Commercial LockOut Service In Portland

(503) 342-4106

If you ever get locked out of your place of business or office, breaking a window or call it off for the day should not be an option to resolve the situation. The better option would be to contact a professional locksmith Portland company for a lock out service. This can be accomplished without having to compromise the security of your business. Regardless if your place of business is a small office or a large commercial property building, Advantage Locksmith Portland will use a variety of methods in order to insure the safest way to get you back into your place of business in no time.

The way that most locks are designed is with pins and tumblers, which allows a technique called “lock picking” by a professional locksmith during a lock out service. A pin and tumbler designed lock is the most common type in the market for both residential and commercial properties. It has several integral parts such as the housing of the pins and springs, the actual plug which the key turns in order to lock and unlock the lock and the pins which align with the cuts on the key once it is inserted inside the lock.

There are 2 types of pins inside the housing which contains both the pins and the springs, key pins and drive pins. The drive pins along with the springs will all be the same measurements. However, the key pins will vary in size in order to compliment the different cuts on the key. When a key is inserted, it will push the drive pins which in turn will compress the springs. At this point the lock system is ready to be unlocked once the key is turned.

Using lock picking

Because of a fairly complex design of a pin and tumbler lock, lock picking can be a little tricky to do even for a commercial locksmith during a lock out service. However, what any professional locksmith knows is that in order for a lock pick to be successful, the drive pins have to be manipulated in order to reach the shear line. This can be achieved with a professional knowledge and picking tools which include a tension wrench and a couple of standard picks.

The way that it works with picking tools is by placing the tension wrench on the opposite side of where the key pins would normally mate along with the key cuts inside the cylinder plug. As far as the turn position, in order to unlock the lock and complete the lock out service, the tension wrench will determine that based on which direction has more to give. Once the direction to turn has been determined and the tension wrench has been turned, now the pick tool comes into play by inserting it into the keyhole and pulling it in and out for several times.

When the locksmith starts the process with the pick tool, you can expect some of the drive pins to move into place which in that point the locksmith will start working on the other pins starting from the back of the plug. Once all the pins are in the right place, the tension wrench will be used just like a key and be turned in order to unlock the lock. In this way, the lock out service can be completed without causing any damage to the lock.

Commercial lockout service in Portland

Using a bump key

One more way a commercial locksmith might turn to in order to unlock a lock during a lock out service, is using a bump key. Such method works similar to using a pick tool set in a sense that it as well responsible for moving the key pins gradually in order for the driver pins to align properly. A bump key will have uniquely formed identical cuts, so it can perform its job for pushing the pins while being stroked repeatedly until the plug inside the lock is allowed to be turned. And just like the pick tools method, a bump key will not harm the lock as well.

Final solution for a lock out service

In a situation where the lock was not designed with pins and tumblers like most commercial door locks, or the two methods previously mentioned did not work for some reason, the only way that left in order to defeat the lock during a lock out service would be to drill. A commercial locksmith will normally drill the lock just above the keyway where the pins would normally be. This will allow to free the plug and unlock the lock with a tool such as a screwdriver. As a side note, only a professional would be able to properly drill a lock successfully as it takes the professional knowledge to identify the right location to drill.