Getting round a mortise lock with lost key :(

[Jethro_uk]

[Huge]

Good job I already have a set. :o)

They're much harder to use than the movies would have you believe.

[Chris Hogg]

You could try simply bumping it, although I guess that requires a modicum of skill even with these

There's probably a video on Youtube on how to do it.

[ARW]

Dunno about opening the lock, but I do know that about 3 hours after you have opened the lock by destruction the spare key will turn up.

All the best fella:-)

[Fredxxx]

I'm reminded a friend of mine made a key.

Since you have a second identical lock, make a key with a peg to make contact with just a single lever.

By measuring the angle this key makes when the peg contacts the lever you can work out the lever depth by comparing similar angles with the known lock.

If you do this for each lever you have a fighting chance of cutting down a blank key to the right profile.

[dennis]

I suspect that those keys won't fit.

[Fredxxx]

There is, but that's still not going to work on the OP's 5 lever lock.

[Terry Casey]

You'd be surprised ...

When I became old enough to warrant my own front door key, mum gave me a key that my late father had found which fitted the lock, although it was not exactly the same.

Later, my younger brother became eligible for his own key so I had an idea. I bought a couple of key blanks, then took the lock off the door and dismantled it so that we would know for sure exactly which key profile was needed. At this point, all became clear ...

... When I was 5 months old, a German V1 exploded not far away, demolishing an entire block of houses at right angles to the end of our street and causing severe damage to all the other houses in the area. We were temporarily rehoused while the repairs were carried out.

When we returned, my parents found ample evidence that, being in the middle of a row of 15 houses, the builders had found it convenient to use our house as a base & to store all their materials. We even knew which door they'd hung their dartboard on!

To make it easy to come and go, the crafty beggars had removed all the innards of the lock so that the key to any front door in the street could open it!

I cut the blanks down to size and presented one to my brother. A little later we replaced the old mortise lock with a Yale one ...

[Max Demian]

That's not going to work or picking lever locks would be really easy. The levers all present the same profile to the key.

[newshound]

Brilliant story!

[Fredxxx]

That is not the case for all locks. Have you ever taken one apart?

Holding 5 lever at the same time at the right level doesn't sound a "really easy" thing to do

[Lobster]

Lobster grunted in news:XnsA787EFF1EB3B3davidlobsterpot601@81.171.92.222:

Thanks for all the advice. On the back of this I'd basically decided, 'right, it's locksmith time', and was quoted ?60 incl VAT, excl the new lock (which I would do myself). But then I thought 'sod it', let's have a crack with the angle grinder first and see what happens...

...so I did, and you know what, it worked like a dream! No damage to the door or frame at all. Locksmith cancelled :)

David

[Halmyre]

It's a bit late now but I have heard horror stories* about angle grinder di scs shattering when trying to cut hardened insert lock bolts.

*probably put about by disgruntled locksmiths...

[The Natural Philosopher]

It entirely depends on what the disc is

faced with a hardened steel shaft needing to be cut, and utterly failing with a hacksaw, my mates bench grinder made short shrift of it.

[RobertL]

But the lock is now destroyed. Will the replacement lock be cheaper than t he cost of having the locksmith pick the old one and cut a key for it?

Robert

[GB]

Clearly, yes. A new lock is £20-40.

[Fredxxx]

And the quoted £60 wouldn't have included a key, or three, whereas the new lock would.

[Lobster]

RobertL grunted in news: [e-mail]:

The locksmith said he would be destroying the lock anyway, via a drill straight through the body of the lock, concealed by the door handle; and FWIW the new lock (sourced on eBay, in order to get a brand new 'old' lock of identical type in order to avoid having to do any carpentry) was ?10.50.

David

[david.m.pickles]

Yeah thanks Adam. FWIW, I waited 8 days until I gave up and destroyed the lock; it then took just a further 36 hours for the old key to appear.

On a top shelf in the garage - WTF? Can only have been put there by me but I have zero recollection.

[ARW]

:-))))

OK so I was 33 hours out. But we both know that even if you had waited

18 months to destroy the lock the spare key would still have only turned up 36 hours after you had destroyed the lock:-)

BTW when you were searching for the spare key did your other half ask you "when was the last time you had/saw the spare key?"