Locksmith Tools for Apprentice Locksmiths 2023: This video is of my EDC (everyday carry) for every job. I have another tool bag with an installation kit, but this is my basic rekey, basic lockout kit. It has almost everything I need. Also, this is the tools I recommend for all new and experienced Locksmiths.
Locksmith Tools for Apprentice Locksmiths 2023
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Locksmith Tools for the Apprentice Locksmith
Everyday Carry Locksmith Tools (EDC)
- Veto Pro Pack
- Milwaukee Drills
- Meta Pro Screwdrivers
- Klein Screwdriver
- Tri-Flow Lock Lubricate
- Lab Mini Pin Kit
- Drill Bit Ki
- Wera Tools
- Knipex Pliers
- Security Bit Set
- Bypass Tools
- Loids
Thank you for joining me today. This is the, my tool case I use for everyday. This is like, almost, like the case that goes to every single job. Now, everybody has their own preferences. Actually, I almost prefer a slightly bigger case. I tend to specialize, in our company, I tend to specialize in the lock out or locked in their house or out of a cabinet, bathroom, whatever. So I like to do lock outs. With all these big box hardware stores selling the cheapest, crappiest locks to the public that were getting malfunctions like crazy. People are getting locked out, locked in. They’re failing like crazy. Plus, we have so much new construction, they’re putting in crap locks. They’re putting in $10 dead bolts that don’t last. We’re getting malfunctions like crazy. So my main thing that I do is lock outs, you know, quick rekeys. I spend a lot of my time in the office, but I love going out and doing lock out. So I’ll just grab my kit and we’ll go over all my different kits in the other videos.
Lock Installation Kit
But I have an installation for installing lock kit. I have a kit for doing, like, large rekeys. This is just short and sweet and does lock outs. Sometimes, I put this on a wheeled cart and on the wheeled cart, we’ll have extra locks for what I think is for the job if I have to replace, but again, this is mine. Everybody has their own preferences. Some people, we’ll just see. This is just one of many. I tend to have a box per job. If I have broken keys and locks, I have another little bag. We’ll go over that in another video. So this is just lock outs. Your locked out of your house, locked out of something, office, quick, easy rekeys, remove and replace a faulty lock. So this is my kit. I always have my picks and we’ll go in details everything.
Lock Picks
I usually carry two cases of picks. I like my picks. This is my favorite set. We’ll go over that. We’ll find the other ones in a bit.
Lock Lubricates
I like WD-40. Now, I use Tri-Flow is my lubricant that I like and there’s advantage and disadvantages to it, dry or whatever. I like Tri-Flow. Use it a lot. When I pick locks, I use WD-40. If I can’t pick a lock, and I spray it with WD-40, it always opens for me. I have, my friends, they can’t pick a lock and then they use Tri-Flow. It’s personal preference. I think it’s a mental problem with me. I think I’ve just been using Tri-Flow my whole life. This is what I’m used to. And of course,
Milwaukee Drill
I have Milwaukee. We’re not sponsored by Milwaukee. I just like to standardize my batteries. So I have my little, cordless drill. This is not a brushless. This is a really, this thing, I think this thing’s like 12 years old. It’s over 10 years old. And I like the batteries and I got my LED light and it takes the same battery, so, and I love these because I have the little, I can see what my battery power is on that. So cordless, this is only a cordless screwdriver. It’s what I like. I always take a drill. It’s not a hammer drill. I have a hammer drill in the truck if I need something more heavy duty. This is the FUEL system. This one’s getting pretty old now. The next videos, I’ve, replacing the three amp batteries. I got one smaller, more power. The half size ones, I just don’t find have the guts to drill, if I have to drill out a lock, a sheer line or its malfunctioned, I gotta drill out the screws. So you’ll see the new battery in another video, right after this, coming up, that I’m replacing. It’ll be lighter and way more power. So it’s not a hammer drill, just for basic stuff. Again, I like the batteries. I standardized the batteries.
Loid
This is just a milk jug or a Lloyd. I have videos on this. I don’t know how, this gets me into a lot of locks. There’s so much gap in the door. I just use this. And I slip the lock. Lots of videos on me using a Lloyd, is the proper name, to slip the lock, way better than a credit card, there’s other materials, and I’ve got some new videos coming up soon with me making different versions, more heavy duty. But again, this one, it’s just a milk jug and it gets me in so many locks.
Tools to Slip Open Locks
Oh, these are my next, a lot of times, if I can’t pick it or it won’t be picked or I can slip it. So I have, this is just a painter’s tool. This will open up latches. It’s already made. It’s ready to go. It’s inexpensive. It does the trick. So I think they use this for cleaning the rollers, opening the lids. Great tool, use it all the time. And then I have just some flat ones, different things and just for slipping latches. And that’s my three main ones I use. It’s all good.
Pliers
Let’s get into, I like a large pair of vice grips. I have my Hex Key sets. This is a new one. Video coming up on this. So I have the metric and I have the standard. Always got to have those. We get into my other pick set. I like picks. So I have, ones that I have here are for my pocket. This is always in the kit. I’ll go into these more in depth.
Lock Installation Tools
You know, if we are replacing the lock, and I gotta mortise it out, if there’s a drive in, I gotta mortise it out, I just have these in there. They should go in my installation bag. My basic drills. It may say Milwaukee, but I have a little bit of everything in here and we’ll go over the drill preferences in another video, And I go through a lot of eight, eighth-inch and quarter-inch drills. I like the jobber bits, the blue steel, some people call them jobber bits. They’re very forgiving. They don’t snap, but I have my coal bolts and whatever, it’s for drilling stainless or really high security locks. I have lots and lots of drill bits. And I’ve had videos on these. They’re Megapros. And this one just has all your standard Roberts, Phillips, has some torques. These are great. This one’s for the Hex. You know, just all in one spot. And this one, if you don’t have it, get it. It’s got all these security bits. I have videos on each one of these. This is just showing you my everyday kit. This is kind of interesting. This is actually for opening up a car, for getting a little bit of leverage so I can get my airbags in there. So I use this sometimes, I gotta just spread the door a little bit. And I don’t wanna do damage to it. This just holds it, you know, spreads it nicely, just to get a little bit more leverage into the latch or sometimes the faulty deadbolts, the bolt is not going back for mostly malfunctions. That’s just another little tool to help. Always get the vice grips or the channel grips, just handy. We do a lot of wellness checks for police, different agencies, you know, with the animal control bylaw officers with the various police departments. So I have a bigger kit that gets us ready for hitting almost anything, when we have to open up something, when it’s involving a warrant for the police. That’s another kit. This is just my small vice grips. I always like my Wera screwdrivers. This is a flat head and I’ve ground it down a little bit so it just fits perfectly. Sometimes, you know, you get the customers where the plug has come out of the lock. I can just put this in there, turn it, open up the door. It’s got the, you know, strike all the way through. Just more little Wera’s flat heads, you know, if we’re doing Adams Rite, I’ve taken out the mortise cylinder, the little flat head screw in there, sometimes they’re Allen keys. A lot of times they’re just little flat head. So I just like to have various sizes of that. I got two of these. This should go in the other kit. Again, that’s the Megapro. I don’t know why have this, had this since I was an apprentice. My granddad had it. It just always in my tool case. It’s, I don’t really use it that much. It’s just good luck. Another one of my flat heads. Oh, you can’t go wrong. Gotta have a good, aw, this Mac Tool. I like this. If I have to depress the retainer, it’s just heavy duty, lasts forever.
Pry Bars
Another little, tiny pry bar. Again, two pry bars. Sometimes you gotta just open up that, spread that door just a little bit more, gotta be a little bit tougher than using this one that won’t make any marks. Sometimes a break in, everything’s busted up, the door’s all beat all to heck. These two little pry bars, yes, there’s bigger pry bars. That’s in another kit and I’ll show you in another video. This is just my everyday carry and we got little vice grips. It’s all ready to impression. And sometimes when impression locks, or just grab something small. What do they call that? Castle nut. It’s got both sides. Boy, if you don’t have this, and you’re pulling apart some of the grade one lever locks, jeez, you’re toast without this. So you gotta have that castle nut in there. I like to have one chisel, one inch, just for if I have to mortise it out, the latch a little bit. Always gotta have my adjustable and I have a larger one in my installation kit for using, you’ll see. If you watch the video, you’ll see why we have a larger one and what we’re doing for metal doors with that. Couple more, again, like I said, I do a lot, this is my lock out kit. I’m doing lock out. So I’ve got various, little pry bars. You know, sometimes you can force the latch, slip the latch. I got a little Snap-on set, little plasticky one. This thing works out quite well. What else do we have? A couple more screwdrivers. I just like my screwdrivers and an awl, nice little pointy. If my large one is too big, I got the little one. I can just push the retainer or somebody’s broken key, another awl, I really don’t need that one in there.
Circlips Pliers
Oh, circlips. Still get a lot of locks, mostly the older-style stuff. But if you don’t have this, let’s take the Wei, the old-style Weiser Key-in-Knobs. You got that little retainer clip on the back. I always get the Snap-on ones cause they last for, you know, the replacement, if something breaks, they last forever. Always have these in there. Hardly use ’em but when I do need it, I need it. A needle nose, you know those pliers. Have you ever get locked out and the malfunction is actually in the bolt of the lock or the latch? So I drilled off the deadbolt. I pulled and pried all the bits and pieces to get that bolt back. And sometimes the thing is just falling apart so bad. You just got to strip it down piece by piece. So this gets right in there and pulls it out. One inch spade bit. And it’s amazing how many doors, the doorframe they have not, they drill a half-inch hole for a deadbolt. Just gotta open up that little bit more. So I always have one of these in there. This used to come with like every Schlage Lock, super handy. Jeez, these are like gold now, if you can get your hands on ’em. Always have a couple of these around. What else do we have in the kit? More little screwdrivers, more little awls, you know, hook awl for poking. Some of these are Mac, some of these are Snap-on, Wera, or sometimes they’re just something cheap that I’ve just modified. Of course, lipstick, see the video, but it basically is for marking the bolt to see where the door is scratching. Gotta have lipstick and red, any color you want, really. Now, I always carry a few popular keys. I have about five keys ready. Precuts, Schlage, Kwikset, Weiser, whatever your popular locks are. I always have them in my, a few in my kit. If I know what the customer has, I’ll precut the keys. I hate cutting keys on the job site. So I’ll have sets of five or 10 ready to go. This is my mini LAB re-keying kit. I love this. I, you know, I’m just going in to rekey one or two locks or whatever. So I just throw my pins in here. I got the 005. I have the 003s. I prefer the 005. I know most people prefer the 003. I got the Wedge kit in my service truck. This crams in here. It gets it going. So that’s for my rekeying. Here’s my kit. This is my basic rekeying, or rekey kit and also a few other things. So I always throw a couple of my favorite picks. One of my favorite picks at the moment is the hook and ball. This is a Rytan. I got some Petersons. I got some that I’ve made up. So I have that little kit in there. I throw a couple of shims in there, dental pick. This is an Allen key for Lorilocks. Boy, I hate those things. If I don’t have this, then I’m screwed. I have my end cap removal tool.
Kwikset Removal Tool
I have my pickle, your Kwikset cylinder removal tool. Some people call it the pickle. I got a little follower in there. A couple blanks for shimming. If I have to put on the end of my drill, I put out the little grinders to drill out the strike, especially at the change of seasons. Basically, I got different versions for just really grinding up the strike when they’re sticking. Oh, of course, my tweezers, more little followers, a couple of things for pulling out broken keys. Again, this is just the small, quick kit just to pull out, if I get a broken key. That just, this use, and these are Peterson’s. This is fantastic. I think they’re only $5 each. Just spiral it in there and pull it out. That’s just amazing for pulling out broken keys. Let me show you my picks. I got, this is my everyday. This is like, these are my two sets I always carry. So here I have my favorites in here. I got my plug spinner, different tension wrenches, again, different picks. This, you know, this set will do almost everything.
Plug Spinner
And again, the plug spinner, A1 Plug Spinner. I have Rytans. I got a little bit of everything. They’re all good. There’s another little kit with just a, sort of, a backup of my favorites. You know, here’s my Peterson, Rytans, A1 Plug Spinner. My Rytan Plug Spinner’s in another kit. Right now, these are my favorites. My HPC followers set. So this will do, so basically, it’s sort of four followers, here’s the most popular and they got the ends are all done. So we got 1, 2, 3, 4. It’s a great little set. Of course, I have the ones that I make, but then this is just a ready-made kit, ready to go. It’s always there. We make these up ourselves. I just buy six-foot, one-inch brass, cut ’em and then we shape ’em. You know, when I got some time, shape ’em for what we need done for various, but they all start off like this, just for the simple locks, quick, easy, fast. And this is when we get a little bit more complex designs, some locks that are giving us trouble. This is my kit. This is my everyday, it’s the first thing I grab to do a lock out. Yes, there’s more stuff to have. And I have bigger kits. This doesn’t do everything. I’m always interested in everybody’s new ideas. I love seeing new tools. I like seeing how different people use different, how they set up their bags. And this is just, and this is a PACKOUT bag. If I go to a larger job, the PACKOUTs are kinda nice. And it also, redesigning a new service truck. So the PACKOUTs just lock in there really, really nice. So, and this fits on top of the little wheeled thing. If I get a bigger job, I’d take the wheels. If I got stairs or whatever, I can put this on top of a rack. So I think I need one slightly bigger. This is a lot of tools. It’s what I like. This will, I rarely have to go back to my service truck.
And again, it depends what I’m doing for the job. I have other videos, shows my broken key extractor set. I have an installation set. I have a big set we’re putting together for more brute force and ignorance, wellness checks, assisting the police on opening doors. A lot of times they don’t want to bust down the doors. It’s, we can come in nicer. Even if we have to pick it, if we’re locked out, we can pick it real easy. Or if we even have to drill the lock, we’re set up for it. I’ll have to tell the story another day, we just had a job from hell and everything went wrong. And that’s what made me re, sort of decide how I have to do my major lock out kit, where we have to go in, of course, nobody’s inside, so we’re not worried about people being inside, but we still have to get through in a timely manner, a little bit quicker than normal. So it’s gonna involve probably saws-saws, cordless cutters, grinders, larger, more heavy duty drills. And standby for my next video on my, the new battery for this, should make it lighter. It should make it a little bit better, more power, lighter. And I’ve tried the half size, the 1.5s on these. They can do the job. But really, if we’re drilling a lock or installing the lock, you need a little bit more umph.
So I think I found a happy medium between the half size of this, the 1.5s. This is the 3.0s, and I have a new 3.0 and a really interesting video on that. Give your suggestions. What are the tools you carry on your everyday carry going in? I hope this is a help for beginner locksmiths. You know, this is 25 plus years of me doing jobs. And this is my kit. I’m always interested in how you do it. Have some suggestions. There’s always more we can carry. And I have other kits for other jobs, bigger jobs, installation jobs, or more complex lock outs. This is just a very, very simple kit. And it probably does, for me, my simple lock outs and my simple rekeys, this probably does 90% of what I need. Okay, hope you enjoyed the video. Please like it. Please subscribe. Have a good day. I hope you enjoyed watching this video. Subscribe to my channel. Also, visit my website and you can see what online locksmith training I have for beginners, intermediate, and advanced, as well as my covert methods of entry and my non-destructive methods of entry.
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