On 2/18/2013 11:51 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 17 Feb 2013 23:49:34 -0800, "bob" wrote:

My roomate lost a house key so I want to rekey all outside door locks (4 of
them). I went to home depot and found this:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...&storeId=10051
(prime-line steel lockset re-keying kit for schlage 5-pin door locksets)

It comes with a bunch of pins and 3 pre-cut keys and cost only $13. Perfect,
I thought, until I noticed the "valleys" on the keys have very little height
variation. This means the lock would be easy to pick. I examined the other
sets and they were all similarly made. My existing house key has more height
variations.

The rekeying kit made by schlage cost $70 (!) and doesn't come with precut
keys. How do I get the keys?

Is there a rekeying kit with pre-cut keys, strong teeth pattern, and cost
less?

It's called your local locksmith. They can usually do it for less
than the cost of the kit. I've had a "rekey" done where they just
changed one pin and recut one notch on the key. The old keys won't
work any more and I didn't need to replace the remaining good keys..
Something like $10 for one lock and 6 keys!!! (that was over 10 years
ago)

This sounds similar to what I did when one of my keys disappeared, most
probably to a friend of one of my kids. BTW, I had just replace the
handle lock and the dead bolt locks on the door, so I hated to do it
again. I took the lock out and examined the pins. I found that in one
position I could put in a long pin. I got it from the local locksmith
.... he didn't even charge me. Once the longer pin was in the lock, the
old keys no longer worked. I then set out with a mototool and file on
one of the keys. Actually, a file is really all you need as brass keys
are pretty soft. And, I made the old key work with the new pin
arrangement. I then did this to all the keys. Pretty simple.