My Visit To A Locksmith: QUALITY!
Having been to the Home Depot’s, Lowe’s and other “box” stores, I decided to visit a locksmith to see if they had any better quality locksets. Quality in a HD is Baldwin.
Schlage had a deadbolt which weighed a ton; really well built. It featured four (4) bolts attaching both sides of the lock. Even Medeco only has two. $100. A really solid deadbolt, nothing like what you’d see in a box store.
I was also very impressed with door sets/knobs by Emtek. Never heard of them before. They had some very heavy, solid feeling door knobs/sets witha multitude of styles and finishes. Blow Baldwin away in every sense.
In the day and age of box stores, the HD and Wal-Marts, one sometimes forget that quality is still available. Yeah, it’s more money initially and you have to seek it out, but the rewards are there in feel, look, ease of use and durability.
It’s a shame most people will never set foot in such a store (locksmith) and will rely on the cheap “best they have in store” locksets from HD, Lowes, etc.
Replies
Not only that, but a locksmith can key all the locks alike so you only have to carry one key for the whole house.
not to defend HD....but so can they around here.The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
When we meet, we say, Namaste'..it means..
I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides,
I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace.
I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you
and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.
That's not hard..
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
I've re-keyed lots of cylinders myself -- got the tools and parts from http://www.kwiklocks.com.
-- J.S.
John, lots of useful info here.......
http://www.lysator.liu.se/mit-guide/mit-guide.html
Joe H
Our local Home Depot did all of our exterior locks keyed alike to matck our front door. The guy there says they do it all the time for free... Five doors total
I get a real kick out of locks and locking, Often you see these really complex or expensive locks on glass doors or with great big windows right next to the entryway. Not sure what they are trying to protect or how tough they think their glass is.;
That or they have this fabulous lock system but if you walk around back the sliding glass door can easily be lifted off it's track and entry gained.;
OK in some real high crime areas they lock everything and put bars on the windows and even disconnect the remote control system for their garage door. Of course any resemblance to a prison is purely coincidental
There have been incidents where people are so diligent about preventing breakins that when they have a fire, the firefighters can't get in, nor can the residents get out and they die.
Good point.
I especially cringe when I see ornamental iron bars over all the doors and windows.
And people in apartments buy those pick-proof/kick-proof locks for their doors, and then one day it doesn't work ! Maybe the lock is worn, or maybe someone lost a piece of paper-clip in it trying to disprove the "pick-proof" claim; but, a simple call to a local locksmith may not get you back into your apartment any time soon..
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
Just put in a Kwik-set thumb latch door knob and dead bolt in a steel door. Used template they sent for the thru bolt that holds the lower part of the thumblatch plate.Duh!!!! the hole was off by 1 -1/4"!!!Triple checked 3 x...yep thier info was wrong! Thanks alot...hope bondo's instructions are rite.
I put one of those over-sized brass Baldwin latch/locks on a replacement entry door - beutiful set. I drew really lucky by installing the lock/latch set ahead of time due to a rain-delay, and discovered the predrilled holes in the door weren't aligned well enough to install the Baldwin !Choice: wait 3 weeks for new door; or, plug the holes and drill news ones: time won..
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
Anyone here happy with the Swedish ABLOY line? I've found both their surface mount and their cylinder locks to be of high quality and very reliable. Weird internal pin system (with weird keys) that's supposed to be very difficult to pick.
Registered keys to prevent loaned keys from being copied without the homeowner presenting a registration card whose number must match number on locksmith's file.
My local lumberyard sells Emtek. I've put in a lot of them the last couple years. Have lots of styles and do seem to be pretty good quality. Made in China though, IIRC.
Mike
There is Baldwin and there is HD Baldwin.
Same with Schlage. There are the good ones and there are the made in China ones.
Medeco doesn't have a lot of choices but for security they are hard to beat.