Every locksmith who spends significant time in the trade comes up with some workarounds to make the job easier.
John Ray, director of education at Cothron’s Security Professionals of Austin, Texas, has developed several workarounds after 40 years in the locksmith game. Ray’s workarounds have led to the production of several tools that just might help other locksmiths.
Ray’s tools, under the name of Cothron’s, have been sold through H.L. Flake, now part of Banner Solutions, but Ray hopes to find wider distribution. He says he has discussed the tools with several national distributors, including Banner.
“All of them expressed interest, but none of them have followed through,” he says. “I've designed other tools that we use internally for Cothron’s. I just don't think there's a big enough market for them, because they are specialty tools. But these tools have a very broad market, and I think if people got a chance to see them, they’d take off.”
Locksmith Ledger got a look at a few of the tools, and we found a lot to like.
Around the Door Tools
Residential door lockouts cause different headaches from commercial lockouts and can require innovative tools to get the job done. Cothron’s Around the Door Tools answer the call for assistance. The toolset (Part number: PAT712) is geared toward residential knobs, levers and deadbolts.
The knob and lever tool (Image 1) was used to open an interior garage door that has a Schlage F Series Plymouth knob installed. The tool also can be used to open a failed latch should the situation arise.
With the tool in place from the door exterior, it took a few attempts to open the door, but no more time than other methods require. The tool comfortably wraps itself around a standard 1-3/4-inch door edge. (Image 2)
The knob and lever tool can also be used to rotate the knob’s interior thumbturn (Image 3), which allows for an additional access point, should the latch not pull back.
Also included with the PAT12 is the deadbolt opening tool. (Image 4) Rays says the deadbolt tool came about as an indirect result of Texas requiring the use of keyless deadbolts on rental properties.
“Every now and then, we’d run into situations where a renter would be ‘disenchanted with the landlord,’ and [the renter] would leave in the middle of the night,” he explains. “They locked the keyless deadbolts, go out the garage door, hit the remote and toss it under the door. Once those keyless deadbolts lock from the inside, there’s very few choices” of getting into the rental property, and most involve damaging the door.
The tool, however, allows for entry without drilling. You just slip the tool under the door and slide it up between the door and jamb until you reach the thumbturn. Then, when the tool grabs the thumbturn, you rotate the tool until the thumbturn flips to the unlocked position and retracts the bolt. (Think of a slim jim for a residential lock.)
It’s easy to use. We tried it on a B560P from Schlage (Images 5 and 6) and found the tool to be a definite time-saver and that using it also saves the deadbolt from being drilled.
Ray says the tool can work on high-security deadbolts by Medeco, Mul-T-Lock and Schlage. “A couple of our techs have used that tool to unlock Adams Rite swing bolts on aluminum glass doors,” he says. “As long as there’s a thumbturn on the inside, that tool will pretty much unlock it.”
The end of each tool is rubber-coated to prevent damage to the door, frame or lock. However, we noticed that after using the knob and lever tool, the pigment from the rubber-coated end rubbed off on the edge of the door. So, you might have to do a little cleanup before leaving the jobsite. The deadbolt tool didn’t leave any pigment behind on the door or frame in our evaluation.
Pro Installation Jig
Deadbolt drilling jigs have been around for a long time, and several companies offer jigs that they claim make the job of drilling a new deadbolt hole seamless. Cothron’s Pro Installation Jig (Part number: PAT6) and strike locator tool (Part number: PAT5) actually do that. In fact, they might be our new go-to tools for deadbolt installation. The products are heavy-duty, durable and light enough not to weigh down an already heavy tool assortment.
“The reason I went ahead and made that one was because A-1, which made the Bulls-Eye, basically went out of business,” Ray explains. Because he and his business couldn’t get new A-1 models, he designed his own. “I think we went through three prototypes on that one before I got it right.”
We tried the tools on an old mahogany door. (Image 7) The deadbolt used on the project was a Schlage B562P, and even though the door has lived a rough life, the PAT6 made deadbolt installation a breeze. (Image 8)
One of the standout features of the jig is the visual center-to-center gauge. (Image 9) The jig is adjustable to accommodate a center-to-center adjustment from 3 inches to 6 inches. There’s no eyeballing or mismeasurement, because the jig takes all the guesswork out of the installation. The jig also comes with replaceable adapter plates to accommodate a smaller deadbolt hole prep. (Image 10)
After the deadbolt and latch holes were drilled by installer John McHale, the strike locator was put to the test. (Image 11) The PAT5 proved to be another quality tool, and the marking tip appears to be durable enough to stand the test of time and easily replaces a wooden strike marker in a jig kit.
Other Tools
Cothron’s has more tools worth mentioning, although we didn’t try these out. An installation jig for Adams Rite latches and swing bolts is the latest tool in the lineup, having come out late in 2021.
Ray says that came about after repeated problems with a different jig slipping, which would cause damage to a door. The Cothron’s jig mounts to the door and uses the same mounting holes used for tabs on the interior side of the door. “That way, it’s actually secured right to the door, and it can’t slip, so you’re not going to cause any damage,” he says.
Of his template for Alarm Lock Trilogy locks, Ray says the tool is infallible, unless the lock itself was made incorrectly. He says that tool came out of the desire to install narrow-stile Trilogy DL1200 and DL1300 locks quickly and accurately. Measurements, typically from the door’s edge, would be off slightly.
This won’t happen with the Marking Template, because it uses the actual lock to guide the template. “The pen goes into the mortise cylinder hole in the lock, so you can’t be off,” Ray says. “You’re going to be dead on every time.” The templates have been patented.
Ray says he’s working on two more tools that might appeal to a wider audience than just Cothron’s technicians. One is aimed at assisting with the installation of the Lockmasters LKM7000 high-security lock.
Ray declines to discuss the other tool beyond saying it could help with U-change locks and works “nearly as quickly as using a key,” because he believes it also has the potential of being patented, like the templates.
“I haven't seen anything else quite like it out there available,” Ray says. “It doesn’t mean somebody else hasn’t done it.”
In other words, Ray acknowledges that locksmiths have a way with their workarounds.
Cothron’s Security Professionals can be reached at 512-966-9353 or by emailing Ray at [email protected].
Herman Manzanares III, RL, is co-owner of Los Alamos Lock & Key in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He has more than 25 years of locksmith experience. He can be reached at www.losalamoslock.com.
