I locked myself out of my detached garage. The remote to open it no longer works.

It’s a really old garage and the opener is from 1999.

Trying to lift it obviously doesnt work. There’s an emergency release you can activate with a key, but the keyhole is crammed full of old hard metallic paint that I can’t get out.

Anything else I can do? Or do I have do smash the thing down?

  • bcron@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If you’re planning on replacing that painted over lock the easiest way to go about is grab a 1/16" drill bit, put a key up to it, note the orientation of the ridged part of the key, that side has the pins. Stick drill straight in, drill through the pins. Take 3/32" drill bit, aim right where you were previously aiming, drill that out. Scrape what you can out of there with a seal pick, might pull out a few springs etc, but once the pins are drilled out you can turn it with a screwdriver. Key lines up the pins so it can turn freely, but without pins it’ll turn freely, that kind of thing