BACK TO BASICS The Vendetta, Op-Checks and Days Gone By they've been having trouble with their key, they’ll smile and say, “No, it works fine.” The lesson here is we, the professionals, see what the layman doesn’t. A quick op-check will discover other Figure 10. A 1959 Locksmith Ledger article was about government tests of various safes and insulated files during an atomic blast. lever against the rose ring and hold my hip against the inside lever as I tighten the screw. Now, I’m not putting a lot of pressure on either lever; I just want them to stay still as I turn the set screw. Operational Checks: Before and After Whether you’re doing a new installation on a blank door or a repair, you should check the operation of the lock in every phase of its intended use. My first boss used to say, “I don’t care if all you do is tighten a screw on a face plate. Check that everything func- tions properly before you go.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across the following: a cylinder set screw not tightened on a mortise lock. Or a set screw on a knob or lever not tightened; they come off in the customer’s hand. Or the door doesn’t latch. Or the door latches but can’t throw the deadbolt. The killer is, a few times I’ve been called to fix a “lock won’t lock” where there’s no strike hole or strike for a newly installed deadbolt. Or, the hole isn’t deep enough, and the deadbolt can’t fully extend and thereby “deadlock” 54 KEYNOTES MAY 2020 Figure 11. The author found this guide for hand washing on a wall at one of his workplaces. Think about this: How much time does it take to check your work? Go through everything that the lock is supposed to do and make sure it can — and easily, too. On a mortise lock: Is the latch going all the way into the strike? Can you throw the bolt while the door is closed? Does it open easily? Is anything rubbing against the frame? Will the deadbolt retract with the latch when you push down the lever, if that’s a function? Is every screw tight and possibly installed with thread locker? You get the idea. A simple op-check should take a minute or two to do and will save you from callbacks down the line. Note that I said before and aſter above. You should also get into the habit of checking the operation of those locks you’re about to service. Why? First, cus- tomers sometimes speak in riddles be- cause they’re not sure what they’re talk- ing about. That’s understandable; it’s our profession, not theirs. Besides, have you ever seen — like I have — someone wiggle their key for 30 seconds before they get into their apartment building? If you ask them if things that are wrong that the customer doesn’t notice. These can become rea- sons to recommend replacement instead of repair. It’s also important to ask the customer what they see as the problem with the lock, rather than just working on what they think is wrong. I usually say this to the customer, “Tell me what you feel the problem is, and I’ll help you solve it.” The answer might be, “Well, I have to push the door hard to lock the deadbolt.” Now you know what to look for. There’s another reason to do a prelim- inary op-check: avoiding accusations. Have you ever heard, “Well it didn’t do that before you touched it?” Here’s what happened to me many years ago. I went on a job where the woman had lost her only key for her cylindrical knob. I checked her ID, got her in, rekeyed her lock and put it back on. What I didn’t notice was her latch was backwards; it was an in-swinging door, and the bevel on the latch faced in, not out. When I had her try the keys, she pulled the door shut and it wouldn’t latch. Right away, it became my fault that the door didn’t latch automatically. Obviously, ev- ery time she used it in the past, she had to have turned the knob as she closed the door, but she didn’t understand that. I pointed out the problem, and she swore it was my fault and that I had switched the latch around. When I showed her how the paint on the latch was intact because I never removed it, a somewhat dim bulb lit up. If I had checked how the door closed and latched when I got there, I could have avoided the angst. My “situational aware- ness” wasn’t as well-honed as it is now, and if it is, it’s the result of years of meet- ing people like that. WWW.ALOA.ORG
