I have just been through a bad day. I must have woken up from the proverbial wrong side of the bed. I had an unmet deadline, So I had to leave work late. Then my car had a puncture and down went the drain another half an hour of my very long tiring day. As if that wasn’t enough, I got home and realized I had locked myself out of my very peaceful abode. My key got stuck in my lock, and I had no idea on how to remove a key stuck in the lock! I had planned to get myself a long hot bath, then sink deep into my cushy recliner and rest. But here I was sitting down on the steps holding back my tears in frustration. Holding back my panic (dusk was upon me), I took out my trusty phone and searched for information that would assist me to get over this huddle. Here’s what I mined out of that experience.
- If your key gets stuck in a lock like mine did, it could be because the mechanism of the lock is a bit dry and just needs some lubrication. A key held in a lock has its teeth lodged against the lock’s pins, which are very sturdy. All what you need to do then is get some lubricant from your car or purchase some from the store, then spray it inside the lock. I had some leftover WD40 in my car, which is what I used on my lock. Well, if you have no lubricant, then there other neat tricks out there to get your jammed key out of your lock.
- A loose piece in the lock mechanism or a minute bend on your key can also cause your key to get stuck in your lock. Few things can drive you up the wall, like a door you cannot get through when you need it the most. So, what most people do, is try to force and ram the key in, hoping that that should do the trick. Not so! It is at these moments the key snaps and breaks in half, taking you from the frying pan into the fire. So what do you do in such instances? First of all, take a deep breathe and calm yourself down. What you are facing is most probably a loose plug, moving within the cylinder, which stops the locks pin tumblers from aligning just right and releasing the lock. So gently push your key in and turn back the keyway slot to the original position it was in before you inserted the key and got it jammed. This is not hard really, it is most likely the position your keyway slot is left in after locking your lock. Once you key is aligned with the keyway, use your fingertips to push in the face of the plug, just next to your key. This constant light pressure will halt the movement within the lock, and you can then twist and pull out your key. Yay! Open sesame!
