Old rim lock...replacement key

[Mickey]

Hi All,

Probably a stupid question but I have just purchased a reclaimed door which will be an inner door to a porch with an outer door, it came with a rim lock how easy is it to get a replacement key or am I just being a numpty and should just purchase another rim lock but one which comes with a key!

cheers

Mickey

 

[plasticpigeon]

Why don't you keep the original lock but use a yale lock for doing the latching/locking.

 

[Roger H]

It's easy. Cost me £10 to have a couple of new keys made to suit keyless locks. Make sure they use a blank with a long barrel so it will reach through the door into the lock.

 

[MikeG]

Why don't you keep the original lock but use a yale lock for doing the latching/locking.

If you do this (which I wouldn't), make sure you have a spare key hidden in a sealed plastic bag somewhere in your garden. You'll need it. Don't ask me how I know this.....

 

[noj]

Don't ask me how I know this...

Ditto

Also discovered that a garden cane through the cat flap works, before the spare key got a garden home of its own.

And when visiting daughter did the same (in her dressing gown), just after I'd left for work and didn't then know the cane trick, or the location of the emergency key, she tried next door who still hold a spare from the PO. It turned out he was away for a long weekend.

But then the nice woman in the next house up the street saw her and came out in her PJs to offer assistance. She revealed she had a key to our neighbours' and so the pair let themselves in and hunted around producing a plethora of keys. Much traipsing from house to house and testing was required until they eventually found the right one...

Security is nice - but being able to get back in without having to involve a locksmith or half the street when you do something silly is good too

 

[Feltwell]

Mickey, it's very easy indeed to make a key yourself for these old rim locks. I've done a few, but really more for privacy than security - bathrooms, loo, spare bedroom (keep the kids away from Christmas presents!). Rim locks won't offer much in the way of security and if someone is determined enough to break into your porch through the outer door, they will just do more damage kicking the inner door through, safe in the knowledge that with the outer door shut they're less likely to be heard.

Anyway, if you do want a key, I've taken the lock off the door and down to my local keycutting emporium, just your standard "Timpsons", not a proper locksmith. They cut a key blank to roughly the right size for me. I then came home, took the back off the lock and filed the key to the right shape with some needle files - it really is very simple, doesn't take much figuring out.

Timpsons did say they could send the lock away for a fee to make a key for me if I wished.

 

[Hobden]

Why don't you keep the original lock but use a yale lock for doing the latching/locking.

If you do this (which I wouldn't), make sure you have a spare key hidden in a sealed plastic bag somewhere in your garden. You'll need it. Don't ask me how I know this.....

Keep some emery paper in the plastic bag too Or blather the key in vaseline and put some kitchen paper in the bag. Don't ask me how I know!

 

[Mickey]

Thanks all for your very helpful replies and yes it had occurred to me to fit a yale and yes it had also occurred to me that this would be a good way to get locked out, I think we need to ask our neighbours if they would mind having a set of keys in readiness for the inevitable! Thanks Feltwell for the tip on filing our own key, I've seen this done on Salvage Hunters and I think we might give this a go. I do appreciate if someone really wants to break in they certainly will and no rim or yale lock is going to stop them :x

thanks again
Mickey

 

[88v8]

Lots of rimlocks here
https://www.lockmonster.co.uk/
and oddly enough it seems to be a one-man band and he's very helpful.

But I agree with Feltwell.

After a couple of locked out experiences we have spare keys stashed in a couple of garden places.
A former neighbour had a vertical clay drain pipe with one of those iron ventilators on top, and kept his key down there, guarded by a cohort of snails.

Ivor

 

[plasticpigeon]

I'm puzzled, I always have my house keys in my pocket so I never get locked out unless I go outside in the buff, which I try to avoid.

 

[Mickey]

I think it's specific to yale locks....if you don't remember to put the catch down and nip outside to put the dustbin out or whatever (usually in the dark dead of winter when all the other exit/entry doors to the house are locked from the inside and in the case of Cornwall it will also be raining, normally sideways) door closes behind you, hey presto you are locked out! :shock:

 

[Zebra]

Keep some emery paper in the plastic bag too Or blather the key in vaseline and put some kitchen paper in the bag. Don't ask me how I know!

Good tip!
I also love the idea of getting snails to guard your spare keys. Do they need any special training? Uniforms?