locksmith basics

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’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’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’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’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

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