No, I'm not referring to Boston after the pike was extended to Logan. I'm talking about the brand name we found on the door locks in our house.
Several of the bedroom door locks/latches are tempermental and don't actually close the door, requiring guests to wedge a shoe under the guestroom door when they need privacy.
Jeff got motivated to scrape off several layers of (probably lead) paint from the door hardware and removed the mechanisms. Its pretty interesting to see how these door knobs work with a few moving levers and a spring.
The lock part was painted shut and the paint drips had been interfering with the way the knob turned. Thanks to something I read in a house magazine, we repurposed an old Crock-pot to soak off the old paint and layers of grease overnight. Note- if you do this, you can NEVER use the crock-pot again for food. Since I think we'll be doing more of this in the future, I didn't mind dedicating a pot to the project.
We covered the pieces in water, and set the heat to medium and let it "cook" overnight for about 18 hours. In the morning, Jeff had to apply a little elbow grease, but the paint came off pretty easily.
Once the paint was off, Jeff sprayed each piece with WD-40 and polished them up to remove any stuck-on grime, and then using the "before" photos as reference, reassembled the locks. It was pretty easy, and now our guests won't need to use their shoes as a door stop!
Here's a close up of the assembled lock casing, the text reads "Divided Hub June 11, 61". I think this must refer to 1861, making these the original door handles/locks on the house.
So, friends and family, its now safe to visit again!
1 comment:
Thanks for the invite but you'll have to make the house handicap friendly before I can bring the dogs again so get to it
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