Author: Bjørn Madsen

  • Seattle Parking, Argh!

    I now plan jobs based on where in town they are because parking is so difficult. Sometimes the only feasible way to do a job is to bring my motorcycle. I hate to do that because then I can’t cut keys, everything has to be planned out well. Part of the issue with parking is…

  • Safe opening: professionalism and lack thereof

    Today I got a request from an NSP to go open a large Allied-Gary safe for their customer. This in itself is pretty ordinary. What set it apart experience-wise was that this guy specifically suggested that I use an angle grinder to cut a hole in the safe to unlock it. Aside from the health…

  • BECU Business app is a buggy mess

    Trying to deposit fifty checks using the BECU business app is needlessly time-consuming and full of silly errors.

  • Unseen Dangers: Bottom Pins Used as Top Pins

    Recently I was called out to an apartment building because a tenant noticed that when he accidentally put his building key in his unit door lock it inexplicably opened! There are many possible reasons for this. Most are because of poor choices by poor locksmiths. This time it turned out to be because some locksmith…

  • Cheap Chinese Deadbolts: Problems

    Normally I recommend people that want electronic keypads for their home get the Schlage Encode, either the deadbolt or the lever. Sometimes they get some other lock like a Kwikset or Yale electronic lock because it has better zwave compatibility or something with their alarm and, hey, that is great, happy to install and nobody…

  • Electrolytic Rust Removal on Old Lock Parts

    I’ve owned this bench power supply forever so it was only procrastination that kept me from trying this out. The process is pretty easy once you get good contacts and enough steel. If you try this don’t use stainless steel, I have read that chrome will leech out into the solution and then you’re dealing…

  • Buy a drilled out lock for only $60!

    It is rare that I have found anybody willing to buy old locks, even if they are 1000% better than what they have in strength of security. It had never occurred to me to sell somebody a lock that had been actually drilled through though!

  • Canceled Locksmith Requests

    People frequently call me when they need a door unlocked, and while I’m driving towards them they decide to call their landlord or check their pockets and realize they don’t need a locksmith after all. Sometimes this is communicated in text, here are some of the most interesting.

  • Dumb Mistakes

    Sometimes you see something so stupefying you have to just stand there for a little bit and laugh before documenting it for others’ enjoyment. I got called out to rekey this business’s front door because the 24 hour guys they had come out to fix their front door lock didn’t bother to rekey the new…

  • Risk of Death: Stack-On Safes, Consumer Product Safety Commission

    There are plenty of inexpensive safes out there that claim to safely store guns away from children and there are even more videos on Youtube explaining how to easily open these same safes. Anybody remotely interested in opening such safes has been aware for more than a decade that many of these safes are not…