Sometimes people are shocked to find out that they can have a lost key replaced simply by having somebody who still has the key send a picture of it in text message to me. If the code isn’t stamped on the key, the code cuts of the key can still be decoded.
I accomplish this by using a photo manipulation program that has the ability to measure distance from pixel to pixel. I first make sure the key in the picture is perfectly horizontal. Then I measure the distance from the top to bottom of the key where the key hasn’t yet been cut. Then I measure the distances in pixels from the bottom of the key cuts to the bottom of the key. If I then compare the width in pixels of the key where it is cut compared to the width where it is not cut and then multiply that ratio by the real world width of the key in inches or mm, I get a real world cut depth for that cut. Do it five more times and you have real world depth cuts for that key and can make a pretty good copy, either by cutting with a metric card or by looking at the closest known depths for that key and cutting to those depths.
If you cut to the nearest code depths chances are that your new key will work much better than the one in the picture! This is a great real world use of algebra if any middle school teachers out there want an application. Using algebra in this case saves my customer at least $100 and also allows me to cut a key without putting my coat on.
For some reason people in the former USSR are really interested in getting into this website. Somebody from Moldova even got locked out 50 times, meaning they must have tried at least 100 login and password combinations. I don’t know why these people want to bother with this website, but the following is a list of IP addresses belonging to the scuzzbuckets:
Every once in a while I go to a job and find an old mortise lock that for whatever reason the customer does not want anymore, usually because it has malfunctioned. Some people like having a modern-looking lock. If they hired me to open their door because their lock malfunctioned some people elect to replace their mortise lock with a cheap doorknob because if the knob malfunctions you can unscrew it and remove it from the door (if you can get inside)
Usually these old locks have some very ornate thumblatches and other trim, and I just can’t stand throwing these away. I now have many of these but haven’t found a purpose for them yet until just now. I propose using them as fence gate pull handles.
I used to build fences and have quite a bit of experience putting them together. Usually I bought a kit including black hinges and a latch and they look very nice when installed. Lots of people opt for a cheaper latch, just a small metal latch like this:
There are other options though. For a while I was using architectural closeout pull handles. You can use dummy handles made by lock manufacturers. Why not use these stately old thumblatchs? The only drawback is if your fence isn’t attractive enough to stand up to the beauty of these timeless mortise trim thumblatches then it may look out of place. You can fix that though. You really ought to seal/stain your fence anyway to protect it from the weather and warping. A cedar fence will turn grey quickly if you don’t treat it correctly from the outset! You may as well stain it an attractive walnut or something that will look good and then the fence will be complemented by attractive trim.
Wouldn’t this beautiful old thumblatch look great on your gate?
If you want me to install one of these wonderful antique thumblatches on your gate let me know. I can’t bare to throw these away, I want them to be used for something.
Standing water in this car contributed to corrosion in the ODB2 port, the only option was onboard programming the key.
There are a few ways to make a key for a vehicle if you have lost all of the working keys. Usually this relies on accessing the car’s computer through its ODB2 port. If there is a leak in your moonroof and you lost the keys to your car, don’t put it off. Give me a call before standing water forms on the floor of your car! High humidity will create corrosion in the ODB2 port among other things.
When the odb2 port gets corroded the programming equipment won’t work and it makes it more laborious to program a key into your car, or you have to try to clone your key.
Speaking of odb2 ports, they are used by high-tech thieves to steal cars. Now a company has released an odb2 port lock to prevent somebody from programming a key into your car and driving away with it while you sleep. Read about it here.
If you are interested in the technology behind keeping your car’s door locked there is a lot of information on the internet about it. The physical locks often employ wafers and a sidebar which makes them difficult to pick, though there are plenty of easily pickable locks in vehicles being produced even now. Opening a locked car door is not usually very hard if you have some inexpensive tools designed for the purpose and one can buy a set of these tools along with a manual for how to use them and which tool to use for the car they are confronted with for a cool $200 or so or a really cheap set for $20.00. These tools usually set off any car alarm though.
Recently I have read a lot of misinformation about the security of cars due to car theft. I am no expert on how to steal a car but I have a lot of experience opening locked cars without a key and usually it sets the alarm off unless you manipulate one of the door locks. If you are worried about your car being stolen you should find out if your car’s locks are easy to pick and if the car’s ignition requires a chipped key to start it. Without a chipped key that is already programmed into the vehicle, the vehicle won’t start or if it does it will only run for thirty seconds or so.
Also there is no “master key” for cars in the sense that the manufacturer made a key that will work in all cars. It would be suicide for a business to create a master key for their vehicles because it would be a short amount of time before that key fell into the wrong hands and duplicates were found for sale on alibaba.com. Even if the key didn’t fall into the wrong hands it wouldn’t take long for somebody to take their lock apart and reverse engineer the key by looking at what the key interacts with.
While there is no master key there are so-called jiggler keys that are popular with the tow-truck drivers and the vehicle repossessors. These will open lots of vehicle locks, even double sided wafer locks. If somebody used a jiggler key it would not set off the alarm. The jiggler key most likely wouldn’t start a recently made car from the last fifteen years because of its lack of transponder chip, though less expensive import vehicles like Hyundais didn’t use chips until quite recently and lots of box trucks and vans don’t use transponder chips still. If somebody used a jiggler key to get into your car they would still have to program a key into your vehicle’s computer to get it to drive away. This requires time and effort. A professional locksmith usually needs at least half an hour of time to take a door cylinder out of the door and get a key working with it and then may need more time to get some added cuts to make it work in the ignition.
If you live on a hill a criminal may not be too concerned with starting your car. They could just put your car in neutral and drag it to some other place like a warehouse where they have time to disable the car alarm. If they are familiar with the vehicle they would probably unplug the horns.
A lot of rumors have been floating around about the spoofing of keyless remotes for cars recently. This is unlikely for recent cars. There are documented weaknesses in the way keyless remotes work and the technology has been exploited by researchers but there are not known cases of criminals using these weaknesses in the wild. There may have been incidents of thieves blocking the transmission of the keyless remote with a radio jamming device which would make the car not receive the order to lock the doors, but this is less worrisome than criminals outright compromising the keyless remote encryption technology.
Some thieves have figured out they can use tasers in new and exciting ways to open car doors but this leaves evidence and isn’t widespread. If your vehicle has a combination lock on the door make sure to have that disabled ASAP as somebody who has a table of codes can and will unlock one of these doors in a few minutes. Unfortunately those locks are not sophisticated at all and don’t penalize people for putting in the wrong code too many times. A good electronic lock will disable the keypad for some amount of time if the wrong code is entered too many times. My favorite electronic safe lock can be programmed to do this for a specified number of minutes to hours.
Short story is this: if your car was stolen and it was made after 2000 somebody probably has a key to it or somebody towed it away in neutral unless the car was worth enough money that somebody with sophisticated tools and knowledge would want to steal it. When you buy a car from somebody in the same state you usually give them a piece of paper with your name and address on it and if they keep a key they can drive over to your house and unlock the car and drive away with it if they so choose which brings us to my final thought on the matter of preventing your car from being stolen.
When you buy a car from somebody and they know where you will be keeping the car it is just stupid not to reprogram the car so that the old keys don’t work. It is smart to rekey a house when you buy one for the same reason (well, nearly the same reason. Nobody is going to drive away with your house unless you live in a motorhome!). Another good idea if you have a car without an immobilizer or transponder in the key is to install a hidden kill switch. Get a club to lock your steering wheel. These things will slow somebody down and force them to examine your wiring scheme or remove your steering wheel to control the vehicle even in neutral.
If your car supports it consider getting a puck lock from slicklocks. No holes need to be drilled in your car and there are no quick easy ways to unlock these locks without a key.
Guess which of the three little pins in this picture is new. The customer showed me that she had to pull her key out a little to turn the lock on the front door of the historic building she lived in, a Seattle landmark from 1910 (these old buildings are a playground for locksmiths who like old locks). However her key worked great in other lesser-used entrances.
This told me that the problem was not her key but the pins in the front door’s lock, and boy howdy were those pins worn! Some of them actually had a concavity from keys sawing through them over the years. If your most-used lock doesn’t work well with your key but works well in other locks then the pins may be worn down. Have someone rekey the troubled lock to match whichever of your keys that works the best. For high traffic locks consider asking the locksmith to use nickel silver pins. Nickel silver is a harder alloy than brass and will last longer (though it will wear down brass keys faster!)
I rekeyed the lock to her key and it worked great. Who knows if it will work well for everybody else though. They are all used to rattling their keys around in the lock and there are variations in all of their hardware store duplicates. Some of the residents might notice their key works better after the lock is changed and others worse. For this situation it is a good idea to have extra keys on hand for those whose keys no longer work. Sell them copies of your key which is now essentially a first generation key.
If you have a little extra money ask the locksmith to code cut the original key and save it for making duplicates.
Do you have a doorknob that despite being unlocked won’t open the door? You checked to make sure the deadbolt wasn’t obstructing the door and pulled really hard, and looked and you can see that the latch is sticking out from the door and into the door frame? You have a broken latch, my friend.
Before you pick up the phone and call me, there is something that you can do. If you are fortunate enough to recognize this problem with the door open, simply take the old doorknob off using a philips screwdriver in most cases. Then take the latch off with the same screwdriver. Go buy a new latch either from a local store or the internet.
If the latch failed and the door is closed, the problem is slightly greater but not insurmountable. If you are locked inside and you would push the door open, try opening it with a library card. If that doesn’t work, try to unscrew the doorknob and remove it so that you can manipulate the latch and try pulling various parts of it to see if that allows you to open the door.
If you are locked outside and you would pull the door out, try bypassing the doorknob latch with a library card or similar. If you can’t open the door with a card, there isn’t a lot you can do besides look for an open window. This assumes there are no other doors that you can use to gain entry and unscrew the doorknob.
If you can’t get the doorknob off then your remaining options are few. You can either try to destroy the doorknob which may result in damage to the door or you can call me. I can say that it is usually inexpensive to repair this problem if the doorknob can be removed. If the door is closed and the problem is a malfunctioning mortise lock or the door is closed and it is the only door, the lock may be damaged and a replacement may be required. Still, the cost for me to come out and drill off a doorknob would be less than $150, replacement included.
Good luck with your broken door knob. Don’t hesitate to call!
Some alarm systems are wireless instead of wired. That means that somebody can listen into radio signals and spoof commands to the security system. Lots of systems from big companies like ADT employ wireless signals, and somebody can disarm these systems remotely with some high tech tricks.
Of course, it is also possible that somebody could disarm your system if it is wired too if they bothered to splice into the wire, but that is harder and then they would have to creep around your property. I submit that it is better to have a wired security system for this reason.
So you put a nice thick deadbolt on your door and you think your house is secure. Did you consider whether or not the hinges are on the outside of one of your doors? If they are, somebody could knock the hinge bolts out of your door and pull the entire door out of the frame, negating the entire installation of your lock!
If you want to keep this from happening, you have a lot of choices ranging from replacing the door so that the hinges are on the inside of the house to changing the hinges so that the bolt can only be removed when the door is open. A cheap fix is to replace the hinges on your door with a type that does not have removable hinge pins. The least expensive fix requires only one or two wood screws and a drill bit the same size as the screw’s head.
If you put a screw into the hinge side of a door so that when the door is closed the screw goes into the door frame, even without the hinge bolts on the door cannot be removed. The screw connects the door to the frame when the door is shut, like a miniature deadbolt.
To install the screw, either select a screw of a smaller diameter than the holes in your hinges and put them in the center holes of your hinges so that they stick out 3/8″ and go in the hinge holes on the other side of the hinge, or: drill a pilot hole halfway down the door but a little higher than the hinge. Install the screw so that about half an inch of the screw sticks out of the door. Carefully close the door until the screw’s head touches the door frame, and mark that spot with something. Drill another hole there, but with a different drill bit which is of slightly greater thickness than the head of the screw you put in your door. That is so when you shut the door the screw goes into the hole you made. Then if somebody takes the bolts out of your hinges and pulls on the door the screw will keep the door attached firmly to the frame, and all with twenty minutes and less than a dollar’s worth of materials.
Update: I edited this page to remove specific brand names because the CEO of one of the manufacturers mentioned as being cheap called me and informed me that his locks are in fact manufactured in the USA and that his company’s lock probably broke because it was installed wrong. I have reservations about why his lock broke but am giving him the benefit of a doubt.
Lots of my customers balk at the cost of a commercial leverset because they see doorknobs at the hardware store for under $50. The least expensive commercial passage leverset I feel comfortable guaranteeing is $82 retail. My Marks Survival Series leversets retail for over $500 (though I don’t think anyone actually pays that much in practice). Some leversets I don’t want to deal with can be had for much less, and the reason I don’t sell them is that they have a tendency to fail. If people don’t notice that the lock has failed and shut the door, they will either be locked out or even worse locked in as was the case for my unfortunate client today.
The reason they got locked in their office was because the builder installed leversets that were bottom dollar and one of them failed. Import Chinese locks have a tendency to fail prematurely and for no good reason. The leverset failed because it is made of cheap metal that snapped at the junction between the lockset and the latch, a part called a retractor. Usually the latch fails in cheap locks, but this lock is cheaper than usual apparently.
If a lock isn’t installed properly even a well-constructed lock will probably fail over time, so make sure to read the installation instructions or hire somebody who knows what they are doing.
So take advantage of the lesson these poor folks learned the hard way: get reasonable hardware in the first place or you may end up paying me to come out and open your door and then replace it with a decent lock you should have had on the door in the first place. A good way to find a decent lock is to see if the lock advertises a guarantee.
On the top is a good lock. On the bottom is a poorly made lock where the part that grabs the latch has snapped on both sides (circled).
Somebody wrote “Do Not Duplicate” on this key but somebody could just rub this off. Probably nobody would heed this key’s admonition anyway. If you want a Do not Duplicate key, pay fifty cents more and get an actual one with a neuter head or a restricted keyway that can’t legally be duplicated.
So you have a key that says Do Not Duplicate on it? The reason is whoever owns the property that key works at doesn’t want you to duplicate that key. In fact, they probably paid a dollar extra for the key to say this on it. If you have a good reason to duplicate that key, you should ask whoever originally gave it to you for another copy. The property manager wants to control who has this key and how many they have, and it may be for your own safety and that of others who use that building. You wouldn’t want somebody in your building to make fifty copies for his or her friends so they can use the community pool or laundromat and have all kinds of random people wandering through your building. Maybe friends of friends would also make key copies and soon your building would be overrun by random people doing who knows what.
If that person then tells you to “just take it to X locksmith, they will copy it for you, just tell them I sent you”, they are deluded. Most locksmiths won’t just copy a key that says Do Not Duplicate, because then nobody would pay an extra dollar for keys that say this on it. The whole thing would be a joke, and it doesn’t make good business sense. The DND message is not legally binding. I can legally copy these keys for anybody. I still won’t do it without proper authorization, and neither will most other locksmiths. I will only copy your DND key if you bring a letter on company letterhead explicitly stating your name and how many copies you are allowed to make. The letter must have a phone number and the person on the other end must pick up the phone and confirm who they are before I will copy the key.
I noticed while reading other locksmiths’ Yelp reviews (I have to find out how high the bar is placed!) that a locksmith in University Village apparently will copy Do Not Duplicate Keys (for a price). Multiple reviewers note that they are the only locksmith that will copy these keys. This is why property owners who really care about key control are advised to invest in controlled keyways. There will always be somebody who will copy keys, everything has a price. I have keys that people cannot take to a kiosk in a parking lot and duplicate, because he does not have access to those keys. Even if somebody offered him $200 for a key copy, he would not be able to duplicate it unless he has some sort of exotic milling machine in his kiosk and the time to replicate a blank.
The other reason to avoid using common keyways are outlined by these suggestions to circumvent the Do Not Duplicate message on a key. The good people at Metafilter suggest that putting tape over these keys will thwart the guy at the hardware store. Alternatively, a ne-er-do-well trying to circumvent this could simply cut the head of the key off and ask that it be duplicated. I copy broken keys frequently, and it isn’t hard to do. Somebody could also measure the depths of the cuts on their key that isn’t supposed to be duplicated and call a locksmith and ask them to code cut it to those depths. Locksmiths usually know how to cut keys to specific depths, if they don’t they aren’t “worth their salt”.
