Broken Key Extraction in Rochester, MN

Where keys snap in Rochester

Keys break where they are turned hardest or most often. Downtown, most buildings are joined by skyways and underground walkways, so one resident may carry a key for the unit door, another for a street or skyway entrance, a third for the garage if the building has one, and a thin mailbox key. Shared cylinders are turned by everyone in the building, and once one wears, keys start to bind in it. Mailbox keys are short and twist easily when a lock is stiff.

Older cylinders are the second source. In a house from the early 1900s, like those on Pill Hill, an original lock, or a key that is a copy of a copy, can catch partway through a turn, and the extra force needed to finish it is what breaks the blade.

Cold adds to both. A cylinder with frost inside resists the key, and a hard twist against frozen pins can snap it. Treat a stiff lock with de-icer first instead of turning harder.

What not to do

• Do not push the broken half back in or press on the stub; it drives the piece deeper.
• Do not use glue; it can bond the fragment to the pins and ruin the cylinder.
• Do not keep turning the lock with whatever is left of the key in it.
• Do not add heat to a frosted lock; de-icer is the tool for frost, and a warm room is the place to wait.
• In a shared building, tell management before anyone works on a lobby, garage or skyway lock, since the building usually controls those doors. For a mailbox lock, ask management who is responsible for it.

What to send

• A photo looking straight into the keyway, and one of the broken half.
• Which lock it is: unit door, house door, lobby, garage, skyway entrance or mailbox.
• Whether the lock is stuck open, stuck locked, or still turns.
• Whether you have a spare key, and for a shared door, the manager's approval.

If the cylinder is damaged, lock repair or a lock replacement may follow the extraction.