A Key Should Only Be Put In Locks or Your Pocket...

Originally published June 25th, 2009

…there are a few other places you can put keys too, however, there are several places that they should not be put as well.  This may sound a little gross, but one place they should not be put is in your ears. In my business I re-key, fix and replace many locks and have personally fixed and replaced several that failed due to……….ear wax. I’ll be the first to admit that the first time I came across this and realized what this was that clogged the lock up I felt rather nauseous. It still do, but like everything else you deal with from day to day you build up a tolerance for it.

Automobile ignition  locks are the only place that I come across this problem. Customers will sometimes ask “What was wrong with my lock?” Our reply is normally that we found a waxy substance in the lock prohibiting the movement of the tumblers and advise them not to put their keys anyplace but their pocket or in the lock. Even though I’ve really thought about it I’ve yet to give the reply, “The problem is you clean your ears with your keys.”

As funny as it sounds its really no laughing matter. Ignition lock fails can leave you stranded at the worst times and cost hundreds of dollars to fix. The best way to keep this from happening is to only use your keys for what they are intended for, operating a lock. Not cleaning your ears, scraping dirt, opening cans ect. If you realize that you have gotten something on your keys, stop, don’t put it in the lock. Use a clean cloth or paper towel and wipe the key off. If its sticky and won’t come off by wiping it use a mild cleaner on the blade of the key only. I do not recommend cleaning the electronic part of remote head or electronic keys with any kind of cleaning solution. Follow these simple rules and they can help you avoid some costly repairs.

Buy Pre-Made Masterkey Systems Online

This document was originally published Friday, May 29th, 2009.

Master Keyed Locks

You can buy pre-made master key systems from Steve’s Lock Out  for apartment complexes, businesses, rentals and even private homes. You simply purchase the system, it’s shipped out to you within 2 weeks (allow more time for exceptionaly large systems), you or your maintenance crew installs the hardware and your good to go.  You have one key for access to all your doors and each tenant has their own key that will not access other doors. We can also do custom systems or multilevel systems and expand existing systems.

A New and Unique Padlock Introduced by Strattec

Originally published June 19th, 2009

A padlock set to your car key

I believe this has been a long time coming. A padlock that can be set to your vehicles key. Now granted if you have a 78 pinto that won’t be doable, however, with most modern American made autos it is. The number of vehicles this padlock can be keyed to is too extensive to list here. You can contact us if you are wondering about your auto.

There are actually 4 different padlocks. One for Ford, Lincoln and Mercurity. One for Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth. And 2 for Chevy, Pontiac and GMC. The reason for 2 for the GM padlock is that they are the only ones to introduce a new standard key blade in the last 5 years. Other vehicles that they also cover are Saturn, Hummer, International, Sterling and some Mazda, Isuzu and Mitsubishi.

I’ve ordered one of each to keep in stock at my shop. My overall opinion of this lock so far is good. It is a hefty lock although the shackle is long it is not to thick. You can use this just about anywhere else you would use a normal padlock.

Here are some pluses that Strattec boasts of the lock:

Strattec is boasting this lock to be very corrosion resistant and has a hardened shackle. It uses a shutter much like a auto lock to keep out contaminents.

The lock also uses a side-bar type lock which will make the lock very pick resistant and bumping is not even an option.

And they are standing behind this products. They are offering a limited lifetime warrenty on the product. According to the warrenty they will replace, repair or refund the orginal price of the lock for the original owner. These rights do not transfer to anyone that the original owners sells or gives the lock to.

Bravo Strattec.

However, there is one drawback I see to the padlock. Once it is set to a vehicle key that is it. It cannot be recoded to another key. Other than this one thing I think this lock is great.

And again these locks are available at Steve’s Lock Out.

You Want Me To Do What?

This was probably my most popular post. This was originally posted on June 13th, 2009,

When I said we make keys to all kinds of things at Steve’s Lock Out  I mean ALL KINDS and this job we took on proves it. I would consider this job probably the most unusual I’ve ever done.

JR Brown Mausoleum

I was approached by a local organization that had been given the responsibility of being care takers of a Mausoleum at Oakwood Cemetery. Over the years the key had managed to disappear and it was time to do some maintenance and cleaning and without the key they had no way of entering.

Just an interesting note, atleast to me, my great-grandfather was caretaker of this cemetery.

I considered this a unique challenge and jumped at the chance although not sure exactly how to tackle this job. I had not worked with a lock of this type and age before. I managed to find another locksmith in another part of the US that had opened one similar to this and had a little infomation on the construction of the lock.

Bronze Mausoleum Doors

                                                                                                                                                             
To replace these doors now would cost in excess of $6,000 so I made careful planning as to how I was going to do the opening. I tried picking the lock for some time to no avail. Between the shear size of the bolt and picking deterrents built into the lock it was futile. This lock is similar to the lever lock we wrote about making the key to on the 8th of June only this one was much larger and had “teeth” on the levers that meshed together so when one lever was picked it was nearly impossible to move the next one to the proper position. It made it obvious that we were going to have to drill an access hole to be able to pick this lock.

A closer picture of the keyhole

The date on the mausoleum and what we could see here are the only clues that we had about this lock. From what information that was gathered we took our measurements, checked them again and then began to drill.

Access hole drilled

Although it is hard to tell from the picture we came in within 1/32 of an inch of where we needed to be. This was close enough for what we needed to do.

Door Opened

After we got the hole drilled it took about 10 minutes to get the lock picked. Here is a picture of the door opened looking at the edge of the lock.

A big lock

As you can see this is a rather large lock. Being solid brass I estimate it weighed about 7 pounds.

The Lock Removed

Here the lock is removed and the screws are placed back in the door as to not loose them.

Temporarily secure

We needed to temporarily secure the doors while we made the key. I had this cable lock in my service vehicle. It worked out pretty well.

Key for the mausoleum

We did not have an appropriate key blank to use in this situation. We made this key from some flat stock with a washer welded to the end for a head and then proceeded to put the cuts on the key.

Hole plugged

Here we have plugged the hole with an appropriately sized piece of metal rod and sanded the sureface. It stands out now, however, with weathering will soon blend in.

Door and key are finished

Here we have a picture of the finished job with the key inserted into the lock.

Introduction

Just to introduce myself, my name is Stephen Passwater. I am a locksmith/security tech in Parsons, Kansas. I have been locksmithing as Steve's Lock Out for over 17 years. I also am a big fan of many aspects of history which will be reflected here.
I have documented some of my more interesting jobs and some day to day things, however, due to circumstances beyond my control my blog was eliminated. I was able to retrieve many posts curtesy of the Wayback Machine.
I will be reposting many of those articles and adding new ones here from time to time.
I also run a fun place called Cosmic Castle. The photo below is me and some of my crew at Cosmic Castle on Steampunk Saturday. I'm on the right. My wife Anna is sitting in front of me. My youngest son Joshua is to my right. My oldest son Andrew is on the left. And a good friend of mine, Mike May, in black between my sons.

Steampunk Saturday at Cosmic Castle