Did you know that criminals might be able to twist the lock right off your door in near silence, and then open your door with a screwdriver? The way to guard against this is to use a cylinder lock guard. This makes it hard for the criminal to get a grip on your lock cylinder because it spins around freely.
A few years ago, this problem came up on Capitol Hill. A group of thieves were going around twisting the locks off of business’s doors with a very large wrench. At the time, people became very concerned about the problem and cylinder guards were very popular to install, but now when I go to a lot of businesses I see that their lock cylinders are not protected at all.
When you consider how much is at stake (a store’s entire inventory, a family’s belongings of great sentimental and market value) and identify that the lock is the single point of failure that makes it possible to lose these things, you realise how inexpensive it actually is to pay for the installation of a cylinder guard. If you have the time, you can even do this yourself.
First, you have to buy a cylinder guard. Second, you have to loosen (but not remove) the set screw for your lock cylinder. Third, you must unscrew your lock cylinder so that it comes out of the mortise cassette, put the cylinder guard on it so that the lock cylinder is recessed, and screw it back in carefully so that the threads line up correctly. If you do it correctly and screw it in far enough, you can tighten the set screw and try out your mortise cylinder to see if it still works correctly.
The cylinder guard may be thick enough that it causes your lock cylinder’s cam to not contact the mortise cassette correctly, and this means you need a slightly longer lock cylinder or you need to screw your lock cylinder in farther.
If this sounds difficult, I charge $65 for a service call and about $10 for a cylinder guard, depending on finish. If you have any locks to rekey, $10 more is a very small price to pay for peace of mind. Bearing these things in mind, give me a call and make your house or business a harder target!
