The Lock Adventure

I got to go on an adventure yesterday for work. :) Which is always fun. I love my work related adventures.
Mostly because they don't come that often lol.

This particular adventure revolved around a lock.

The lock on our door to the bird enclosure in the store to be specific.

As a couple of weeks ago....the lock broke.
Where you could turn the lock...but it wouldn't lock.

Why?
Because the lock had fallen apart really. There was this odd square metal piece that had fallen off.
But I couldn't see how it would be applicable to the lock itself.
As the lock resides on a tiny door within the big door. As the little door slides up and down to hide the handle of the bird enclosure so random customers can't just open it up whenever they feel like it.
But because the door is tiny and the space within is tiny...it's not like I can just look at the back of the lock and go "Oh that's the problem."

So I told a manager about the broken lock....
And they said they'd order a new one.

Not surprisingly, they forgot. *shake head*

So when I brought it up again yesterday, that the lock was still broken, the manager was actually nearby to see that the issue was more major than they'd thought it was.
-They hadn't realized it was the door to the enclosure that was broken, but thought that it was a smaller lock on one of the bird cages itself.

And so the manager set me to figuring out exactly what was wrong.
Namely, asking me to take the one remaining screw out of the lock so I could pull it out of the enclosure and grab the random square piece and try and figure out what in the world had happened to cause it to break.

Turns out, that the missing screw had been holding two metal pieces together, and when the one disappeared...the square piece that had been between the two other metal pieces of the lock...had fallen out since there was nothing holding it in place.

The square metal piece?
It was the latch.
THAT was the thing that would keep our door locked or unlocked when we turned the key. *shakes head*

And with some fiddling around, I eventually figured out how to put the latch back in it's spot and have it work when I turned the key.
However.

Even though I figured out how the lock would work if placed together properly.
....the fix would only last like half a millisecond, because without the second screw...the pieces wouldn't stay together and so it would fall apart.

Which resulted in a manhunt for a screw that would fit into the hole so that the lock could stay together.
Only we had none such luck.
The screws and nails we found on hand were all too big. >.< Foo.

But!
Lucky us.
There's a Lowes nearby us.
Aka.
A place that sells the nuts and bolts.

And so, because we needed that lock fixed ASAP (now that the manager knew it was to the door.)
Said manager sent me out on a mission!

With tiny screw in hand, I left the store.

While I was still on the clock.

Dun. dun. Dun.

I.
I was on a mission.
A mission to get a screw the same size as the one in my hand.
And I could not come back until I found said screw!

(I could, it's not like I could make lowes magically magic up a screw for me if they didn't have the right size.)

I stepped inside Lowes.
Feeling totally conspicuous in my Starsmet Uniform.
Desperately crossing my fingers that I wouldn't be mistaken as an employee and have a customer get mad at me because they couldn't read the "Starsmet" on my shirt and nametag.
And quickly ran into an actual Lowes Worker two feet into the store.

"Can you help me?" I asked the guy. "I need to get a screw that matches this one." I added as he said he could help.
He held out his hand, and I dropped the screw gingerly onto his palm, quietly bemoaning that if he drops the thing and loses it that I would be most annoyed.

And he promptly took me to the first aisle in the store. (how handy was that?)
And after some comparisons and tests with said screw -as they have this cool little gizmo display area where you fit the screw into different holes and the one it works with matches with a letter/number and you go to that letter/number and walla! You find your matching size!

Which we were able to do! Woot!
lol. of course I couldn't just get one.
No the things came in like a ten pack only.

However considering it was like only $1.32 to buy that pack....it's good to have a few extra screws on hand in case we lose more.

Prize in hand, I returned to the store, and immediately set to work on the lock.
And figured pretty quickly that the screws wouldn't stay, because they just slid right in and out. Which meant...even with two...the lock would still fall apart.
However! The package I'd gotten didn't have just screws, but nuts as well!
Which meant that I could place those on the screw once I had the lock placed on the door and lock them into place.

*shakes head*
It took a while though, because I was trying to twist those little metal circles onto the screw without being able to see them since I was trying to do it in that tiny space.
Needless to say.
The space was too tiny to do so.
So I just switched the screws around so that the sides needing the bolts would be on the outside.
Which, is a good thing I did as when I finally got it all together.....
The lock still didn't work.
>.< Foo.
So it would have been a pain to try and take the lock apart if I had to undo what I just had done if I'd done it in that tiny space.

Thankfully, I hadn't.
So it was quick work to take the lock apart, twist the lock 180 degrees and put it back together

and TADA!
Our bird door was fixed!
The locks in place and locks!!

And I feel like the master locksmith now. XD haha.

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi