Unjamming old interior 'chub'/mortice lock

415 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Brickcell, Jan 24, 2020

Brickcell

Discussion Starter · Jan 24, 2020

Hi there,
So the house I moved into is relatively old and has old style locks for the bedrooms and bathrooms. Some of the locks have been painted over presumably to prevent kids locking themselves into rooms.

The key and keyhole area seems to be fine but it's the lock area itself that won't budge. I've scraped off the paint on one of the locks but only get about half a millimetre - a millimetre range of motion from it when I try to turn the key. Just wondering what the best way to go about this is. I've limited tools as I've just moved in so I've have been scraping away at the perimeter of the chub lock itself in hope it will remove anything blocking it from extruding.

I'll include a picture link below if possible to give you an idea of what I'm working with. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Brickcell

Discussion Starter · #2 · Jan 24, 2020

Picture:
https://imgur.com/a/BxG3i08

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Brickcell

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jan 24, 2020

joecaption said:
Clean out the slot in the heads of those screws and remove them.
Run a utility knife around the outside edges of the metal plate.
Remove the knobs and the whole shaft the knobs the shafts attached to.
Have the end of the door facing you and insert a sturdy screwdriver through the hole the shaft was in and grab the handle and the shaft of the screwdriver and give it a strong sharp pull toward you.

Appreciate the reply. Just wondering since I have no experience dealing with door locks if this is a relatively straight forward and risk free task? Don't want to end up removing the knobs and lock and not being able to put it back together again. I'd get a professional if that were the case but determined to do this myself if possible lol.

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Brickcell

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 24, 2020

carpdad said:
First part to remove would be the knobs and they are usually fastened to a spindle (square rod inside) with set screws. The screws have to be exposed and turned and paint, as well as rust, may make it difficult to stripping the screw (sometimes hex and sometimes straight slot). Functioning mortise locks can continue to work so you may want to use paint stripper to remove much of the paint so you can see what you're doing. There are many youtube videos on these locks. Watch a few to get as much idea of what they are like. Sometimes they are all brass parts and you don't want to scratch them too much.
You can replace them with more modern locks. Patching and repainting the doors. Bed/bath knobs have lock buttons inside and they should open when the knob is turned, without having to unbutton from inside. I think this may be panic escape function regard to fires and such.

Thanks for the reply! Yep the screws are visible on the doorknob so won't be much trouble getting them off. There's also a metal base-plate about 3X4 inches between the door and the knob itself, will I also remove this? Can provide a picture if needs be.

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