Keys, Locks, remotes, repairs. Forest of Dean & Ross on Wye
Land Rover Freelander 2 remote repair. These remotes do not have an easily replaced battery. It’s actually soldered onto the circuit board. It isn’t a difficult job to replace the battery, but be very careful what your’re touching with the heat gun/soldering iron – especially if you’ve only got the one remote.
Imagine the scene… your UPVC door has been awkward to lock/unlock for a few weeks. You’ve been out all day with the family, but you can’t open the door. You’re all locked out, standing in the street until you can get hold of a locksmith to let you in.
The strain caused by the door being badly adjusted has caused the gearbox to break inside the door. The door is now jammed shut. It’s a really common problem.
If you doors aren’t smooth to lock/unlock; either get it sorted, or be prepared for the mechanism inside to fail completely.
Customer bought a car that needed different a different key for the ignition to the driver’s door. This is rebuilding the customer’s door lock to match all the other locks on the vehicle
If your car has been stolen/recovered without the keys you may wish to have the locks changed and the missing keys electronically erased from the vehicle. This will prevent any missing keys being used to re-steal the car.
One of the most common ways to steal a car is by taking the keys. Do not leave your keys within sight of the letterbox. I go to so many houses to see the keys hanging in full view, or lying on the hallway table.
We now stock and install the Yale Conexis smart lock.
Open either using your phone, key tag, phone tag or key card. Send ‘mobile keys’ remotely to anybody who needs access. (These can be set for a time period, or revoked as necessary).
Take a look at the video below to see some of the capabilities of this lock.
Most UPVC doors use a type of lock called a Euro cylinder. I estimate less than 10% of houses in my area have BS kitemarked cylinders. The bulk of the other 90% of locks are to be frank ….. rubbish.
BS locks can also have additional ratings or certifications such as 1 to 3 stars, or the Sold Secure Diamond.
Below is a video of a high end BS cylinder. We supply and fit these Ultion locks if the customer wants one of the strongest locks available.
Keys had been lost to this steel security container. It had 8mm thick steel doors and the customer specified the door had to be opened with
out any damage.
The locks were so seized they couldn’t be open with regular tools on the first visit. We finally unlocked it with a tool made by GJ Locks (thanks guys!) specifically for this lock.
The key holes needed to be filed wider to get the tool in, and other fiddling (such as clearing the dead insects out, and an extra person needed to push the door back against the frame).
Most mortice locks can be opened with a universal tool but because of the state of the locks and strain on the door I couldn’t manage it without the GJ too.
A customer called late at night with the end of the key snapped off in the car door. The key was badly worn and had not been turning without force and jiggling (until it finally snapped!). Customer thought he would need new locks.
The key w
as extracted from the lock. A new key was then cut with a computerised machine which cut to the measurements the original key when it was brand new. The new key worked smoothly, new locks weren’t needed and customer could drive away happy.
This is the snapped key held together in the trace cutting jig. It was necessary to reproduce a one piece copy of the snapped key. Only a key in one piece could be decoded by the computerised cutting machine.
We’d only supplied this lock last month but somebody snapped a key off, then pushed the broken part even further in with an old nail. It was impossible to remove the snapped part. This is the larger body size of the Master Pro Series padlocks.
We had to do a destructive removal of this chunky padlock. It was a right pain to get off, and I was very impressed with the amount resistance it put up. Getting it off was neither quick, nor quiet. Well done this lock.
We were asked to secure a commercial premises following a break in. The existing lock on the external door was a 3 lever, only really suitable for an internal door or bathroom, certainly not the main entrance.
Because of the badly fitted door the original lock bolt only entered the keep by about 2mm. The burglar simply pushed the door and the frame apart to get in.
A BS (British Standard) 2007 mortice lock has a minimum bolt throw of 20mm and makes it much more difficulty to prise door and frame apart. In addition there are specifications for minimum key differs, sawing and drill resistance.
Note to self: Don’t let your van slide backwards down a hill into a ditch on a bank holiday. Fortunately shops open again today so could buy myself a winch.
