wrote:
A friend locked herself out of her flat this weekend.
I offered to come round and use my size 11 skeleton keys on it :-) but
she called a locksmith instead.

The lock was a single yale-type lock which locks when the door is
pulled closed.
My question is - how would a locksmith open this?

I thought about drilling through the keyhole with a HSS bit - bit I
guess (hope!) the cylinder should be able to resist this type of
attack?

Funnily enough I drilled one out this very day - for the first time ever.

The plastic shim doesn't work on most doors due to the rebated frame.

I have an escapologist mate who only picks locks as a last resort, prefers
hidden keys, gimmicked locks etc.

He gave me a lock pick set & showed me how to pick a Yale type lock. It's
much, much harder than it looks, takes loads of practice to get it 100%. I
still can't do it well.

As Huge says, drill down the shear line, which is just above the top of the
key slot. Didn't work today as the drill slipped into the larger bit of the
key slot. Instead I drillled where I guessed the fixing bolts were & got
lucky on both. Once these are drilled out it falls apart with a little
'encouragemment'.

Used a cobalt drill bit - knife through butter.

If you can get the bezel (the ring around the lock, I think thats what its
called) off then its easy to drill out the fixing bolts.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257