Got home yesterday, tried to get in the house. Door lock felt a bit strange but it let me in and I thought nothing more of it …
Until I got back from gaming later … Key goes in the lock and I turn it. Key spins but doesn’t achieve much more than that. This is accompanied by me going “uhoh” (well, words to that effect). I manage to get in, before I start going for the breaking in solution.
That’s right – I keep the tools at hand for breaking into my house. And they’re simpler than you’d think …
It’s 11.30pm right now, so out comes the toolkit for a bit of impromptu DIY. Latch comes off the door and I start a-peeking at it. First thought – should that snurgly be loose ?
The Right Handed Toothy Snurgly (labelled “Bad Snurgly” above) was what was loose. It’s a bit of metal that looks like a washer, except it has a pair of teeth on the outside and another pair of teeth on the inside. The way the lock works is :
The bolt is on a spring loaded frame. When there’s nothing acting on it, the spring will push it outwards, latching the door.
The inside handle has big teeth on the inside that pull the latch in when you turn it.
The outer lock has a bar that comes in through the door, which acts on the Snurgly.
The Snurgly is retained by the Circly Grip.
When rotated, Snurgly acts like the handle above, pulling the latch in.
What had happened was that Bad Snurgly worked its way off the Circly Grip, so the outer lock had nothing to work on to pull the bolt in.
Five minutes with a Mend Stick (hammer) later …
And Bad Snurgly has been persuaded to play nice with the Circly Grip again. Lock gets put back together and is put back on the door. All seems to be working …
Almost. As with any DIY stuff where you’re effectively making it up as you go along, it doesn’t quite work the way it did before. But I’m not complaining, I can now get in my front door without resorting to my unconventional lock picks.