Help me unlock my vintage school locker!

April 4, 2014 11:41 AM

Bought an old school locker at a flea market and two of the lockers won't open.

I bought this groovy vintage locker at a flea market a year ago tomorrow. Today the shame of neglecting it for 364 days got the best of me, so I've started working on painting, priming and trying to get the last two #$^*%&ing lockers open.

This is the type of lock in question:

front
back

I've tried bobby pins and paper clips but apparently am not a good lock picker. Then, stupidly, I tried to drill through one, which was really dumb and resulted in just stripping away the key slot.

Am I destined to have to waste valuable storage cubbies, forever wondering what the heck is in them? Can anyone help? I do have a call in to a locksmith but they sounded just as confused as me on the phone.

Thanks for any tips and advice!

posted by Sweetie Darling to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

Best answer: I would attack the mounting pins holding the locks, rather than the locks themselves.
posted by ckape at 11:51 AM on April 4, 2014

Best answer: I you wanted to get drill happy, try drilling out the two rivets/screws/whatever hold the lock mechanism to the door.

You know, just like the post above me said.
posted by advicepig at 11:52 AM on April 4, 2014

Response by poster: Brilliant, perfect. Done and done!

(Discovered a very old piece of Juicyfruit gum in one cubby and some gardening supplies and a stinkbug colony in the other. So glad I can clean them out.)

Thanks so much!
posted by Sweetie Darling at 12:10 PM on April 4, 2014 [3 favorites]