Category: Blog

Every locksmith goes through drill bits. We have to install things in metal doors, concrete, and if we are lucky, maybe wood. If you don’t know what you are doing you might break a lot of them, but as you get better at drilling you may find you are dulling them more often instead of…

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…

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…

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

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…

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…

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…

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!

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.