In 2015 I was living in an old Queenslander at Annerley which had been mostly renovated with a new built-in area underneath. The job was quite well done and this blog is no reflection on the previous owner or the contractors doing the work. On the lower level was a double garage with an internal door into the downstairs living space including a bedroom, the kitchen, dining and lounge areas. Between the garage and living space was a lockable entry door, and this door was keyed-alike with most other entry doors around the house. One day the lock broke which presented the problem to be addressed and presented a question - call a locksmith to have the lock replaced (which would likely cost a couple of hundred dollars) or remove the lock, pull it apart and see what had gone wrong? Naturally I chose the latter option first to see what was wrong....maybe I could fix it. The photo below shows the before and after of the repair job. What had happened was the spring that pushes the lock tongue out had snapped so you could not close the door nor could you lock it. I knew finding the same shape spring would be just about impossible but on looking at the lock mechanism design I could see that a regular expansion coil spring, placed around the vertical shaft attached to the tongue, would do the same thing but in a different way. I know Bunnings is supposed to have everything, but this was too specialised so I visited a local hardware store as they often have more unusual items not available in the so-called major stores. I asked the gentleman in the shop and he pulled out a dusty box with a variety of springs in all shapes and sizes. There was not one to replace the broken one, but there was one like what I imagined would do as a replacement fitted in a different way. He didn't know how much to charge me as there were no prices marked on the box, so we agreed on $1. I took the spring home and fitted it to the lock as shown above - it not only fitted but it worked exactly as I had imagined it would. The only difference was that the key/handle was a little firmer to turn as my new spring had a bit more tension than the old one.
An excellent result - and the cheapest repair job I've ever done.
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AuthorAfter spending 22 years in the Telecommunications Industry, I've decided to keep those skills alive and offer my services to people needing assistance with small phone cabling jobs in the home or office. Archives
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