There is a locksmith right around the corner from my new house. I saw this as a wonderful sign. Instead of going to Lowes and getting a bunch of new handles and deadbolts, all different keys, I would be able to take my handles and deadbolts to the locksmith and say “Here are my knobs. Please rekey them to all use the same key!” and they would give me the thumbs up, tell me what a smart woman I am, give me a free slice of cake, and I would be on my way.
So I called the locksmith to find out if they could meet me at the house one day and rekey my locks. They asked me what day, and I said Saturday would be perfect because I had big plans with thresholds and transitions.
“It’s double time for weekend work.” Was the response I got.
Surprising, I didn’t think locksmiths were in the racketeering business.
So I said “OK, how about Thursday…. The 22nd?” knowing the date was far away, but I was planning on taking that day off from work, since it was a couple days before I planned to move.
He quoted me over a hundred dollars.
This can’t be right, I thought to myself. There has to be a cheaper way.
Google showed me that there were many rekeying kits that were available for a fraction of the price I was quoted. It was time consuming, but possible.
I got a cheap rekeying kit of Amazon for about $13. It said it could rekey up to 6 locks to the same key. I only needed 4. Excellent.
I finally sat down to rekey the locks when I was waiting for paint to dry one day (that story to be told in another post).
I gathered up the front door knob and deadbolt and brought them to the dining room table. In hindsight, I probably should have used the back door as my guinea pig since it would be locked and unlocked with a key less often, but I wasn’t thinking about the possibility of failure. I had this.
And honestly, I did. Until step D, of course.
I got through the first 3 steps with zero issue. I was covered in grease from the locks, but I had everything disassembled and it was looking great. Then I got to step D.
It was the last step of the first page. To get to step E, I had to turn the page. I followed the step, which was to remove the cylinder plug. To do this, you turn the key a little and take the outside metal part off. As I slid the outside metal off, the entire lock exploded, metal pins and springs flying everywhere.
I sat, stunned, for a moment.
I looked at the instructions.
I looked at the pins, rolling around the table.
“CAUTION:” it read. “YOUR LOCK WILL EXPLODE IF YOU DON’T DO THIS CAREFULLY.” Or something to that extent. I couldn’t believe it. I had completely destroyed my front door handle. My money saving great idea had just come to a very permanent end, with me unable to lock my front door.
I honestly don’t know how long I sat there. I looked at the piece I had removed, and saw where all the little bits fit.
I tried to put the metal springs back in with a pair of tweezers and, pushing them down, tried to slide the plastic piece that was supposed to be keeping them in place back in.
That resulted in 3 completely bent springs.
The handle was completely ruined.
“It’s just the handle, not the deadbolt. I have 2 more springs. If I can just get 2 of the 5 pins rekeyed, it’ll be enough.” I told myself. “Time to be super careful.”
Much more carefully than before, I placed the springs back in the casing and slid the plastic piece in.
Success finally reached me as I was able to set 2 of the 5 pins into place and reassemble the handle. As I was moving on to the deadbolt, I saw instructions on what to do if you missed the CAUTION warning for step D, and I realized I missed part of a step. It made much more sense why I had so very many metal pins leftover.
Oh well, the handle worked. One day down the road if it stops working, I can always buy a new handle and rekey that one. I do have the pins for up to 2 more locks, after all!
As I finished the project, I decided to move the front handle to the back door. It was a moment of genius, I believe, and I feel much better that the handle, which will probably fail at some point, is on the back door (where I won’t often be using my key to get in).
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