Schlage Unveils Two-Piece Mortise Cylinder

Sept. 3, 2010
Stock up on a few 5-40 tailpiece screws and you will be ready to tackle Schlage’s new two-piece mortise cylinders.

After all these years, what can be new and different about a common mortise cylinder? Schlage has an answer with the new 30-001-EV mortise cylinder (photo 1). Schlage introduced the new cylinder at the recent Security Hardware Distributor Association (SHDA) meetings. Locksmith Ledger was fortunate enough to obtain one of these pre-introduction cylinders for this article.

Observant readers will remember a picture on the back page of our June issue which showed the back end of a mortise cylinder (Photo 2). The cylinder in the photo was the Schlage cylinder. The new cylinder is made in two pieces (photo 3). Screws shown in the picture are used to hold the two pieces together (photo 4).

For several years Schlage has used a key-in-knob (KIK) cylinder for its deadbolt products. An opening in the deadbolt cylinder housing will accept a standard knob cylinder. Different lazy cam tailpieces are held in place with a standard threaded retainer cap.

The Schlage mortise cylinder now gets the same treatment. The two halves of the housing have cutout sections made to accept a cylinder similar to a normal key in knob lock cylinder (photo 5)

A few changes had to be made in order to fit the knob cylinder inside the mortise cylinder space. A small bottom section of the KIK cylinder housing was removed (photo 6). This allowed the mortise cylinder housing to have a thicker shell on the bottom of its housing. In order to meet a 1-1/4” cylinder length, a small section of the cylinder bible was also removed to provide clearance inside the rear of the housing.

The final step involved the rear of the cylinder plug. A normal brass cylinder plug was used including threads for the cap retainer. Special tailpiece cams are used which fit over the threaded portion of the plug. In order to have an interlocking connection with the tailpiece cam, the cylinder contains a special horizontal notch, plus a single threaded hole to retain the tailpiece cam (photo 7). The retaining screw is a 5/8” flathead screw with an unusual 5-40 thread size. Original screw threads contain a coating to prevent loosening.

The new KIK is diecast, while the plug is brass. As indicated, the KIK cylinder housing is slightly different than a standard KIK housing. As an experiment, and using the new 30-001 as a sample, a brass Primus housing was milled flat on the bottom. A slot was then milled in the Primus plug at the rear to accept the special new tailpiece. The Primus cylinder operated well, but it is not an operation to be undertaken in the field.

There must be a good reason for changing to a mortise cylinder housing with several parts instead of a one-piece unit. Perhaps the diecast housing is a cost saving measure. Whatever the reason, stock up on a few 5-40 tailpiece screws and you will be ready to tackle any new Schlage mortise cylinder that you encounter.