Changing a Yale lock

So you've just cracked your lovely new squat, your (now) ex has just left you and still has the key, you just been burgled or you just lost your key (hopefully not all at once) - you need to change your lock - here's how (if its a yale lock )

What you will Need

• Screw Driver
• Hack Saw
• Lock Barrel
You are unlikely to need to buy a whole new lock - instead you just need the lock barrel (the middle bit you put the key into). When you buy one always buy a decent brand i.e yale or chubb - don't buy the Bird brand - these are cheap pieces of sh*t that will fall apart the first time someone slams the door to hard.

1. Open the Door! - you will see the back part of the lock is held in by two screws on the edge of the door (they are concealed when it is closed).
2. Unscrew these - the back will come off in one piece - save it for reuse later (put it in your pocket so you don't lose it). You should now see something that resembles the schematic below.
3. Unscrew the screws that hold the barrel to the plate (the round thing with holes in it) - save these, and the plate, as you may need to reuse them.
4. The old barrel should slide easily out of the front of the door, replace it with the old one making sure its lined up.
5. Attach the new barrel to the plate - you will need to remove the screws from the new barrel insert them though the appropriate holes in the plate (not the one in the middle thats where the shank goes), you may find the screws are two long - either reuse the old ones or cut then down to size with the hack saw)
6. At this point you can try re-fitting the back - to do this insert the end of the shank into appropriate slot then turn the back till it line up and re-attach to the door.
7. However, unless you are lucky you will probably find the shank is too long - remove the the barrel from the door and hacksaw down to size. There will be a number of grooves on the shank to help you with this. Err on the side of caution as if you cut it too short its useless.
8. Repeat previous two steps until done.

SCHEMATIC for YALE TYPE LOCK (with Back Removed)


	          	|                 |   
			|    DOOR         |
                        |                 
                        |                 |
                        |                 |\
                      |||                 | \
        Plate --------|||                 | _\
		      |||________________ ||| |                
		      || ___________________| |			                    		 	
		      || |                    |
screw/bolt ----------C||-|		      |	 		
holds barrel 	______||_|                    |			
to plate        ---------|                    |	------- Lock Barrel (the bit the key goes in)		
		 /   C||-|                    |			
		/     || |__________________  |			                    		
               /      || ________________   | |
              /       |||                ||||_|                    
	  Shank	      |||                ||  /
		      |||                || / 
		      	|                ||/  \
			|                |     \   
			|                |      \ 
			|                |      Brass ring that holds the lock barrel in place
			|                |      (or plate with handle for pulling door close)
			|                |