(121) Experiment: Removing superglue from locks
Channel: Nite 0wl
Date: 2020-07-03

About a month ago (May 23rd?) Lockpicking Patrolman did a livestream where he demonstrated the old but unfortunately common vandalism tactic of applying superglue to a lock to disable it (this was distressingly common as part of various scams and criminal schemes in New York City in the bad old days, and still happens occasionally though less commonly as a prelude to far worse crimes now). Anyway, I was inspired by LPP's experiment and some suggestions from the commenters (thank you #LockForce folks) to try an experiment that was both slightly more realistic and would pit some competing theories against each other.

SInce we are still largely in lockdown mode here at Nite0wl Labs I ordered several identical deadbolts, a package of single use KrazyGlue styrettes, and some 'dental syringes' (already having a ready supply of suitable solvents and lock mounts on hand). The experimental setup was simple, take two deadbolts and inject as close to 1/2 of a single styrette of superglue into the keyway of each as possible, then leave the glue to cure for roughly 6 hours (to make sure it is well hardened as it usually is when it is confronted by a locksmith). Unfortunately I decided to apply the glue while the deadbolts were sitting on the packaging rather than after I had installed them on the test mount which resulted in some performance issues but did not seriously affect the validity of the tests).

And yes, I realize this method is not exactly easy to carry around in your tool bag on the off chance you get a lockout call like this, but it is useful information and might help someone avoid entirely destroying a lock unnecessarily.