Just settled on a house outside the state I’m currently living in. I wanted to change the locks before driving back tomorrow.

Locksmith came at 8:30pm on a Saturday. Switched out a Schlage keypad and knob set as well as a deadbolt and knob set. He brought the parts. Retail is $140, $40 respectively.

Paid $717. Labor was $268 per door. He originally quoted me $400 something total. Then $600 something. I was very tired, caring for my disabled father on this trip and didn’t feel like getting into it over the changing prices. Took him about 90 minutes total.

Was I crazy overcharged? 😞 If so, by how much? Just want to know how bad to feel about it. welp.

The handle popped off my door to the garage. The advice I was given was to use a screwdriver to widen the sleeve and just slide it back on. I'm hesitate because it's really loose and seems like I'd have to widen it a lot for it to be reattached securely. Any advice?

Hey everyone,

I'm working on a door setup and need to modify a strike plate by cutting down the black section/lip to clear an astragal.

For those who have run into this before, what’s your go-to method or tool for getting a clean finish without messing up the edge or plating? Are you using a Dremel with a cutoff wheel, bench grinder, angle grinder, or something else?

Appreciate any tips or insights on what’s worked best for you!

My friend needs help to rekey this. I figured I can try and help her. I’ve been doing locksmith for about a couple months but I’ve never seen this. I tried finding this model online I couldn’t. Before I touch it I figured I would ask Reddit for some help?
Removing the cylinder and is the rekey the same process?

I'll start with a little context, my Grandfather was a locksmith in the midlands - family business he took on from his father and he kept it going until he was 86 years old (still working 6 days a week). Aside from the usual counter trade, he was commissioned to hand make the locks for the prison service in the area; the guy was a real craftsman who learnt his trade after the war.

I was reminiscing to my son about his great grandfather and he expressed an interest in looking at locksmithing as a career. He's a teenager approaching the time in life where he needs to think about what he wants to do, and nothing would make me prouder than him carrying on the family trade (albeit skipping a couple of generations).

I'd love to know from people current in the trade, what's it like as a career nowadays and would you recommend it to your kids? He knows he wants to work with his hands, but I'd hate to see him train at something where the work is sporadic and hard to make a living etc. Any insight appreciated.

Title. I put in the correct combo (not shown), and yet it won’t budge. Perhaps I accidentally changed the combo while turning the lock? I’ve looked online and apparently these locks are notorious for doing this

https://imgur.com/a/hJ3vbfI

I'm doing a 8 cut Ford ignition for a customer, and I'm having issues. The key doesn't want to go all the way in when I add #4 wafers or #5 wafers. I don't understand what the issue is, I know I have the correct wafer, I decoded the key. If anyone can help me out that would be awesome. PN# 924-717

id like to mention, the spring isn't crushed and the wafer is in the correct orientation.

2 weeks ago I called a locksmith to make me a new key for my 2010 BMW 528i. When they arrived they worked on my car and told me they would need to take the CAS back to their office to program the new key. They took the CAS and didn’t hear back from them, the next day I called and they told me they were waiting on the right key to arrive so I waited.

I then called the day they said the key would arrive and they told me they are waiting on a “signal” to program the key. After calling them everyday and them telling me they have no signal to program the key, they eventually just brought back my CAS and told me they would call me to let me know when they are able to work on my car. At this point I have the feeling they are just lying to me.

I called a different locksmith and they immediately tell me they did something to my CAS and that it was dead basically. He recommended I send my parts to the ECU pro to get them replaced which I did and ended up costing me around $700 plus the $200 to have a different locksmith come look at my car. The team at ECU pro confirmed the locksmith had worked on my CAS and left it in a place where it would not work. How do I go about this situation? I’ve had to pay basically $1000 for the damage the locksmith did, is there a way to get them to pay for the damages? Or do I just let it be and take the loss? Any help is greatly appreciated 🙏

Dont buy!

Was called out to rekey 9 of them, manager handed me the new set of keys with the change tool that was shipped to them by their facility maintenance. I had done these plenty of times, it’s very simple. For the very 1st mortise cylinder I do the whole rekey process but at the last step I went to turn the cylinder with new key to the starting point but it’s seized up (pictured), but I know I did it correctly. I tried everything to get it working, I randomly got lucky as I was wiggling the key firmly and it turned, I pulled the key out, went to test it but again its just seized up. Tried a 2nd mortise cylinder, this time I lubricated it first and what not, and the same thing happened. I didnt bother doing the rest, told them new U-Change cylinders required or different set of new keys. Anybody experienced this before? Pictured are the customers old key (shallow cuts) and new keys (deep cuts) I’m thinking the depth difference might be why but not 100% sure.

Looks like the handle/locking mechanism was repaired with ...layers...of JB weld. It finally failed the garage door has been swinging open the last three days and just noticed this is the cause.

The doors are from the late 1950s swing up and outward away from the garage. There are two doors side by side. They use a handle that's lockable that links to a strike plate along the door frame.

Is this a custom solution the previous homeowner came up with or is there a product I can replace this with? Decently DIY friendly myself.

Say a customer calls you with a regular 3 lock change. Doesn’t bring up anything of note and I go out to the house. The house is condemned and after you pick the lock and get in there’s a room of literal fecal matter. What do you do?

Update: I did complete the job while I was there. Just put on a mask and latex gloves if they told me in advance probably would’ve brought a full painters suit

It’s an Anderson window that slides open. But I don’t know what type of handle to get to fix it.

Anyone recommend a reliable company to sell used fobs to? I refurbish what I can but end up with more than I can mess with having so many donated from auctions and repo yards. Need to get rid of some of it short of throwing away good money.

“Hypothetical”
Had a service ticket submitted, realtor locked out of house on market counted 10+ cylinders. The owner took the Key when visiting grabbing the last of their items.
Needed a working copy by next morning.
Picked deadbolt & Knob.
Decoded cylinder and got em new code cut keys.
Invoiced $310
Customer isn’t happy because Chat GPT says it shouldn’t cost that much.
Am I out of line? Was that too high?
Or am I just some kind of (ist) against Ai thinkers
I’m sure Reddit is a great place to ask for opinions.

We have an old black punch from pro-lok. I need a replacement carriage spring. Boss told us it's been discontinued and they only make the blue punches now. Just called customer service and she said they never made a black one, basicalluly called me stupid and that someone must've painted a blue one. Can't find anything on Google, even using reverse image search. Anyone have an idea where to get parts for this machine?

I am trying to replace the battery on my Dorman replacement key fob. I am familiar with this style key fob but for some reason when I took the back off no battery is displayed. Am I missing something or does Dorman not allow for the battery to be replaced and the model is 99369.

Had to unlock a car with its keys in the cab while taking the ferry, I’d have two nickels! Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it’s happened twice

Just bought a place in a 1960s building. The door lock has been acting super sticky and jamming randomly. I poked around and realized the previous owner messed with it and lost a bunch of screws, so it's missing parts. Building staff took a look and basically said they can't fix it, so its better to swap the whole box out.

Since it's a co-op, I can't drill new holes or mess up the door face. I'm just trying to find a solid modern replacement that can drop right into this same slot, but I have no clue what size or model actually fits.

Anyone know what modern box I can buy to swap this out, or what exactly I need to measure before ordering?

• Backset: 2-3/4"
• Faceplate: ~8"
• Distance from thumbturn to handle: ~3.5"

Appreciate any help!

Quick scan through the manual it looks like my customer is SOL but I figured I'd ask here. Anyone know of a way to disable the code on a privacy function (inside push button disables keypad until interior lever is used) CO100? Essentially turning it to a passage lever until the inside button is pressed.

The locks are on some bathrooms. My coworker installed a Trilogy on the door leading from the business lobby to the bathroom hallway, so now they want us to come back out and "disable" the keypads.