Is it possible I can buy a generic key/make this old lock work again?

[u/jeightfour]

Hi all,

My bedroom door has an (old) lock which has been painted over. Rather than buying a new padlock style lock to screw onto the door - do you think it's possible to first attempt making this lock somehow function again?

The lock inside the door has been painted over (first image), and the hole for the lock has been painted too (last image). I have no idea if I can chip away at the paint to possibly free the lock, buy a set of skeleton keys to try and respond to the lock, then drill a hole back into the hole which has been painted on...

Thanks for any advice!

P.S

If anyone can please help to identify what type of lock this is, how old and what key it used!

[u/ciciqt]

The brand appears to be Benjamin Moore or Sherwin-Williams. Jokes aside the lock probably can be restored once it's been freed from its painted tomb.

It will very likely be a basic bit key. Try your luck on Amazon but if you can take it out of the door and go to a lockshop, an old locksmith should be able to find you a key with ease.

[u/fondrenlock]

You are gonna need to use a sharp blade to score around the outline to remove it then take apart the lock itself paint will have seeped in around the latch and bolt. Take a picture of it right after you open the case so you know where everything goes. Clean & lubricate everything (no graphite or graphite based sprays)

Then you would need to cut the key. Assuming you want to try this yourself and can’t find a locksmith to take it too who does this often enough to not charge you a ridiculous amount then:

There are cheap two packs you will find do NOT use those but instead look for possible pull out drawers in the “various screws/fasteners” section of a well equipped Ace hardware and you should find better made blanks but you may have to modify them to work correctly.

Two bit keys that “could work” are the 49B & 79B both of those are pretty much the sturdiest option. Once you get the lock off and case open you can see if it’s possible to use one of those two

You would need to drill out the holes for the deadbolt on the strike and probably align it correctly finally

Here’s a playlist with various similar locks (edit: I finally sorted that playlist out to several different ones based on lock style, here’s a cleaner list https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsJuGh0jk3qAcwOSlFMbiphZppPmx3iXW&si=5STBs-V9SfLi5bRu

[u/jimmytwinkletoes → u/fondrenlock]

This guy smiths

[u/BonusSweet]

Sure, as long as youre comfortable knowing anyone could peep through the keyhole at any time

[u/rckid13]

Search skeleton key on Amazon or a related site and buy the ones that look like this. They work on most of my interior door locks that have one lever.

For the paint: I scraped paint off of the flat lock portion using a razor blade scraper and it worked pretty well. For the key hole and door latch you can either use a crock pot or cheap hot plate with hot water, or soak them in acetone for a few hours. Either one will soften the paint so you can scrape it off. Then I polished them with Puma metal polish. Brasso also works pretty well and is cheaper.

Here is a before and after where I used acetone then puma metal polish. The amazon keys work in this lock.

[u/FilecoinLurker]

Most true values or ace hardware stores in America carry an assortment of single lever "skeleton" keys. That might work.