Most sliding doors can be retrofitted with a lock cylinder.  If your sliding door doesn’t have a lock on it and you want to be able to enter through this door, check to see if there is a small circular indentation in the middle of the handle on the outside.  If there is, this is a door that can be retrofitted.  The round metal perforation can be knocked out and, when the handle is disassembled, a specially shaped knob cylinder can be added.  You can come and go from your sliding door as you please.  You can also add a sort of deadbolt to your sliding glass door that cannot be jimmied with a hanger either.

Leaving your sliding door slightly ajar is very appealing during the hot summer months.  The only problem is keeping two-legged skunks from getting in!  They will use long pieces of metal to reach around the door to move a dowel or other item from the door slide and enter.  You can keep them from doing this with a drop bolt.  They are inexpensive to procure and install.  A cylinder is inexpensive to put in your door as well.  I can put a cylinder in your sliding door and a drop rod on it as well for about $150, keyed to your other locks.  Give me a call if you want me to do this for you.  I can usually get to a job within half an hour of a call.

Uscan – http://www.uscanlock.com/pdf/Uscan_US_Hardware_Catalog.pdf

Schlage Residential – http://consumer.schlage.com/project%20documents/mr-1701_rescatalog_final.pdf

Schlage Commercial – http://consumer.schlage.com/project%20documents/mr1940_retail_brochure.pdf

This morning I was browsing my usual collection of websites and rss feeds when I came across some really interesting stuff: these guys combined an arduino with some 8 sided magnets to make a decoder for magnetic locks such as the mcs and the miwa.  What does this mean?  It means that somebody with one of these tools can walk up to your door and if it is unlocked they can stick this tool in and find out what the code is for your lock in a few moments.  Then they can go home and program another magnetic key that will then work in the lock.  This essentially turns your expensive magnetic lock into a toy.  To do the same with an old school pin tumbler lock would take an expert at least a few minutes to impression.

I have a Miwa cylinder sitting around here at Casa de el Bjorno but I don’t think I have the time or nerdiness to attempt anything involving an arduino.  All the same, much respect to these guys and l0ckcr4ck3r who figured this out!

On a scarier note, I wonder how long it will be until somebody designs an arduino chip with some lockpicking apparatus and can unlock standard mechanical locks?  It would be a really unfortunate game changer because we would all have to buy expensive locks.

Somewhat related, people are making tools to decode smartkey locks as we speak.  The process involves filing a kw1 key to a mirror smooth finish so that you can see the height of the wafer after the key has passed it.  There are only six possible heights.  I have spoken of smartkey insecurities before, so this is nothing earth-shattering.

If you own a warehouse in a bad part of town, people at some point might try to get into it.  They usually attempt brute force attacks like hammering the lever or deadbolt off of the wall, or twisting the lever as hard as they can until a small part breaks inside which is why you should spend a little more to get a clutched lever.  If they are slightly more sophisticated, they may attempt to open the door by attacking the latch mechanism of your lever with a screwdriver or a sawzall or hacksaw or something of that nature.  This can easily be guarded against with the addition of a latch protector.

Latch protectors come in different sizes and types.  Some are meant for residential applications and some are for commercial.  The commercial ones tend to be big ugly pieces of metal, but they also have different features that make them more useful, like a prong that goes into the door frame to prevent a criminal prying the protector back.
I take no responsibility for what you do with the following information:
They are easy to install.  Two holes in the door in the correct place is usually all that is necessary, and maybe one or two holes on the frame next to the door if there are prongs to prevent prying on the protector.  Don’t drill the prong holes too big or they won’t work and the protector can be pried just as well as if the prongs weren’t there at all.  If you don’t want to chance drilling the wrong place or installing it wrong, give me a call and I can install one very cheaply for you.  They only cost $20, installation only costs $25 on most doors, and my service call is only $65.  You can have peace of mind for $110!  (My prices already include tax)

Snow seems to throw people for a loop because it interrupts their well-practiced routines.  When it gets really cold and starts snowing and icing, people do silly things that result in getting locked out of their houses and more often their cars.  They turn the car on to get warm while they scrape the snow and ice off the windshield and, thanks to some anti-theft automobile features (car manufacturers mean well!), the car locks itself after a few minutes and your windshield is all clear, but you are left helpless looking in, standing there holding the ice scraper.

Make sure to leave your door open while you have your car running, or leave your window down.  Before you open your door, hit the snow off the top of the car and the edge of the windshield because lots of snow will fall on the seat if you don’t, and your car is like mine.  Of course, leaving the window or door open is counter productive if you are trying to warm your car up, so the other option open to you is to go to your locksmith (or even hardware store) and get a copy of your car key on a metal head blank.  This should only cost you $3 or $4, and though you can’t use it to start your car you can use it to open your door.  Have this key hidden somewhere underneath your car or in a turn signal compartment or in your coat, and you can’t lock yourself out.

This reasoning applies to buildings, too.  Just because it is snowy outside people get crazy ideas in their heads and take the trash out while rashly leaving the door locked and the keys inside.  I can’t tell you how many times I have driven up to some guy standing in the snow in a bathrobe looking sheepish because the door swung shut behind him.

So beware of yourself.  Stay calm.  Just because it is snowing, don’t lose your head and don’t let your keys leave your person.  Also make sure you shut off your water pipes outside and your heat is up higher than freezing inside!

What if I told you that you can get a padlock for your toolshed or gate that used the same key as your front door?  I know, I know: “Get out of town, you weaver of tales!” you will say.  And yet, it is true!  The Abus 83 series is rekeyable.  I can sell you one and key it to y our house for $40.  You won’t ever have the problem of losing that key or forgetting that combo ever again.  And when it comes time to change the locks, you change the padlock’s too.  It is a lifetime investment for a quality piece of hardware.

When you move into a new house, you may consider rekeying it.  If you want to have it rekeyed, call me.  If you don’t, please consider the following reasons why you should have it rekeyed:

1.  You don’t think your house needs to be rekeyed because the house was just built/is new.  This boils down to whether or not you trust each and every contractor that had access to the keys to your house.  Remember, the contractors need to come and go as they please to get the house built properly.  They have plenty of time to copy the keys.  If even one of the many contractors helping to build your house decides that they want keys to a new house which some affluent person is going to buy and fill full of expensive stuff that he wants, you are going to want his key not to work!

2.  When you bought the house, the realtor assured you that the old owner had no keys.  This assumes that the old owner isn’t lying, didn’t lend multiple keys out to friends, relatives, workers, hide keys around the house under rocks or in brick walls or behind lights, etc.  When I move into some place, I want absolute assurance that I and my most trusted family and friends am the only ones with the keys.  Promises won’t cut it.  I have too much on the line for a promise.  I can rekey my place for free.  You can pay me to rekey your place for what I argue is a paltry sum, compared to the amount of money you have invested in all of your belongings and your family’s safety.

What this argument boils down to is, unless you bought your house from somebody who you absolutely trust (and you trust everybody that they may have given a key to), you really can’t afford not to rekey your space.  Security is the basis upon which our lives are built.  You have to be assured that you can come home to a safe place that nobody else has broken into.  When somebody does break into your place, you will feel violated and unsafe.  You can’t repair that damage easily, and with no sum of money.

Most deadbolts allow you to swap out the cylinder so you don’t have to buy a new lock to change the keyway.  Did I lose you there?  Ok, imagine you want all of your locks to work with one key but some of the locks work with a different kind of key.  Any quality deadbolt will give you the ability to swap out the cylinder.

You can buy just about any kind of cylinder from me for less than $35, and I will rekey it for $20.  If you want a special cylinder with a restricted keyway that only a locksmith can provide keys for, I can also provide those to you for a tad more money.  These cylinders are great because bump keys are far more difficult to procure and use on them.  If you want a cylinder with a side bar, I can provide you with these as well.  This makes lockpicking far more difficult and bumpkeying almost impossible.  It also makes drilling far more involved, requiring twice the number of holes.

Additionally, a restricted keyway gives you the satisfaction of knowing that people will have a very difficult time copying your keys.  They will have to go to a locksmith and that locksmith is required to ask for proof that you have permission to copy the key, or own the key.