Lock breaking advice

CiB

The Boy Blunder has done exactly what I warned him about and broken the key off in his bike D-lock, leaving it stranded at school. The lock is a Kryptonite Evolution Mini 7 sold by Evans, amongst others.



I've only glanced at it once, and that was enough to identify the key as having the torsional strength of a carrot stick. All suggestions for how to open it will be gratefully received. Bear in mind that it's at school so dynamite isn't an option; I can go there tomorrow to do the job.

estampida

spare key.....? might be able to pull out the key bit with glue / blu tack out of the barrel after that...

best option is angle grinder, a few mins.....

or a really good hacksaw with good quality blade (will take time....)

check with the school janitor for power to grind.....

freezing77

http://www.hss.com/g/6331/Angle-Grinder-230mm.html

Lefthook

How far is the school from a Fire Station. Ask them if for a case of beer they will come and cut it with their great big cut a car up like butter tools.

A mates Dad used to be a Fireman, they did this for a bloke who walked in and said his bike was just round the corner, only for 30 seconds after he had ridden off the real owner of the bike appeared a little bit pissed off.

mudcow007

would a car jack inside the dlock pop it open?

veronese68

I'd agree about the angle grinder. If you do cut it cut close to the frame mounting clip so the rest of the U comes off, might make life a bit easier.
A long shot but if you push the body of the lock against the U to take any tension off the mechanism you might be able to get what's left of the key to turn using some good needle point pliers if there's anything to get hold of. Or even using the broken off bit of key as an interference fit and force it round.
More likely to need the angle grinder.

CiB

Thanks for those. I'd got the long-nose pliers and the fishing out with blue tac idea in mind but these will do as back up. The Fire Station is about 3 minutes away so that might be an option, assuming the school are ok about it. It's the last day of term anyway so at worst it'll interrupt Years 7 - 11 hard day watching DVDs.

jds_1981

Normal approaches as mentioned above are: -
co2 can to freeze then hit with a big hammer
car jack in the u (although I imagine this can damage the frame
bolt croppers
pneumatic cutter
angle grinder
hack saw
etc

cyclingprop

jds_1981 wrote:

Normal approaches as mentioned above are: -
co2 can to freeze then hit with a big hammer
car jack in the u (although I imagine this can damage the frame
bolt croppers
pneumatic cutter
angle grinder
hack saw
etc

I vote for hacksaw. But make sure to use the arm you don't use for pleasure, to even your guns out... y'know?

fossyant

Pliers first and see if key blade comes out, hacksaw will take agese, angle grinder if there is power near.

My son's had his d-lock thrown away - he hadn't locked it one night at school, so the d section was chucked by some kids, just leaving the locking bar - great £35 down the drain.

Kieran_Burns

jds_1981 wrote:

Normal approaches as mentioned above are: -
co2 can to freeze then hit with a big hammer
car jack in the u (although I imagine this can damage the frame
bolt croppers
pneumatic cutter
angle grinder
hack saw
etc

Should we be worried you know so many options AND you start with "Normal approaches" ???? :shock:

Kieran_Burns

CiB wrote:

<snip>
I've only glanced at it once, and that was enough to identify the key as having the torsional strength of a carrot stick. All suggestions for how to open it will be gratefully received. Bear in mind that it's at school so dynamite isn't an option; I can go there tomorrow to do the job.

It's school. Dynamite is ALWAYS an option.

CiB

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Should we be worried you know so many options AND you start with "Normal approaches" ???? :shock:

It did occur that I was asking for tips on being a burglar, but this is a very London-centric forum so I assumed that as everybody in the Smoke has a bit of form for this sort of thing some useful tips would probably be forthcoming.

Like the CO2 idea - I bought a boxful in the summer so it'll be a good use of them.

davis

If you have a spare key, then an uncurled paperclip with a wee dab of superglue to extract the broken half is usually the weapon of choice.

However, if the key is still in the lock, it's done 90% of the opening already. Depending on how much of the key is left in the lock it might actually be pushing the pins into the right place (difficult to tell from googled images exactly which type of lock it is though) so all it might need is turning the broken key piece while it's still in the keyway. Sometime a flat-bladed screwdriver can be persuaded to assist here.

CiB

Resolved. The caretaker (who said janitor?) had a go with needle pliers but failed so has had the angle grinder to it and 'released the bicycle'.

That's good, means I don't have to waste my day off + the looming End Of Time tomorrow getting his bike unstuck.