Lockouts · Cambridge
Broken Key Extraction
Overnight the deadbolt froze, and this morning the key would only turn partway. One more push and it sheared off flush with the face of the cylinder.
Broken Key Extraction
In plain words
Freezing is one of the bigger seasonal causes of broken keys here. Meltwater runs into the keyway during a thaw and freezes overnight, so the plug is locked in ice, and most people respond by turning harder. The blade gives before the ice does. A winter extraction visit therefore begins with thawing: lock de-icer or gentle warmth frees the plug, then the fragment is drawn out and the cylinder is dried and given the lubricant its maker specifies. You leave with the piece out, a new key cut, and a small tube of de-icer so the next frozen morning is a pause rather than a snap.
How the visit goesThe key went in like any other morning, you turned it, and something gave with a small metallic click. The bow is still between your fingers. The rest of the blade is sitting inside the deadbolt, and the door is locked.
Cambridge
How the visit goes
Checks particular to a vehicle
A car adds a few questions. Did the key break in the door, the trunk or the ignition? Does the head in your hand hold a transponder chip or remote, and does the car start with the spare if there is one? Is the steering wheel locked, which can hold an ignition cylinder under tension and pin the fragment in place? Do the other doors open with the same key, or is the vehicle on a different key for the ignition and doors? These answers decide whether the job is a door extraction and a new blade, or an ignition extraction that needs the wheel freed and the wafers checked first.
Cutting the key you leave with
Once the lock is clear, a replacement key is made. The two halves of the broken key are laid together and the cuts are read with a key gauge, or the locksmith cuts from the key code if you have the tag or the lock's records, or from a crisp spare. What is avoided is copying a worn original, because a duplicate inherits every rounded cut and will stick and wear the same way. The new key is cut on a code machine, tried in the lock with the door open, then closed, and from both sides. Extra copies are cut from the new key while the machine is set.
Habits for the freezing months
A winter break leaves you with a dried, lubricated cylinder and one rule: when the key stops partway, you stop too. Carry a small lock de-icer in a coat pocket or the glovebox; a few seconds of it, or the warmth of a cupped hand on the cylinder, frees a frozen plug without asking anything of the blade. Shut the storm door before freezing rain, and fit a keyhole cover on a side door that catches meltwater during a thaw. Ice is one of the winter causes the locksmith sees often, alongside worn keys, misalignment and dirty or worn cylinders, and it is one of the easiest to prevent.
Broken Key Extraction
In the van
- Spiral key extractors
- Plug follower and cap tool
- Manufacturer-approved cylinder lubricant
- Hook key extractors
- Tension tool for resetting the plug
What affects the quote
Same fees day, night or weekend
1How deep the fragment sits
A piece standing above the cylinder face is the simplest case. One flush with the face or deep behind the pins takes longer, finer work with hooks and spirals, and the quote reflects that.
2Drilling and a replacement cylinder
On the rare occasion a cylinder must be sacrificed, the price includes the new cylinder or complete deadbolt plus fitting it, and that is agreed with you before the drill is picked up.
3Anything added since the break
Glue, a second key or marks from a screwdriver mean clearing and sometimes repair before extraction can start, and that added time is named in the quote.
Broken Key Extraction: questions
What should I do while I wait for the locksmith?
Put both halves of the key somewhere safe, note whether the door or vehicle is locked, and leave the keyway alone. If it is bitter cold, keep the storm door closed so the lock is not taking freezing rain. Have identification ready, or vehicle papers for a car. If the door is open, stay near it. That is all; the extraction goes smoother for a lock nobody has poked at.
Does the glue trick work?
It is a well-known idea and a poor one. A drop of adhesive on the other half rarely bonds to a piece of brass sitting in a tight keyway, and what it does bond to is the cylinder, the pins and the face of the lock. That film then has to be dissolved before proper extractors can slide in. Keep the halves apart and dry.
Can a new key be made from the two broken halves?
Usually. Laid end to end, the halves show the full set of cuts and identify the blank, and a locksmith reads them with a gauge and cuts a fresh key to those depths on a code machine. That is better than tracing the broken blade on a duplicator, because a worn key copied is a worn key repeated. If a spare or the key code exists, that is used instead.
Lockout Services
- Business Lockout ServiceMinus eighteen with a wind, and the exterior cylinder on the shop door has frozen solid overnight…
- Break-In Damage Lock RepairThe patio slider is sitting crooked on its track.
- Seized & Jammed Lock OpeningThe key turns a full circle without any resistance and the deadbolt stays exactly where it is.
Broken Key Extraction near you
One team handles every service on this page for Cambridge, so a lockout can turn into a rekey, and a rekey into a properly set deadbolt, within the same visit if you want it. Each service is described separately below, but at the door they fit together as one piece of work.