Have you ever experienced living with a housemate in an apartment? Or if you own a business, do you have employees who has access to your doors? Have you experienced an instance wherein your housemate or employee parted ways and not in a good way and unfortunately, he still has keys to your doors. Basically, if you no longer want someone to have access to your doors, what do you do? Do you remove all the locks and replace them with an entirely new locks? Did you know that re-keying is an option that will not only help you solve your problem, you can also save a lot compared to buying brand new locks for all of the doors of your establishment. In case you own Schlage locks, here are simple steps you can take when it comes to rekeying your locks.
If you want to rekey the locks yourself, it might take time and research since not all locks are the same, but it is possible. What you need is a Schlage rekeying kit. The Schlage rekeying kit includes all the parts and tools you need to repin the cylinders of locksets manufactured by Schlage. Some of the tools it contains are the follower bar, key gauge, and cylinder cap removal tool.
First, unlock the knob using the original key and leave the key in the cylinder. After that, remove the knob from the chassis using the key gauge. Detach the key and push the cylinder until it is fully removed from the knob. After that, go ahead and remove the C clip and then reinsert the key into the cylinder. Using the follower bar, remove the cylinder’s housing and then empty the bottom pins from the cylinder. This is the time you can remove the original key. Once you have successfully performed these steps, you’re now ready for the second phase of rekeying.
What you want to do is to locate the key cut number of the new key and insert it into the cylinder. Use the rekey kit as guide to match the numbers to your new key. After identifying the numbers, insert the correct numbered pins from the first hole to fifth. Verify that you have inserted all the pins correctly. Reassemble the lock the same way you have disassembled it. Finally, check if the rekeying is successful by simulating the locking and unlocking of the new key to your lock. If it worked, congratulations! You have just successfully rekeyed your Schlage lock!
if you want to have your locks rekeyed as soon as possible, the best way is still to call a trusted locksmith and do all the nitty-gritty job for you. The good thing about getting a locksmith to rekey your Schlage locks is that they already have the tools, knowledge, and experience in changing the mechanism of your locks as efficiently as possible for your security.