Locksmithing Basics - 101

​Hello, what I've got for you tonight is another installment Riis. This one should have been the first one in this series. I didn't really think about it until a few days ago, but um we're, going to call this one, the basics, the very basics, so we get started here first off.
This is a key blank, no cuts on it right here we have the bow of the key either called the bow or the head moving down. This is the shoulder top shoulder bottom shoulder. This is the blade of the key keep moving down.
We've got the tip of the key down here. This groove here is the milling there's milling right there. There's, milling on this side and milling here that's. The milling of the key. Looking down the key, this way, that's, the key profile and all the key catalogs and everything you'll, see you'll, see a profile of the key, so you can match it up with a blank that you Have and that's, pretty much it for the key blank.
Next we have the cylinder. This is a key and knob cylinder. It's, a cutaway that I made said. The whole thing is the cylinder the back here we have the retaining cap, then we have the tail piece and then over here we have a retaining pin and a retaining spring under that that pushes the pin up so the cap will not spin, and that holds The cylinder in or holds the plug in and also holds the tail piece in so one other things.
Well, I got this together. This is the shear line that's. What you try to hit when you pick is, you know you're, trying to raise the keepin up to the shear line, so the plug turns so there it is all the pins are at the shear line.
The key turns so go ahead and take this back off of it and show you uh the parts inside you just press this little spring-loaded pen down to zoom in on there, just press it down and just unscrew the retaining cap here and be careful when you Take it off because, like I said it is spring-loaded and will shoot across the rim, so there's, the pin and inside that hole there is the spring.
So there's the spring, so there's that okay. So now what we have here is we have the plug, which is this middle part that I'm. Turning this outside part is the shell, so you & # 39. Ve got the shell on the plug.
This upper part here that contains the springs and the top pins is referred to as the book or the Bible. This is a six pin. There are six chambers each one of those is a chamber chamber, one two, three, four five and six six is empty.
It can be keyed six pins, but it's. Just keep five right now. Okay, so we & # 39. Ve got the spring, the top pin, which is right there, and then we've got the bottom pin or the key pin, which is the bottom one, which is the one that rides on the key okay.
So, in order to get this apart, so I can show you the plug, which is this part here we have to one more thing. I'm. Sorry, like we had the milling on the key. If you look at the front of this, you can see that piece there that piece there that's, the warning it's called the warning of the plug, so I mean like the warding lines up with the milling on the key Blank, so if you hear a warning that's, what they're talking about is just the profile the shape, let's cut into the plug okay.
So, in order to get this apart to work on it, we have to turn the plug because, as you see, the plugs not coming out of the shell, so we have to do is, like I said, turn it um. Let's, pretend like we cannot pick this one.
It's, an unpickable Schlage, so another option you have for getting these apart is a shim um, miss Ellie's in packs of 25. It's, just pre-curved I'm, not sure the thickness on it. I will try to find out and put in the comment section here but um there.
It is the way you shim a lock or shimma cylinder. Is you insert the shim in the back at the shear line? Okay, now you can see it's going at the shear line. It's, stopping on pin number five so put pressure on the back of it.
I'm going to zoom in here, so you can see insert the key and what happens is you can see the top can starting to raise up and as soon as the shear line is met between the top pin and the keep in the Shim slides, so we & # 39.
Ve got number five shimmed. So now we're up against, pin number four. So what I do is just slowly back the key out share lines hit and there we go four and just keep on going there's. Three theres two.
There's number one. Now it's shimmed. So what we can do is take the shim out, and these shims you can use a lot. What I do you'll start getting little indentations on the end of these things. Just take a pair of scissors and cut off the end.
Just a little bit and you're good to go for another few locks, okay, so there we have a turn. Now we're going to do is use a plug follower and what it does is it follows the plug right out of the lock a couple things to watch.
If I mess up here, make sure you don't have that slot straight up, because if you do you're going to drop the top ends out, turn it like that and then just follow the plug straight out. I put my index finger over the top, so I don't lose the keep ends.
So there's, the plug there's, a six chambers, the five key pins there's, the warding from the back of the lock, so that's, the plug. Here again, we have the shell with the springs and the top ends, and another thing I wanted to show you was how I load one um.
If I want to check the springs, that say, think one's got a clap spring. What I'll do is slowly back the plug follower. Out till I see the first pin, which is right there, then I'll, put my tweezers over it and just let it pop out a little bit and then push the plug follower back forward.
Now we've got that pin trapped and then we go ahead and take it out and there's. A spring spring looks fine in order to load the pins. The same thing. Basically, I grab the very top of the pin, push it down just a hair and then push the plug follower forward, which traps the pin in place.
You can then push the pin down, let the plug follower slide forward and it's reloaded and just go back through all five or six, whatever you have to load it um and put the plug back in. We're, going to do don't.
Do that right there, because you see there's, no key in it, and what's going to happen? Is your first driver or top pin is going to fall down into that sixth chamber and it's going to lock up on you so make sure you have.
It turn make sure you don't, have a slot and the plug follower straight up. Have it off to the side, so you have one solid piece as you're loading, the back up and just push it straight through, and then you could turn it and lock it back up.
Then we're, going to put our retaining spring and pin back in, and then we'll put tailpiece on put the rotating cap on there and then we'll, just push the pin down and tighten it back up. Now what will happen a lot of times? Is you'll? Get it too tight.
If it's too tight it's, going to be hard to turn, so I normally back it off one. Okay, not there's. Good. Another problem you run into is I'm. Sometimes you'll, think you have a tight and you don't. So let's, just back it off a little bit.
Okay, there. It's still going to work, but when you go to pull the key out, the keys not going to want to come out because you're, pulling the whole plug forward. Therefore, the key pins aren't lining up in the Chamber & # 39, s are lined up with the chambers, so that depends our trap.
It can't, go up so your keys trapped. So you have to push in to pull the key out so that's. One way, you know that the the cap isn't tight enough, so go ahead and tighten it back down that's good right there.
So hopefully we talked about the key, the cylinder, the parts of the cylinder, how to shim one open plug follower, how to load the top pins and put it all back together. So that's. It if you have any questions post them in the comment section and I'll, try to answer them all and thank you for watching.