Amelia Locksmiths

Amelia Locksmiths The last "brick and mortar" Locksmith shop in Clermont County, Ohio.

What a beautiful epitaph, just had to share it.
05/06/2022

What a beautiful epitaph, just had to share it.

06/24/2020

Wed. June 24.. great start for a beautiful day (besides listening to all the birds welcoming the day)

7;30 AM a guy calls in a frantic voice tells me his key won't come out of the ignition. I ask him what kinda car, knowing that some GMs trap the key by not going into the lock position when the battery is dead. It is a ford product, I ask if the steering wheel is locked, NO it moves back and forth. I tell him to pull it out of park and slam it into park HARD and try removing the key.

Silence...... Then... "It was in drive,,,,it's fine now... oh thank you soooo much.; You've been so kind to me this morning."

Never had anyone say I had been "kind" helpful, yes, Life saver a few times....NEVER "kind"

Kinda made my day (pun intended) Made me smile most of the morning

03/29/2020

Last week I got the opportunity to make a set of keys for a 1984 Buick Park Avenue. It is not often any more for me to get to work on a "Saginaw" Steering column, GM's most used steering assembly from the late 1970s on into the 21st Century. In the 70s and 80s we would work on numerous ones every week. Now if we get 1 a month it is unusual.
I tore down the the steering wheel and made a key. Then moved on to the door / trunk. First removing the glove box cylinder and cutting a key for it, which had 4 out of the 6 cuts.
I then had to go through the process of cutting the complete key by trial and error. The feeling of the key turning in the lock and the trunk opening was as fulfilling as it was 30 years ago with my first endeavor.
This car was show room perfect. It had less than 49 thousand actual miles on it. Paint, body, interior, everything was clean and as new as a baby.
It took me more than twice the time to do this job than it took me when we were doing them weekly. It was worth it ,,,so much fun doing it brought back memories.

I always advise customer to have extra keys. You can leave one in each autos glove compartment. you can hide one outside...
01/03/2020

I always advise customer to have extra keys. You can leave one in each autos glove compartment. you can hide one outside (NOT CLOSE TO THE DOOR) On a nail umder your deck is a good place. If you are going to bury it, put it in a prescription bottle or something similer, or wrap it a couple layers of aluminum foil. BUT NEVER NEVER do this :

08/12/2019

Well. after more than 30 years of locksmithing, I've had many locks that have frustrated me beyond measure. To take most lock cylinders apart you need a key, or you have to make it "think" you have a key. You normally do this by aligning the tumblers by picking them. Another way is "shim" it. This is achieved by sliding a paper thin piece of stainless steel between the plug and the housing aligning the tumblers in the neutral position, allowing the plug to turn for dis-assembly. I tried this method the "cylinder from Hell".I had to shim this cylinder on 2 sides because it used a double sided key.
I worked a shim past each tumbler on both sides of the cylinder. I was finally ready to turn the cylinder and slide the plug out of the housing !! It wouldn't turn !
The shims were too narrow to cover the whole surface of the tumblers. At this point after trying to pick the cylinder and working the shims into the lock I would have loved to put the thing on an anvil and tapped it again and again with a 16 pound sledge hammer.
I tried to slide another shim, overlapping the shim already in place. I needed to do this on both sides of each existing shim. They tended to skew off the edge of the inplace shim as I tried to push each tumbler down to allow its passage. When they skewed off to the side I had to remove it and start over again and again and again ! After over an hour of this it finally turned !!!!
I slid the plug out, decoded the tumblers, and cut a key in about 5 minutes.
Over an hour and a half of trying to shim this lock cylinder I had a working key.
If this had been for a normal customer, I would have had to listen to "You want HOW MUCH for JUST a key" ??
Thankfully it was for a completed Lincoln hearse, ready to deliver, that the assembly line had lost both emergency "fob keys" during manufacture.

07/24/2019

Well, after almost 10 years i have retired the Astro van. It still runs well, I still get 18 miles to the gallon. I miss those hand crafted firm seats with the lumbar support that Tommy Awad of Awads Upholstery made for me many years ago. This was the 3rd van I've had those seat in and they still are more comfortable to sit in than any car I ever rode in. It still runs perfect but the body is looking bad. But after all it is almost a quarter of a century old. Good bye old friend, I will miss the "chirping" of the serpentine belt on rainy days.
I downsized my workshop, when I moved, downsized my keyboard, and the number of keys I am going to stock. It only made sense to down size my van. The new van is 14 years newer and has more electronics than the first manned space craft. The doors lock themselves when the van reaches a set speed, about 8 miles an hour I think.( God help me if I fall out at 6 miles an hour) Then, when I stop and put it in park, they all unlock,,,,,except....the cargo door in the back, If I leave the drivers door open, the remote will NOT unlock that door, I have to use the key. The engineer who thought that was a smart idea never worked out of a service van, It has sliding doors on each side, which will make it easier to get to tools and parts. More on the experiment of the new van in future posts.

After over 20 years in the same location, we have moved the shop to 323 So. Ash st. in Bethel Ohio. we had an "Amish Sty...
05/01/2019

After over 20 years in the same location, we have moved the shop to 323 So. Ash st. in Bethel Ohio.
we had an "Amish Style" Barn built and are outfitting it. we are open for business as usual. Come see us at our new location. As usual call us (752-5222) before you come to be sure we are not out on a service call'

Address

Bethel, OH
45106

Opening Hours

Monday 7:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 7:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 7:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 7:30am - 4:30pm
Friday 7:30am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+15137525222

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Amelia Locksmiths posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category