Broken Key Extraction
Two problems in one object: the fragment in the keyway, and the reason it snapped in the first place.
Call (408) 418-0044
A key that has broken off in a lock is rarely bad luck. There is a fragment sitting in the keyway that has to come out without harming the cylinder, and there is a cause, which is almost always something that had been announcing itself for weeks. Deal with only the first and you will be standing at the same door again before long.
The extraction itself is usually quick when nothing has been attempted beforehand. Thin tools reach past the fragment and draw it back out along the keyway. It becomes slow, and occasionally becomes a cylinder replacement, when the piece has been driven deeper, rotated out of line with the keyway, or fixed in place with adhesive by somebody acting on advice found in a hurry.
Why keys snap, and what the break is telling you
- The lock was stiff for weeks first. Almost every broken key had a warning period during which it needed a wiggle, a lift, or a firm shove. That is the key doing work the cylinder should have been doing, and metal only takes so much of it.
- The blade was already thin. A key cut from a copy, which was itself cut from a copy, drifts lower with every generation. The cuts get deeper, the spine gets thinner, and the shoulder becomes the place it will eventually give way.
- A heavy keyring. A pocketful of hardware hanging off a key that is sitting in an upright cylinder applies a constant sideways load the blade was never designed to carry.
- Cold weather and a dry cylinder. Old grease stiffens, brass grows less forgiving, and breakages cluster on the first properly cold mornings of the season. The cylinder that has never been serviced is the one that goes.
- The wrong key, turned hard. Similar keyways will accept keys that do not belong in them. The key enters, feels almost right, and the torque applied to make it feel completely right breaks something.
Have this ready
- Which lock it broke in - front door, back door, padlock, mailbox, filing cabinet, gate or an interior door.
- The half of the key still in your hand, and any other copies of the same key you own.
- Whether the lock had been getting stiff beforehand, and roughly how long that had been going on.
- Whether the fragment is flush with the face of the keyway or has gone in past it.
- Whether the door is secure as things stand, or standing open with the broken key still in the lock.
If the key snapped in a vehicle rather than a door, the extraction is a similar operation but what follows is not, because the replacement has to be programmed as well as cut. see car key extraction.
Common questions
Can it be taken out without dismantling the lock?
Usually, provided nothing has been tried first. The fragment normally rests in line with the keyway and can be drawn back out from the face. Depth is what changes the answer, so a piece pushed well past the face, or one that has been rotated, may mean removing the cylinder to reach it from behind.
Should a new key be cut from the two broken halves?
Only as a last resort. Copying the halves reproduces the worn, drifted key that broke and hands you a fresh version of the same fault. Decoding the cylinder, or cutting from the original key number where the lock still carries one, produces a key that fits the lock as it was designed to be fitted.
The lock works fine now the piece is out. Is that the end of it?
Rarely. A cylinder that gripped a key hard enough to snap it has something happening inside: dry pin chambers, packed grit, or genuine wear. Have it serviced or replaced while somebody is already there, and check whether the door has dropped far enough to be loading the lock every time it closes.
It broke in an outdoor padlock.
Padlocks live in the weather and corrode from the inside, so a snapped key there is usually the last symptom rather than the first. Freeing the fragment is possible, but on a light body it is often faster to cut the lock off and replace it with something built for outdoor use. That choice is worth agreeing before anyone starts.
Related locksmith services
Describe the lock or key problem
A short description of what happened gets the right tools on the vehicle.
Call (408) 418-0044