changing locks

First I got to remove the locks from the door... Pick open the ones that don't come with a key...
(I like that part, improves my skill set, and I can charge extra.) then I reference the pin depth chart for that model.
Small square on the lid of the big pinning box.
Then rack my memory for the offset. Meaning do I go one or two sizes smaller.
See, when that pin chart was made was 20-40 years ago, and the tolerances have slightly tightened up. Only 5 or ten thousandths... The pins differ in size by either 5 or 3 thousandths. and in diameter by 20 thousandths. In my 25 years of locksmithing I haven't had to splurge on the .003 pin kit or either of the .095 diameter pin kits. I have had to replace the .115 diameter .005 increment pin kit twice. In addition to ordering replacement pins. I used to eyeball the sizes, now I work with an enormous lensed lamp, and tweezers that could be used under a microscope. I just the other day pinned a hundred unit apartment complex. 2 locks per door, and some of the units had a front and back door. Add in the utility closets, the laundry room etc. And you have Big John being one hurting unit at the end of the day....
Usually one does this in stages, as tenants come and go. Sometimes, they don't even change the locks as the tenants come and go, if they get the right number of keys back. But THIS TIME the manager left under a cloud and no one could find his keys. Crack-head probably left them in a drug house somewhere.
So Big John has to come out and do a 12 hour work day to fix everybody's locks. Lest the evil crack-head former manager drive up with a u-haul, and steal everyone's goodies...

Don't get me wrong, I love the work, and the emergency money was right tasty. But the management company is one of those who require a contract before they go to the toilet. And all their contract wanted me to do was pledge to be their free slave on those locks the rest of my life. I tore up the contract and told them that I'd do the work and get paid. My invoice guarantees my work for 60 days. If they can find someone who'll sign their stupid contract, fine. But I'd be willing to bet if he/she were dumb enough to sign that toilet paper, they're too dumb to do the work they signed up for...

In the end they did things my way....
Next time, I'll do the job over two days though.....