's and much to my disgust I have been finding that after 150 years or so, some of the door locks have been failing. The main cause is broken springs on the latch. I do a lot of metalwork and into re-cycling/reuse so tend to reclaim odd bits of metal for making garden ornaments. I happened to strip down an old wiper blade and realised that the blades I have contains about 40cm of flat spring steel, 1 X 7mm which is absolutely ideal for making springs to repair my locks and other things!!
Don't throw out these old wiper blades!
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AJB Temple
Finely figured
You can buy pick sets really cheap as well. Plus practice locks of various sorts. (So I am told).
Trevanion
Greatest Of All Time
I'm more partial to a big hammer and a steel rod myself.
Lazurus
Established Member
PLASMA CUTTER
Cabinetman
Established Member
What an earth were those Victorians thinking of, fancy door locks giving up after only 150 years, terrible!
TheUnicorn
Established Member
you can also cut down a multitool blade (according to youtube), the oscilation makes quick work of padlocks, never tried but I think I will when I get a dull blade to play with
AJB Temple
Finely figured
Multi tool is an interesting idea!
Padlocks lick in the picture are usually easy. Doubt if it would work on complex locks that have more than one row of pins. Banham locks for example have pins in two planes at 180 degrees. I have not succeeded in getting through any of ours without a key, though I havn't spent ages on it. Ingersoll also have a lot of pins (10 or 12 I think) and are supposed to be hard to pick, though you don't see them often as they are not CE rated (though they are far more secure than 99% of CE rated locks).
PS: I am not a burglar. Just interested in locks ancient and modern. I have an early French lock that is very simple internally but very hard to pick because it uses a large cranked key to overcome a very strong spring so needs a lot of leverage.
Sorry for taking the thread off topic.
Padlocks lick in the picture are usually easy. Doubt if it would work on complex locks that have more than one row of pins. Banham locks for example have pins in two planes at 180 degrees. I have not succeeded in getting through any of ours without a key, though I havn't spent ages on it. Ingersoll also have a lot of pins (10 or 12 I think) and are supposed to be hard to pick, though you don't see them often as they are not CE rated (though they are far more secure than 99% of CE rated locks).
PS: I am not a burglar. Just interested in locks ancient and modern. I have an early French lock that is very simple internally but very hard to pick because it uses a large cranked key to overcome a very strong spring so needs a lot of leverage.
Sorry for taking the thread off topic.
The Banham double-sided cylinders with the pierced key can be trivially easy to open. I've opened a number in a professional capacity, including 1 which I had finished installing about 2 minutes earlier, only for the customer to shut it with the key inside whilst testing it....
The Ingersoll cylinders don't actually have pins, they have 10 levers. Great locks, very robust and ingenious. I'd love to pick one, but so far they've always defeated me.
I imagine a Multi tool will open a padlock in sorry order, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be non-destructive.
The Ingersoll cylinders don't actually have pins, they have 10 levers. Great locks, very robust and ingenious. I'd love to pick one, but so far they've always defeated me.
I imagine a Multi tool will open a padlock in sorry order, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be non-destructive.
Cooper
Established Member
Our house is slightly younger but still has the same issues, however my problem isn't the springs, its fitting the door handle screws into 130 years of redecorations. Any repair to the damaged wood I make causes the handle in miss-align. I'm sure someone reading this thread will have the perfect solution.
New doors.....
(Kidding!)
I'm guessing these are handle-on-rose, with the screws entirely into the thin section of wood left after the lock is morticed into the door?
They're a swine to get right even with sound timber in the door. I'd look at filling all the old holes with small tapered plugs, glued with wood glue or CA.
Modern locks often have pierced case too allow a bolt through fitting, as this is such a common issue . In a pinch I've drilled small holes into the lock case so the handle can be screwed to the lock itself, but this needs care to avoid obstructing moving parts in the lock.
(Kidding!)
I'm guessing these are handle-on-rose, with the screws entirely into the thin section of wood left after the lock is morticed into the door?
They're a swine to get right even with sound timber in the door. I'd look at filling all the old holes with small tapered plugs, glued with wood glue or CA.
Modern locks often have pierced case too allow a bolt through fitting, as this is such a common issue . In a pinch I've drilled small holes into the lock case so the handle can be screwed to the lock itself, but this needs care to avoid obstructing moving parts in the lock.
novocaine
Established Member
For lock picking a big fan of master locks. They make me look like am any good.
My tension wrenches are all wiper blade steel. Ive made a few picks from them too but normally because i wanted to try something.
My tension wrenches are all wiper blade steel. Ive made a few picks from them too but normally because i wanted to try something.
Oh, and also consider handles with a grub screw to attach the handle onto the lock spindle. Properly fitted, these eliminate any real need to have screws holding the handle to the door, other than for countering rotation of the rose.
You can modify existing handles in most cases, if you prefer to keep the original look.
You can modify existing handles in most cases, if you prefer to keep the original look.
Hot melt glue is good for filling screw holes you need to tighten up.
Cooper
Established Member
Benchwayze
Established Member
Most padlocks will give way to a pair open ended spanners of suitable size. You won't be able to use the padlock again but at least you can get it open.
John
John
johnbs
Established Member
I recently had the pleasure of trying to open an antique box which belonged to the Bishop who presided over Queen Victoria's funeral. I managed to identify the lock as a Bramah: Bramah Locks and Keys - Antique Box Guide
Very clever design and virtually unpickable. Certainly by me.
Very clever design and virtually unpickable. Certainly by me.
TheTiddles
Established Member
Pick sets, cheap
Tension tools, weirdly expensive by comparison, considering there’s less to them
Aidan
A friend in the mid '70s moved to a new shop. In the office was a huge safe, the keys to which they did not have. They called the local locksmith and he duly turned up and shepherded everyone out of the room while he was working. He opened it, presented his bill, got paid and left. When he'd gone they looked at the safe - it had no back. They used it for another thirty years as it was so huge no one could move it anyway.
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