Old Dexter Mortise door lock
#1
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Old Dexter Mortise door lock
I have old Dexter Mortise lock on my front entry door the dead bolt is stuck in door. Any ideas hot to fix or where to find affordable replacement.
#2
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I worked over 40 years as a lcksmith and don't believe they ever made or marketed a mortise lock. At one time, they did market estucheon plates and knobs for use with their tubular latches and bolts.
Please post pictures, inside and outside, so we can tell what you are working with.
Please post pictures, inside and outside, so we can tell what you are working with.
#3
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If that's a Dexter mortise lock, I'll be the highest bidder!
Lock terminology can be tricky sometimes.
Pictures!
Lock terminology can be tricky sometimes.
Pictures!
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I can't get pics to post but on the lock cylinder it has Dexter so that's what I was going by. Both of the locksmith's I talked to called it a mortise lock when I showed them the pictures.
#5
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Try transferring the pictures to a computer and posting from there. Personally, I find the site pretty touchy from a phone. Would be oh so nice if we could paste a picture in a post.
#6
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Will await photos, but sounds like an old handleset with a Dexter mortise cylinder. The company I worked for back in the 80's had the Dexter line, and they had a "restricted" sectional keyway mortise cylinder with their name on it, but I don't recall seeing a regular "DE-6" cylinder. Also, back in the 50's, they had an unusual compact deadbolt, more closely resembling a "tubular" prep, with a small 1-1/4" crossbore, and using the short DE-1 key blank, and (5) "junior" pin tumblers. The escutcheons were oval, and at the top and bottom of the oval were the thru bolts, drilled just outside the main crossbore hole. Their logo arched just above the keyhole.
#8
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Personally, I would still like to see the pictures, if you don't mind. I'm old, but hopefully not too old to learn.
Dexter also made a wafer-tumbler deadbolt similar to what rstripe described. An absolute bear to make a key to.
Dexter also made a wafer-tumbler deadbolt similar to what rstripe described. An absolute bear to make a key to.
#9
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There ya' go....a "new modern door" will surely solve the problem....**sigh**.
@ThisOldMan, there were several companies making wafer tumbler KIK locks in the 40's & 50's. I'd give my first-born for a pre-war Schlage F series with the Briggs & Stratton 5-wafer. The Dexter #300 KIK was a 5-wafer. The La Belle KIK used a B&S "C" series 5-wafer. Yale had a cheap model H-11 with a 6-wafer of their own design. It used twin-roller sidebars, a variation on the GM sidebar of the day. Very difficult to pick.
Then there's the classic Schlage 8-wafer....patented 100 years ago. I think they stopped selling them in the late 70's/ early 80's. That was my first master-keying job. Learned by doing.
@ThisOldMan, there were several companies making wafer tumbler KIK locks in the 40's & 50's. I'd give my first-born for a pre-war Schlage F series with the Briggs & Stratton 5-wafer. The Dexter #300 KIK was a 5-wafer. The La Belle KIK used a B&S "C" series 5-wafer. Yale had a cheap model H-11 with a 6-wafer of their own design. It used twin-roller sidebars, a variation on the GM sidebar of the day. Very difficult to pick.
Then there's the classic Schlage 8-wafer....patented 100 years ago. I think they stopped selling them in the late 70's/ early 80's. That was my first master-keying job. Learned by doing.