I decided to replace the locks in my house and wanted them keyed alike in groups using specific keys. This way I have control of the doors and who has access to what. The existing locks were all Kwikset and I know I'll get a lot of crap for this but I think Kwikset is garbage and offers little in the way of real security.
Around here rekeying a cylinder runs between 10-20 if you take the lock to a locksmith. I had enough I figured I could rekey them myself and save some money. In my case it cost me about 70 including the tools I bought for the project and the pin kit. I could have bought just the pins I needed but having the kit gives me the ability to make changes and I still saved 100-150 over a locksmith doing it. Plus this kit has master pins so I can master key the locks if I decide to go that way.
The pin kit. Genuine Schlage pins made by Lab (the company that makes pins for pretty much everyone). This kit is only Schlage depths so it is limited to Schlage and other manufacturers who use Schlage depths (which is probably about 1/2 the brands maybe more). I got all this on Amazon.
The chart shows the pin depths and master pin depths as well as which parts are which like springs and some of the more common bits that get lost or need serviced from time to time.
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The two tools I needed to buy - the tweezers which are special for lock work and the white piece which is the plug follower. There is one other thing I bought I'll show shortly. The tweezers are something you don't want to use rekeying as unless you're replacing the driver springs or drivers or removing master pins the plug follower should keep all that in place. I got it them as a just in case. The top piece is a Kwikset tool I already had and use it to remove the C clips on the knob cylinders (shown shortly).
The tweezers have a relief to hold the round drivers. It could be done with regular tweezers but it's not a pleasant task.
A lot of keys come with a number stamped on them. Sometimes, mostly small format wafer locks or car keys, it's a code that has to be looked up but most often it is the bitting. In this case the numbers are 43746. Staring at the bow (head) to the tip these are the depths .225, .210, .270, 225, 255 - the depths change in increments of .015. Schlage uses ten depths from 0 (uncut) to 9.
Notice the pins ride only in the cuts or low spots. When the key is correct the tops of the pins all line up with the top pf the plug.
The cylinder contains drivers and springs and may also have master pins. Master pins allow more than one key to operate the lock. The spring and driver on the right are standard Schlage and on the left is what is used in Schlage F cylinders. Each pin has a driver and spring.
When the right key is used the pins form a shear line with the top of the plug.
When the wrong key is used the pins don't line up and either protrude into the cylinder or are short and the driver protrudes into the plug. It doesn't take much to not work. 0.003 is enough to prevent key from turning. When a key is clicky or needs to be jiggled to work the pins are worn and the shear line is a little off.
To repin all the locks took about two hours and about 1/2 of that was taking the pix. I didn't time it but I think it took about five minutes a cylinder when not messing with the camera.
