Gah! Locks...

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).

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'm a bit surprised you couldnt fix the old lock. Its so much easier than what you've just done.

NT

I have a Yale deadlatch. Only locked myself out once and we had a spare key with a trusted neighbour - now dead.

I can unlock the door from my mobile using two factor authentication, or via ssh if I jump through some other hoops.

The annual polishing?

Don't want to - it's all worn out and crappy. And I'll "fix" everything this time so they at least take the same make of lock :)

What lock system do you use for a) the actual electrolock; b) the controller?

It's a heavy Clarke beast made to go with the Yale clock. The controller is a USB relay activated by Asterisk.

standards,

I don't think they are that daft, but it is held in France. B-)

Oh look this series is just being repeated:

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

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.

But you can put a small knocker on the outside and a finger plate on the inside.

DAMHIKT

Owain

They do actually polish it - did you think I was joking?

Technically, it's a clean to remove build up of crud, but it's done really carefully by only one man who is allowed to do this operation.

standards,

Le Grand K

I don't think they are that daft, but it is held in France. B-)

Oh look this series is just being repeated:

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

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.

Thanks. Downloaded that one for later viewing. Will grab the other two as and when I can.

AAMOI how can anyone know whether something is the same everywhere in the universe?

Well you can't of course.

Science is not Truth, its a self consistent story that makes sense if you assume quite a lot.

AS such it ain't a lot BUT it has one marvellous thing that other stories don't. It seems to work to predict the future better than anything else.

Agreed, though I think of it as a "model" rather than a "story".