Deadbolts for a Dummy DIY Locksmith

What screws, Josh?

Some of our research staffers are fairly athletic, while others get more exercise jumping to conclusions than in any other endeavor. One of the latter turned up an interesting fact the other day while looking into the biography of eHowian Josh Nuttall, a freelancer she found attempting to write the post "How to Disassemble a Deadbolt Lock"¹ at Hunker.com (moved there from eHow.com by Leaf Group).

Our staffer remembered a similar topic that had been addressed by a different Nuttall family member, and learned from the two biographies that both Josh and Kelly had attended the same smallish Utah college. Small world? Dumbass world...

This particular Nuttall fell victim to two common problems for eHow contributors. First, he was stuck with a format that required a certain number of steps and second, he was forced to met a minimum word count. While he could have fulfilled that mission with accuracy, he chose instead a slapdash answer. Oh, Josh got his instructions more or less right, but his problem was that he set his sights too narrow and ended up having to pad his text to meet that MWC. His main problem? Check this statement...

"Even if you are switching brands, most deadbolts assemble in similar ways. The differences may be minor, so if you are replacing an old deadbolt, disassembling the existing deadbolt will be the reverse of installing the new one." Well, yeah, disassembly is more or less the reverse of assembly, but that crap about "differences may be minor"? That's where Josh ran into trouble. You see, his first step is, "Unscrew the deadbolt mounting screws from the inside of the deadbolt with a Phillips screwdriver."

That's all well and good if the screws are exposed, but what if they're not? In some cases, there's a rosette that is held in place by a thumb turn that's fastened with a set screw. In others, the rosette has a catch (usually at the bottom) that can be released with a thin-bladed screwdriver or similar tool.

Interestingly enough, Josh's final step (other than the padding about grimy parts) is

"Unscrew the strike plate from the doorjamb. The strike plate may be stuck to the paint so use a screwdriver to help remove the strike plate, if needed."

We looked at Kelly's article again, and she finished up by telling her readers to

"Remove the screws from the strike plate in the door jamb, and pull the strike plate away"

To which we say, "The family that freelances about disassembling locks together gets Dumbass of the Day awards together."

¹ The original has been sent by Leaf Group to a rewrite specialist, but itcan still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_5008477_disassemble-deadbolt-lock.html

copyright © 2018-2022scmrak

DDIY - SECURITY