Hacksawing my way to bed

[John Rumm]

Yesterday morning I noticed the latch on the bedroom door was getting a bit "tired" - the handle was not fully retracting the latch and now and then it would catch on the striker plate a little bit, and need a firmer push to open it. That was until SWMBO tried to go to bed...

"I can't get into the bedroom!"

Sure enough the handle is now having zero effect on the latch. Tried the normal tricks with bits of plastic pop bottle wedged round the edge of the frame. In the end I went to the workshop for a stout scraper and a hammer. Tapped that behind the door stoop and prised it away from the frame a few mm, so I could see right through to the latch. Tried pushing the scraper past it, but it still would not budge.

ok back to the workshop... (daughter and SWMBO were speculating on my return with a chainsaw at this point)

Came back with pad saw, and cut through the latch to get it open! Just glad it was a normal steel latch and not some high security affair.

[Jonno]

John Rumm scribbled

Good job it didn't happen in the middle of the night when you'd gone for a piss.

[Chris Hogg]

What!? A pad saw...you mean to say...you didn't use...and you a regular contributor to this group. I'm shocked! :-)

[Adrian]

That's what windows are for, isn't it?

[tabbypurr]

If there's one thing I've noticed about security, it's that it often ends up keeping out the person it's meant to let in.

NT

[John Rumm]

Mmmm tempting, but I was trying to keep the door and frame in one bit...

(Although I could have got a reciprocating saw in there I guess ;-)

[dennis]

It might have been more fun if they were stuck in the bedroom.

[Tricky Dicky]

I have found that latches that have become worn and do not retract past the catch plate can sometimes be opened if you can rotate the spindle bar a to uch further and it is the stops within the handle that prevent this. Unscre wing the handle and pulling the bar out of the other handle but leaving it in the latch often does the trick.

Richard

[John Rumm]

Twas the first thing I tried, but it did not appear as if the spindle was moving the latch at all...

[News]

In message , Tricky Dicky writes

I had that problem, and as a short term fix, rotated the handle, the plate of which was oblong, with two screws at the top, and two more at the bottom. I turned the plate so the left hand screw fitted the right hand hole at the top, with the reverse at the bottom. Looked a bit odd on the skew, but worked - for several years :-)

When I eventually investigated further, and extracted the lock from the door, the lock was held together with screws (not rivets) and the business part was brass, very worn at one end. It is double ended, so I flipped it over, reassembled and it works perfectly now. Result!

[ARW]

Could you not have just knobbed her on the stairs and slept in the spare bedroom:-)?

[John Rumm]

Have you seen the amount of crap stored in the spare room?

I would need climbing gear to get in there! ;-)

[ARW]

Bit of role play Sir Edmund? "Those ropes look like they could come in handy".

[tony sayer]

What!, no under pissin potten?..

[John Rumm]

Hold on luv, I will get the gimp suit ;-)