Sun Mar 22, 2015 9:39 pm
Old Master Lock No. 3 brought back to life
So garage sale season has finally sprung in my state! And we all know what that means:) I hit the noobie jackpot at my very first garage sale. I get there and it looks like an antique store exploded in this guys driveway. haha! He had old tools, fishing equipment, vending machines, toys, books, and nick knacks of all types. I didn't see any locks yet but I knew there had to be some. I saw an old metal bucket with a bunch of old tools in it and started digging and at the bottom I found an old rusty Master no.3 with a key. I would have been happy just going home to play with that. Nothing was priced so I went up and asked the guy and he shrugs and says "a buck sound good?" Ya! HAHA!
I decided to speed up the process and ask him if they had anymore locks and he runs inside the house and comes back with what looked like a wooden Velveta cheese box full of locks and we negotiated a pretty good price for all of them. Here is the first score of the Lock Butcher in '15.
The only one that had a key was the No.3
Now, not the rarest or most beautiful of the lot but I decided to start with that one. It was worse off than I thought. The shackle, plug and pins were froze solid. I couldn't even get the key in the lock. And I looooooove a challenge. So I soaked the lock in penetrating oil for a few days and still no movement on anything. So I decided to try to free up the pins. I jiggled a city rake around in the core until the pins freed up enough to get the key in. Now with the key in, I tried turning the plug. Nope. But it didn't feel like the plug was bound. It would only rotate about 10 degrees but it felt like the nubs that go into the shackle to keep it locked were not retracting because of all the rust in the lock. The shackle was not freed up yet and I thought this was also related to that. I decided to try to apply inward force on the shackle nubs (sorry noob talk i think they are called pahls) by pulling on the shackle while turning the plug with the key so when the nubs did finally break free I'd be able to open the lock. I put a screwdriver through the shackle and tightened the end of it in my vise. I knew I had to be very careful not to turn the key too hard and break it off in the lock. So I pulled on the body while turning the key, gently but firmly, and after about 30 seconds of fighting it the shackle reluctantly popped. And it was RUSTY! Ha!
And I must have used just the right amount of force while turning the plug because luckily I didn't bend or twist the key.
After I got the lock open, I soaked it again in penetrating oil and cleaned all the rust I could get to off with a wire wheel. Now I works perfectly.
You're probably saying, "That sounds like a lot of work for just a Master no. 3" But like I said I am a newbie and I wanted to practice on a lock that if I broke it I wouldn't be too worried about it. But now with this project completed successfully I will have much more confidence working on a little nicer lock next time.
I decided to speed up the process and ask him if they had anymore locks and he runs inside the house and comes back with what looked like a wooden Velveta cheese box full of locks and we negotiated a pretty good price for all of them. Here is the first score of the Lock Butcher in '15.
The only one that had a key was the No.3
Now, not the rarest or most beautiful of the lot but I decided to start with that one. It was worse off than I thought. The shackle, plug and pins were froze solid. I couldn't even get the key in the lock. And I looooooove a challenge. So I soaked the lock in penetrating oil for a few days and still no movement on anything. So I decided to try to free up the pins. I jiggled a city rake around in the core until the pins freed up enough to get the key in. Now with the key in, I tried turning the plug. Nope. But it didn't feel like the plug was bound. It would only rotate about 10 degrees but it felt like the nubs that go into the shackle to keep it locked were not retracting because of all the rust in the lock. The shackle was not freed up yet and I thought this was also related to that. I decided to try to apply inward force on the shackle nubs (sorry noob talk i think they are called pahls) by pulling on the shackle while turning the plug with the key so when the nubs did finally break free I'd be able to open the lock. I put a screwdriver through the shackle and tightened the end of it in my vise. I knew I had to be very careful not to turn the key too hard and break it off in the lock. So I pulled on the body while turning the key, gently but firmly, and after about 30 seconds of fighting it the shackle reluctantly popped. And it was RUSTY! Ha!
And I must have used just the right amount of force while turning the plug because luckily I didn't bend or twist the key.
After I got the lock open, I soaked it again in penetrating oil and cleaned all the rust I could get to off with a wire wheel. Now I works perfectly.
You're probably saying, "That sounds like a lot of work for just a Master no. 3" But like I said I am a newbie and I wanted to practice on a lock that if I broke it I wouldn't be too worried about it. But now with this project completed successfully I will have much more confidence working on a little nicer lock next time.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
