Why is it whenever I touch a lock or a door handle, it turns into a woodworking exercise?
Got some new sash/mortice handles to replaced shagged old ones. Screw holes are 3mm offset each. Enough to warrant drilling and dowelling the old holes.
When I changed the mortice lock itself (distress, the old one seized) that turned into a chiselling game (same case depth, slightly wider case.
I was going to put a keyed alike 2nd sash/mortice around the side to replace an aged lock. Guess what - my new Legge lock fits in the hole of the old Chubb but I will have to enlarge the spindle and keyholes - 6mm diagonal offset.
What's needed is regulation to make such things conform to dimensions. The sort of thing the EU does. Of course that will only be of any true benefit in cases like yours in the future.
Manufacturers if left to themselves will try as hard as possible to make sure only their products can be used easily as a replacement.
It is true I could still buy a Chubb of the exact same type.
But I'm trying to reduce the key count - The plan is to have a Yale X5 (6 pin) and a 5 lever mortice key that do both the front and side doors (wooden) - and when we had a conservatory built along with a new rear door, I made sure all 3 doors were keyed alike.
I also have some small (mortice only, no sash) locks keyed the same as the front door to install in my new shed when it comes (the door is framed well enough to take a mortice).
3 keys for the whole house.
Barring window locks - there are 3 types of those!
I'm also changing the Yale nightlatch to a deadbolt version that you need to positively lock - 2 reasons - cannot be "carded" (OK you can get deadlatches that do that too), and more importantly I cannot lock myself out (I really hate that!).
As we has sashlocks too, that takes care of clipping the door closed but unlocked anyway. Adding a 2nd Yale deadbolt on the side doors means no having to lock the mortice overnight which means better fire escape for the kids - did the same on the back door and conservatory - thumbturns on the inside. SWMBO was not convinced by the security, but I pointed out that once they had smashed a 2.5x5' DG panel to get at the lock, they could just as easily walk in through the hole :)
If I'd thought ahead, I could have fitted euro cylinder sash locks and got the key count down to 2 (you cannot really fill a Yale 30mm hole in a door convincingly).
Well its like everything in this world. Nobody retains the old information, so they use a kind of method based on what we used to call guesswork, but is now called new standards. Its probably Metric.
Incidentally, did you hear there is a crisis in the weight standards, apparently the official Kilo has started to weight less than it did. Brian
I don't think they are that daft, but it is held in France. B-)
Oh look this series is just being repeated:
formatting link
Precision: The Measure of All Things. Ep.1 "Time and Distance" is on iPlayer for a couple of more days. Ep.2 "Mass and Moles" is on BBC Four Thursday 2000. Ep.3 "Heat Light and Electricity" BBC Four 2000
10 Jul 2014.
IIRC mass is one of the few (only?) base SI unit that is still reliant on a physical (thus variable) object. All the other base units have been moved to be based on a "universal constant", ie something that is the same every where in the universe.
I don't think they are that daft, but it is held in France. B-)
Oh look this series is just being repeated:
formatting link
Precision: The Measure of All Things. Ep.1 "Time and Distance" is on iPlayer for a couple of more days. Ep.2 "Mass and Moles" is on BBC Four Thursday 2000. Ep.3 "Heat Light and Electricity" BBC Four 2000
10 Jul 2014.
IIRC mass is one of the few (only?) base SI unit that is still reliant on a physical (thus variable) object. All the other base units have been moved to be based on a "universal constant", ie something that is the same every where in the universe.
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