Any Locksmiths Or Thieves On The Board?

[Calm]

The builders of our home put in a storage room under the front porch and for some reason put a lock on it with the key required side on the living area side. The only reason I can think of doing so (since it is impossible to access the storage room from any other point) is for it to store stuff for the house they didn't want the renters to have access to. The problem is that when the house was sold, the key was not passed on. I've been meaning to do something about it, but I've always been careful about using it and hardly anyone else does, so just kept putting off replacing it. It got accidentally locked the other night and taking the hinges off (they are on the inside, unlike the lock knobby thing) did not work as there was not enough wiggle room. We don't know how to pick a lock and are too cheap to call a locksmith, but the pile of things to be put away in storage is growing to the point of ticking me off, so I am wondering if anyone has any brilliant ideas on how to unlock a door (using a stiff flat piece of metal to pressure the bolt? into sliding out didn't work as the curved side of the bolt was on the other side and it was likely not exposed enough anyway).

Any inspired ideas?

[Okrahomer]

This is not inspired by any stretch, but this might be helpful:

My link

or this:

My link

[blackstrap]

First,get a big hammer...

Alternatively,get a car jack and place it inside the door frame horizontally,and jack it til the lock can be accessed better.

[CARPE DIEM]

C-4 works well for opening things!

[Calm]

This is not inspired by any stretch, but this might be helpful:

My link

or this:

My link

Unfortunately while it is really an interior door, they put an exterior door with an exterior door lock on it, only with the lock facing the wrong way. Thanks for the effort though.

[Calm]

First,get a big hammer...

Alternatively,get a car jack and place it inside the door frame horizontally,and jack it til the lock can be accessed better.

Sounds like it would work and might be kind of fun to try, but would end up costing more than a locksmith.

[Calm]

C-4 works well for opening things!

Favorite suggestion so far. Takes care of the door and the pile of stuff accumulating by its side at the same time. I will be sure and pass this suggestion on to my husband (he's the fireworks fanatic of the house...if it was to be a bonfire, that would be more in my line of expertise).

Edited August 17, 2011 by calmoriah

[cinepro]

Unless it's a Medeco or Mul-T-Lock, this will work:

Edited August 17, 2011 by cinepro

[Calm]

Unless it's a Medeco or Mul-T-Lock, this will work:

Thanks cinepro, I will check out the style of lock right away. Hopefully they weren't excessively obsessively cautious, just obsessively cautious and got a 'typical' lock instead of the safest kind.

[HiJolly]

Drill it out is my suggestion. Get a tough drill bit and drill where the key would go.

HJ

[Calm]

Drill it out is my suggestion. Get a tough drill bit and drill where the key would go.

HJ

If the bump key doesn't work, I think that is exactly what we will do.

[frankenstein]

you have the hinges off?

is this lock a deadbolt?

a recepicating saw could cut the bolt. ultimately though whether you drill or cut looks like the lock will have to be replaced.

as for picking the lock.....

teach yourself to pick locks on the website howstuffworks.

first you need two metal shims

1 in the shape of an "L"

1 straight.

insert the L - the short part into the lower part of the lock, and turn the "L" this should also turn the lock a tad, maintain the pressure of the turn. Use the other shim to rake the upper part of inside of the lock. with the pressure from the "L" and raking, you should be able to get the pins to dislodge.

Edited August 17, 2011 by frankenstein

[Calm]

Since we don't have a key, we really need to replace the lock anyway so destroying the lock (as opposed to the door) is no big deal. My son has a set of pick locks and claims to be able to work them well (something he picked up as an elder....I will have to have him remind me of why), but he's on vacation in Florida and I may not be patient enough for him to get back.

We have both a reciprocating saw and a hefty drill, I will let my husband choose his poison if the bump key doesn't work and he isn't patient enough to create a set of pick locks.

[Garden Girl]

This is fun, Cal... I can hardly wait to see what happens... (well, I guess it's not fun for you).

GG

[Calm]

Family voted last night, C4 won.

[Garden Girl]

What is C-4?

GG

[blackstrap]

C4 go boom!!!

[Stargazer]

What is C-4?

GG

C-4 = "Composition 4". To use the common parlance, it is a variety of "plastic explosive", much in vogue in the miiltary and out. It's pretty neat stuff, actually. It is moldable and it is quite safe to use. The easiest way to use it in Calmoriah's particular application is to mold about a quarter pound of it over the top of the lock in question, stick the blasting cap into it, and lead the wires around some corner and fire away. If you're doing this inside your home (as Calmoriah seems to need to do), then you would do well to construct a "dam" around the charge so as to confine it as much as you can to the door. But for interior use, even a quarter-pound is going to lead to questions, such as: "Are you sure you used enough [C-4] there, Butch?" Well, a quarter pound is only 113 grams -- check this YouTube video out: 70 grams of C-4 blowing through a steel plate.

...but good luck getting ahold of any -- in the first place it's illegal to possess and use if you don't have a federal (and probably state) license, let alone the trouble you'd get into actually using it in the city limits.

Ah, this takes me back to my Army days.

[Calm]

What is C-4?

GG

Obviously you don't watch war movies or crime shows all that much.

As it turns out, we did not wait for my potentially wrong side of the law son to come home to attempt picklocking as I am defrosting the freezer tonight in anticipation of a visit from my parents in two weeks (a little major cleaning each day night when it's cooler as gone are the days where I could work straight for almost 48 hours with just a few cat naps to sustain me) and we needed the tornado fan to do a quick defrost. Of course since that is one massive unit (one of my husband's impulse buys, it was to contribute to cooling the house royally on cooler summer nights but it gets used for pretty much only defrosting these day as no one wants to get up at 6 AM to shut the windows), it's stored under the porch. So my husband got out the drill and the bit (after the stores closed so he just pulled the best looking one from our stash) and started work, no dice as the bit was too wimpy and no other likely candidates, so he resorted to the closest thing to C4 in the house---a sledgehammer, the big one even (yes, we have multiple sizes of sledgehammers in the house, don't ask me why). I would have had a fit had I been up with (was taking a migraine break as there were strong winds tonight, always fun) imagining damage to the door as much as too the handle, but lo and behold, it was a clean, quick break. The handle was not as strong as it looked (they ran out of money building the house and some of the last installed stuff is very cheap.) So now we just need to stuff a towel into it until we get another door set to install.

Alas, he did not do a complete imitation of C4 as I still have a pile of stuff by the door to put away. So ends the exciting saga in mundane, boring drudge work. Fun while it lasted though.

One of the youtube vids I looked at (can't remember if it was suggested or part of my wanderings looking for solutions) actually had a master key fashioned by using scotch tape to tape a spare key to the head of a sledgehammer, so we did end up using one of the suggestions after all, just in our own unique way. Thank you all for you input. Learning about bump keys and the need for a most substantial lock definitely made it worth it.

For GG, To see what it would have locked like to actually use C4 door charges see -----looking for one------.

Edited August 19, 2011 by calmoriah

[Stargazer]

For GG, To see what it would have locked like to actually use C4 door charges see

(skip to 1 min for the exciting part).

I almost suggested that vid, but the rather crude language of the troops marveling at the destruction made me think I should find something a little more tame (hence the vid showing the c4 blowing a hole in a boiler plate).

That vid results in the doors being completely GONE, which is a little along the lines of "Are you sure you used enough [C4] there, Butch?" To cite my own post.

I'm glad to hear you got into the storage room so easily, however.

[Calm]

del...

Edited August 19, 2011 by calmoriah

[Calm]

I almost suggested that vid, but the rather crude language of the troops marveling at the destruction made me think I should find something a little more tame (hence the vid showing the c4 blowing a hole in a boiler plate).

That vid results in the doors being completely GONE, which is a little along the lines of "Are you sure you used enough [C4] there, Butch?" To cite my own post.

I'm glad to hear you got into the storage room so easily, however.

I had the sound off! Should have checked, will remove and find another one later. Don't want to give GG a heartattack.

[CARPE DIEM]

Obviously you don't watch war movies or crime shows all that much.

As it turns out, we did not wait for my potentially wrong side of the law son to come home to attempt picklocking as I am defrosting the freezer tonight in anticipation of a visit from my parents in two weeks (a little major cleaning each day night when it's cooler as gone are the days where I could work straight for almost 48 hours with just a few cat naps to sustain me) and we needed the tornado fan to do a quick defrost. Of course since that is one massive unit (one of my husband's impulse buys, it was to contribute to cooling the house royally on cooler summer nights but it gets used for pretty much only defrosting these day as no one wants to get up at 6 AM to shut the windows), it's stored under the porch. So my husband got out the drill and the bit (after the stores closed so he just pulled the best looking one from our stash) and started work, no dice as the bit was too wimpy and no other likely candidates, so he resorted to the closest thing to C4 in the house---a sledgehammer, the big one even (yes, we have multiple sizes of sledgehammers in the house, don't ask me why). I would have had a fit had I been up with (was taking a migraine break as there were strong winds tonight, always fun) imagining damage to the door as much as too the handle, but lo and behold, it was a clean, quick break. The handle was not as strong as it looked (they ran out of money building the house and some of the last installed stuff is very cheap.) So now we just need to stuff a towel into it until we get another door set to install.

Alas, he did not do a complete imitation of C4 as I still have a pile of stuff by the door to put away. So ends the exciting saga in mundane, boring drudge work. Fun while it lasted though.

One of the youtube vids I looked at (can't remember if it was suggested or part of my wanderings looking for solutions) actually had a master key fashioned by using scotch tape to tape a spare key to the head of a sledgehammer, so we did end up using one of the suggestions after all, just in our own unique way. Thank you all for you input. Learning about bump keys and the need for a most substantial lock definitely made it worth it.

For GG, To see what it would have locked like to actually use C4 door charges see -----looking for one------.

Patience is a Virtue, glad it worked out!

[blackstrap]

I reinterate,if all else fails,get a bigger hammer. When my 2 lb one does not do the job,I use the 8 lb one. If that fails I have a 16 lb post hammer that will make a mess of most anything. Glad it all worked out so cleanly.

[Nathair/|\]

C-4 works well for opening things!

Should this come up again, here is a recipe for C4 and several other improvised munitions published by the US ARMY.

http://www.libertyreferences.com/improvised-munitions-handbook.shtml