Thru-the Lock Entry: “7-5″ and “5-7″
The Adams-Rite lock is a mortise lock common to commercial occupancies, particularly store-fronts or “taxpayers”. It’s a relatively formidable lock; the throw is about 1.5″ of solid metal into a metal frame – very difficult to force conventionally. Further, the door is often glass – which may or may not be covered with some type of security bars or mesh. For a whole lot of reasons, I think breaking the glass is your WAY last resort.
Fortunatley, this is a VERY easy lock to quickly open “thru-the-lock” – provided you have a little know-how and “use the clock” (everyone like how that rhymed?)….
Step 1: Pull the cylinder
The cylinder can be removed via any of the variety of lock-pullers: K-Tool, A-Tool, whatever… Frequently it can also be twisted off with a pair of vice-grips or channel locks (though they’ve come up with a host of PITA security measures to prevent you from doing this). The cylinder screws into place, so if you want to unscrew it, twist counter clockwise.
Once the K-tool has been tapped onto the cylinder securely, we go straight down with a quick, sharp motion to pull the cylinder. To pull the cylinder with a K-tool, I prefer to slide the adz in from the bottom (picture). With the Adz positioned as-such, the K-tool won’t fall off the Halligan when you’re done. Not sure that’s a major issue, but I think it’s more professional and controlled.
Step 2: Unlock the door
This is the “know-how” part. I’ve seen many experience & inexperienced firemen simply try to shove something into the hole and wiggle it. As with other things in life, there’s a bit more to it than just that…
What you'll see when you pull the cylinder...
If you look carefully, you’ll see that on left side of the circle you can see the tip of a little “ball” in the bottom-left corner. This is what you are aiming for. Notice that you need to go past the lip of the door frame and into lock to get to this. That means into the silver part. This will be accomplished with the right-angle end of your Key Tool. In this case, we’ll use my home-made Channel-Lock/Key-Tool combo (we’ll discuss making one of these next time…).
Think of the lock like a clock: 12 at the top, 6 at the bottom, etc… The lock mechanism on these Adams-Rite’s operates between 7 o’clock and 5 o’clock.
- For a locked door with throw to the right move from 7-5 to unlock.
- For a locked door with throw to the left it will be from 5-7 to unlock.
Insert the tip and press downward
Insert the tip of the angled end of your key-tool into the lock at 7 or 5 o’clock. You need to then press downward on the “ball” slightly. It is spring-loaded to keep the lock in position. Once you press down a little you will be able to slide your tool to the left or right (while maintaining slight downward pressure) to unlock the door.
*Note: If the door is tight, there may be pressure on the lock’s throw that prevents you from easily moving it. In this case try putting a little pressure on the body of the door just near the lock to release the pressure and allow you to manipulate it.
I’d argue that a skilled firemen can do this quickly in 45-60 seconds or less. That’s faster than the brute method of breaking out the glass and saves you all the trouble of glass on hoselines, restricted openings (cross bars), etc…
More one this later, just wanted to through a quick piece on this out there. Any thoughts or ideas, I’d love to hear them!
Stay safe,
-Nick
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