Josh-the-Locksmith
25 Years Experience
Austin, TX
Male, 46
I've been a locksmith since 1998. I did automotive residential & commercial work from 1998 to 2008. From 2008 to 2018, I did some residential, but mostly commercial work. I have been project managing & estimating since 2018. I used to locksmith in the Chicago area, now the Austin area.
1- it's impossible to truly know who the owner is. The best we can do is take as much information as we can just in case things go south. So we get a drivers license, plate, year, make & model, location, time, name, address, & phone number. If it's a home, the drivers license or a piece of mail has to have the address on it. 2- if you don't have money, we don't do the service. If you don't have ID, we prob wouldn't do the service unless it was a special circumstance. 3- to my knowledge, there aren't any laws i know of that saw you can't over-charge people. But in many states it's illegal to operate as a locksmith without a permit or license. A lot of these guys are contractors & do not have one. I tell people all the time that everyone should have the name & phone number of a reputable locksmith in their phone. It's your job to research the company you're hiring. There are a LOT of crooked companies out there, & the only thing that can stop them is smart & knowledgeable customers. Leave reviews on Yelp & Google, report them to BBB. Ask for a quote before they do the work. If you don't like it, call someone else. You should never feel pressured or threatened.
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Can you just drill the hole deeper?
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Nope unfortunately not. National makes locks that go into so many different things, many of which share key blanks. Could be a file cabinet, cam lock, tractor, who knows!
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Its not an easy job! You're better off installing a cylindrical deadbolt ABOVE your surface-mounted deadbolt. Still not easy if you're not used to doing it, and takes a lot of specialty tools- 2-1/8" hole saw, chisels, 1" paddle bit or hole saw, etc. If you care about the cosmetics of your door, you might be better off hiring a locksmith do it a proper job.
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If your front door key will fit in the lock on your garage, it doesn't even have to turn, take the locks off and take them to a locksmith. They should be able to make them match your front door. If it doesn't fit, take your front door key and get a couple replacement locks that will accept it. Have them rekeyed to match. If you don't care if they match or not, take your garage locks off and take them to a locksmith to get re-keyed, or just buy a new set
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I'm not familiar with strong box. A google search brought up quite a variety of different things. I would say see if you can order one from the manufacturer, otherwise if it is a fairly simple design, I'm sure a cylinder could be modified to work.
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I wish I could help you, but I do not do safe manipulation.
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