Escutcheons on mortice locks with handles

[Velvet]

Ok, am I the only person in the world that doesn't want a gale whistling through the keyhole?

I have a mortice lock on the front door, which has a handle to operate it (it's a latch as well as a mortice bolt thingywhatsit). As such, it has a complete brass facing plate which the handle goes through, and in said plate is a keyhole for the key.

This is stopping me fitting an escutcheon to it.

What I'm *really* after is what I had in the last place (and am rueing not taking with me) - draught excluders for the keyhole. They were from betterware or kleeneze or someone like that - little self-adhesive things you fit to the inside of that handle plate, with a rubber seal and a slit in it to insert the key through.

Bloody marvellous things.

Can't get hold of them for love nor money now, though. And as above, escutcheons just don't work. The key has a collar on it, so all the escutcheons that are small enough to be glued onto the face plate are also too small to permit the collar to pass through.

Anyone have any ideas?

I've looked high and low but not been able to find any mortice handle plate things that also have built-in escutcheons, yet you'd think they'd be a good idea!

Velvet

[Peter Andrews]

From what you described (Kleeneze)why not glue a piece of bicycle inner tube inside the handle plate and cut a slot in it - if it works it's also cheap enough to replace when needed.

Just a thought...

Peter

[Velvet]

See, I'd thought about making my own, but couldn't work out where to source hte rubber from. Now, all I have to do is purloin a punctured tyre from the boyfriend this weekend, and I may well be in business!!!

Sometimes it takes someone else to point out the obvious :-) Cheers!

[Rob Morley]

Can you not make your own draught excluder from a bit of old innertube?

[Owain]

Yes, it's usually the bloke's responsibility to provide the rubber ;-)

Owain

[Dave Liquorice]

Are you sure that they don't still do 'em? I should imagine they ahve a website but how you'd buy with out a door step rep I'm not sure.

I solved the problem with gales blowing through the keyhole here with a bit of sheet copper (ex water cylinder) and a brass 3/4" No.4 round head screw. The copper is about 2" x 1" with a clearance hole for the screw center at one end. Small hole drilled through the latch plate above the keyhole enables the screw to reach the timber of the door. Works a treat.

[Chris Bacon]

Hey! Did you buy that place? Anyway, just cut a bit off rubber or make a plug or a rubber seal with RTV silicone to match what you describe. Failing that, plug it with a bit of rag when you haven't got the key in there. N.B. don't leave a key in a mortice lock that "goes through" for security reasons.

[Velvet]

Yes, I did! And it's great! And doesn't have a rising damp problem, what it has is failed render to the back gully, a COMPLETE bodge for the washingmachine on both filler and waste (which has clear signs of persistantly long-term leakage), oh, and a sagging gutter that sends a cascade of water sheeting down that wall from nearly top of window upstairs right down to ground level.... :-) Yes, of course I have rising damp in that pantry and need a new dpc right the way through (and that crack's definitely stable - and wasn't even mentioned in the survey).

Loving being in the place - but gosh, the DIY jobs are never ending! :-) Good job I enjoy DIY (though, has to be said, am currently nearly frustrated enough with trying to drill four holes in the right place through shoddy bathroom plaster to rip huge great lumps of said plaster off the wall and patch it with something decent that I can actually drill into without it crumbling randomly in various directions. Holes in it aren't round, let alone in the right place or the right size!)

I think I'm going to try the inner tube idea - should be easy enough to do I think. And yes, I'm very careful with where I leave the keys :-)

[Chris Bacon]

Very glad to hear it.

Seriously, a lock with a key in it is no lock at all! I#

Well Done.

[Rob Morley]

You might not need to rip out great lumps of plaster - I often find that a hole an inch or two across is enough to spread the load. Fill with Polyfilla type stuff. I often stick the wall plugs in the wet filler rather than drilling afterwards.

[Velvet]

Yep, I phoned them and asked, they found htem in a back catalogue, but confirmed they've been unable to source them from that supplier (or any others) since.

Googling has turned up nothing at all - even looked at grommit suppliers etc.

Ah, now.. that's a thought. Rather than trying to drill through the plate to fix the entire escutcheon, I could drill out the swingpin, separate the two, and use your method to fix the cover to the plate... as long as I can find some metal drills that don't break (is it heat buildup that does this? or just crappy drills?)

[Rob Morley]

Probably crappy drills.

If you want to fit a brass escutcheon to a brass plate might I suggest soldering it on?

[Velvet]

Hmm, that's an idea. I like the thought of just using the swing bit though, it'd definitely be a neater finish overall than having a second raised circle of the 'fixed' bit of the escutcheon on the handle plate.

[Dave Liquorice]

Check carefully where there is timber behind the face plate where the pivot screw will have to go. I looked at normal escutcheons but the pivot point was to near the top of the keyhole and there wasn't any (or enough) timber to take the screw. Hence fashioning my own plate out of sheet copper. Also on my face plate the keyhole is somewhat larger than that required just for the key and normal escutcheon was barely big enough to cover it.

Poor drills but more likely excessive pressure. As with most cutting tools let the tool do the work, if it isn't cutting then the tool is blunt or incorrectly set.

[Rob Morley]

A machine screw with two nuts on it will get around that.

[Velvet]

Almost certainly blunt, then, cos there was quite possibly excess pressure being applied.

I was a bit surprised when I bent one of those padsaw things, too. I've had to re-evaluate my strength - I'd assumed that as a girly (and not all that strong, IMO), I'd be pretty incapable of bending/breaking 'blokes tools' :-)

[Rob Morley]

They only resist pulling - if you press down while pushing they can easily buckle or break.

[Dave Liquorice]

New drills aren't overly sharp. I was rather surprised at the difference sharpening made when I bought a Martek sharpener many moons ago.

A pad saw is very easy to bend when pushing and once it starts to go it goes. Decent drills, being High Speed Steel (HSS) are fairly brittle and won't take much bending before they snap.

[Velvet]

Indeedy. Well, it was more a case of pushing forwards rather than down, since I was cutting a hole in my door for a catflap to be installed. First DIY job in the new house, and I was extremely chuffed with how well it went - very neat and tidy finish to it (and I ignored hte instructions to cut a square hole, and did a catflap-inner shaped hole, to retain door strength better). Padsaw's a little kink in the middle (I straightened it out again) and still cuts fine, just needs a bit of care since it's obviously not quite as strong there now :-)

Pity that I did so well sealing around the catflap/door join, yet failed completely on the bath sealing - very neat, accurate, not too much not too little - but discovered empty bath with me in isn't the same as bath with me and water ;-)

[Weatherlawyer]

I don't know what you want to drillinto the plaster for, one or two items or a lot.

You might be better fixing two lengths of three by one along the wall you want to hang the fittings from. Then all you have to do is screw the cabinets or shelves/mirrors whatever to them.

Buy some stuff that looks good not just ordinary 3 (or 2) x 1. Any mess you make drilling into the walls will be covered by the batton(s.) You might have to pack them out with small wedges as you go to keep them in line with each other/straight.

Put a screw in one end about where you want he batton to go then lift the other end level and screw that. Then run along filling in with more screws every 2 or 3 feet. Any that fail just put another plug in or try near by. Any holes can easily be filled with caulk. As can gaps between the walls and the battons.

Put a length of batton on top of the first one and sit the second on that to give you the height separation. Then work out from the centre.

Jobsa goodun.

7 mm masonry bits for brown plugs. You might want to try the 6 mm (for red ones normally) if the going is that soft and use browns in them if/as they made/make the hole/s overlarge.