Questions tagged [lock]
A device for securing access, typically on a door, and typically controlled with a key or combination.
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What is wrong with this filing cabinet lock mechanism, and what options do I have to improve it?
I recently got hold of a second hand filing cabinet. I do not have keys for it.
When I put some hanging files in the top drawer, I noticed that upon closing the drawer, the part of the file that hangs ...
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Metal gate slide bolt jammed
I have a black metal gate at the back of the garden which was installed about 12 months ago. When going to open the gate this morning, the key fits in the lock, but doesn't turn fully to allow the ...
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How to remove older Schlage deadbolt? [duplicate]
I just bought a house and want to replace the locks. Unfortunately, on door has what appears to be an older Schlage double cylinder deadbolt that I can't figure out how to remove. I've tried prying ...
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"key will unlock the door" vs "key will *open* the door, but not unlock"
Can anyone help me with terminology to describe two different types of functioning in a door lock. (Please note, I am not talking about a lock that is broken.)
My front door and my back door both have ...
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Internal lock with modified flat bolt?lock
I have a surplus military case that I want to house a group of sensors inside and strapped to my car's roof rack. It's painted to avoid looking like anything but a typical cargo box. I'd like to add a ...
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Install lock on electrical panel
I have this Siemens electrical panel and I am looking for a way to install a lock on the panel door so that it can only be opened with a key. Any suggestions? Are there latches that already have built ...
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Door lever sticks down
My new entry door uses a Baldwin La Jolla handle set with interior lever. After the pro installer completed their work I was disappointed to find that the interior lever likes to stick in the down ...
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Lost skeleton dresser key
I bought a dresser from someone and they said they lost the key. What is the best way to open it? It would be ok to force it open but don’t have any idea how to do it.
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Closed the closet door and Kaboom the acorn thumb latch broke off. Looking for a solution to open it
After I closed my closet door the acorn thumb latch fell apart. The part I depress with my thumb fell off in front and the door is locked. There is a small hole where the thumb piece was inserted, but ...
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Best lock for side hinged wooden garage doors
We've just had a new pair of oak garage doors installed at the front of our house.
We want to be able to open these doors from the inside and outside. Therefore, a simple padlock or internal bolt ...
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Do I need this special strike plate on my laundry room to garage entry? It's creating problems with a new lock
Good day everyone. I recently replaced my existing keyed Schlage lock with a keypad security lock on the door from my mudroom to my garage. The door is metal and the frame/jamb has thick rubber/...
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Finding replacement upvc door keeps
We've recently moved into a new house and we've found that some of the doors are not closing properly. We had a locksmith in to change the locks and he mentioned that we needed to get a 'keep' for ...
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How to “lock” a bathroom door without drilling or spending too much money?
I am currently renting an apartment with a few flatmates, but it seems that the keys to the bathroom door have been lost. The owner of the apartment is not open to modifications.
We are trying to find ...
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How to fix deadbolt lever that doesn't lock or unlock the deadbolt
I have a Bold deadlock on the front door of my apartment (I'm not sure exactly which model it is but it looks basically like this: http://boldlocksupply.com/premium-cylinder-deadbolt-d-8-gold/). A few ...
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Millenco Lockmaster Mantis 3 lock - extra part after rebuilding
tl;dr - where does the horseshoe-shaped bit at the bottom of the picture go?
Long version
I've been trying to refurbish the locking mechanism (gearbox?) for my street door after it got so stiff the ...
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Needs to fix this bed, this lock is keep on turning, did not tighten up, can anybody guide me?
I was trying to fix this lock but its not working, out of four one was intact and it locks right away, I am looking for new locks or to fix old locks.
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What's the (current) process for getting Arrow locks fitted by USPS?
I'm not sure this question is at all appropriate for DIY.stackexchange, but it seemed the best fit so if it's not appropriate here it's probably not appropriate anywhere. Perhaps this is a question I ...
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Internal latch plate stuck in latch bore? [closed]
I am trying to replace my interior door knobs and am really struggling to remove the latch in my bathroom door. The latch plate (which goes into the latch bore) was painted over so I assumed that’s ...
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How to remove this latch handle (no screws, no slot)
I am having difficulty removing this latch handle. I've removed the face plate but I'm unsure of next steps.
For context, the handle isn't working.
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Sliding Glass Door Mortise Lock Replacement
I live in Florida and I have a Hurricane sliding door there the lock has failed. I thought that this would be an easy thing to replace, but when I removed the screws to take the lock out, there is a ...
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How can I open the latch mechanism on a Schlage keyed entry lock without the doorknob?
I have a problem almost exactly similar to How to open a door that has the insides of a door handle inside without a door knob but I have a more complicated mechanism.
Basically while installing the ...
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Bathroom thumb turn lock unlocks when handle pushed down
I believe we have a thumb turn lock on our bathroom door. You twist the thumb lock bit from inside to lock the door and can see on the outside that the line is turned diagonally so can see it is ...
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What would cause one tool chest drawer to fail to lock?
I have a Harborfreight U.S. General upper tool chest (part #64440) that is only a year old. The upper right drawer fails to lock. The remaining ones do. No tools are blocking anything as the drawer is ...
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Using "interior" door lever on an exterior door
I'm replacing the doorknob on my front door; I like the look of this lever, but it's described as
For use on interior doors requiring no locking functionality, such as hallway or closet doors.
(...
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Why can't mortise locks be installed upside down?
I purchased a mortise lock for a gate today and the person at the shop told me to make sure I install it right side up — lock on top and handle on bottom — and that a lot of customers install them ...
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What is the protective plate on a door lock called?
Some doors have this plate that guards the latch mechanism.
For some reason my search-fu is failing, I found tons of diagrams of lock and door parts but I can't find that plate.
What is that called?
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How do I find a locking doorknob for an existing door with a non-standard backset?
I'm trying to replace a lockless interior door's knob with one with a lock (not a "privacy lock", but an exterior-door-type key lock). The existing hole and knob has a non-standard backset ...
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Door hardware need to replace [closed]
I need to replace this door hardware but not sure how or where to search. I have checked eBay but there are so many and hard to know what one for sure will work . Any help would be great.
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How to change the cylinder on this Esety barlock?
My main door has a vertical reinforcement bar that locks into the ground and above the door. Unfortunately, it does not share the same key as the main door lock on the left.
I would like to replace ...
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Which key cylinder do i have to buy
I have a really old door in my appartement in switzerland that has a hole in it for a key cylinder. I have never seen this type before because of the 2 holes next to it. I think it could be some kind ...
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Locking Sliding Closet Doors [closed]
I need to lock my bedroom closet doors. There are two doors that can slide - one door in front, and one door behind. (Bypass doors)
There is an overlap in the center of the two of about 2.5 inches ...
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What kind of cylinder do I need for this type of lock?
I have a Fleetwood Archetype door lock for sliding doors that I want to improve by adding an external locking mechanism. It looks as following:
The lock is described in more detail in its patent ...
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What is this mechanism on my door jamb called?
What is this mechanism on my door jamb called?
It’s screwed to the door frame where a striker plate would be, and acts like one, except the black plastic part retracts instead of the striker on the ...
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How to loosen this strange nut of a cylinder lock? [duplicate]
I bought a new letterbox lock (Burgwächter ZBK-70, pdf datasheet/drawing), but the bar is too short.
I'd like to exchange that bar, but I have no clue how to loosen the bolt. So far, I tried it with ...
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Bedroom door lock
We hire people to care for my mom 24/7 in her home and we want one of the bedrooms to be off-limits to them. We lock the door from inside and then use a little screwdriver to unlock it. It was simple, ...
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Stuck padlock without key - its attachements to the door seem stuck, how could I remove it?
I recently lost the key to the padlock for the door in the garage. This was installed by the previous owner. Don't have a duplicate of the key and could not find the original I've lost.
So I tried ...
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Remove screw from lock cylinder
I need to replace the cylinder in our front door lock (just bought the home and need to make sure nobody but us has the key). However, the screw that fixes the cylinder in place gets stuck. It gets ...
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Our door won't close, is it a sagging door or a misplaced strike plate?
We moved into a house with a custom wooden door and surrounding frame, the door is very heavy and has four hinges.
The door won't close properly unless I lift it up and on hot days this doesn't work.
...
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What kind of lock do I need to lock this sliding door from the outside?
I have a sliding door in my home that says "Fleetwood" and looks like this:
The outside plate looks like this:
What kind of a lock is supposed to be used in this door to allow it to be ...
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How could my Schlage SecureKey lock reprogram itself?
I have an old Schlage SecureKey installation. (Yes, I know about Schlage having lost the lawsuit almost a decade ago.) I haven't had any problems with the lock.
Recently, a weird thing happened. ...
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Using a Dutchman to completely fill a mortise lock hole
I came across a This Old House video that demonstrates how to fill a mortise lock with a Dutchman. The video patches one side of the door.
I want to patch both sides so I can drill it out and replace ...
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Is it easy to convert a cylindrical to mortise lock, or should I just install a deadbolt?
My house has cylindrical locks on all the internal doors. These are the ones with one keyed side and one knob/toggle side to lock and unlock a door without the key.
I live in South Africa, and for ...
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How to lock this closet with a non-standard knob size?
We have a small closet in a spare room that we'd like to be able to lock with a key. It has a small, non-standard doorknob. I thought of using a hasp with a padlock, but that's ugly and more security ...
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Is this slot on a European style lock cylinder normal?
When trying to change the cylinder of my lock (European version), I discovered that it has what seems to be an extra "slot" along the external part:
It looks like it prevents standard ...
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installing a keyed-entry door handle without switching latches?
I have an internal door that currently has regular passage door handles without a lock and key, which I'd like to replace with keyed-entry door handles. Is it possible to replace just the handles and ...
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Is there a replacement mailbox lock that is more pry-resistant?
The communal curbside mailboxes at my townhouse frequently are pried open. (The unit is a Salsbury Industries, Aluminum 3504ASU Surface Mounted Vertical Mailbox with 4 Doors and USPS Access).
I know ...
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How to open this locked door
Accidentally locked the door and am panicking because I am house sitting. Would really appreciate the help
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Unlock door with no knob
Any suggestions for how to unlock and open a door with this type of lock? A video on YouTube showed me how to remove the knobs since the push button lock would not release. I have tried using scissors ...
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How to disassemble a simple door knob?
I'm trying to fix this wobbly knob. I removed the set screws you see in the video on both sides of the door, but I'm still not able to pull the knob off. It doesn't give even 1/32". Is there ...
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Westlock latch bolt does not retract completely
When I turn the door knob, sometimes the latch bolt would not retract completely. When that happens, the door cannot be opened. This applies to both entering and leaving the house.
When I am inside ...
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