You were just going to enter your house after a long commute from work. As soon as you insert your key and twist it to unlock the door, you heard a metallic snap. At a closer inspection, you’ve noticed that the head of the key is now in your hand while the shaft of the key is stuck in your house. The first instinct that comes into your mind is to try unlocking the door with the remaining pieces of the key stuck inside the lock. Most people don’t know is that if they try to unlock the door by force by using the pieces of the key, it would just worsen the lock and eventually destroy it, causing you even more problems and unnecessary expenses. There are other alternatives to getting your key out of the lock so you don’t have to spend a lot on installing new locks.
Use tweezers
Depending on how long the broken piece of the key is showing in the lock, you may use tweezers to unlock your door. You just have to make sure that the tweezers you’re using is wide enough to fit around the key and narrow enough for the tweezers to fit right into the keyhole. An inappropriately-sized tweezers can push the broken piece even deeper inside the keyhole, which can make it more difficult in obtaining it.
Using a super glue
It may sound counter-intuitive, but one of the most unconventional ways of getting your key out of the keyhole is by using super glue. To use this, you must first find a long, sturdy, and narrow object that can easily slip into the keyhole. Then, apply a fair amount of super glue at one end of the object and quickly stick it into the broken piece of the key. Wait for it to dry for a few minutes and once it is dry, you just pull the object out along with the broken piece of the key. You should be careful when doing this method since using too much glue may actually damage your lock while using less glue would prevent the key from properly sticking to the object.
Using a broken key extractor
A broken key extractor is a tool that is specifically designed to remove the broken piece of the key from the keyhole. These tools are used by many professionals and they are very expensive. To use this tool, you should insert it into the keyhole along with the biting of the key. Once this is done you can just twist and pull, effectively removing the broken pieces of the key. When buying a broken key extractor, you should do a little research as to what type of key extractor you need since there are a lot of variations in the market.
Using a jigsaw blade
If buying a broken key extractor is too expensive for you, you may want to use a small jigsaw blade or a small hacksaw blade to remove your key from the lock. What you want to do is to insert the blade into the key inside the keyhole. You can use nose pliers to bend the metal blades if it does not perfectly fit into the keyhole. If the blade is angled, you can place the blade in the keyhole in such a way that the serrated part is pointing at you. Be careful when using this method as this may permanently damage your jigsaw blade or your hacksaw blade.
Tapping the Cylinder
This method makes use of the gravity to remove the broken piece of a key out of the keyhole. This method works on locks that are pointed downwards like a padlock. To do this method, you just need to strike the lock downwards. The force of the strike would move the broken piece down and with the help of gravity; it would fall straight to the ground. When doing this method, make sure that you don’t strike too hard since it may damage the core of the lock. Once it is damaged, you may want to replace it since it would just make it easier for other people to enter a door with a broken lock.