Broken Key Extraction
Half the key in your hand, half in the lock. Put the pliers down.
What this service actually involves
A snapped key is metal fatigue finishing a job that years of torque started, usually helped by a sticky lock that made you twist harder. The fragment comes out with spiral extractors and thin hooks that grip what fingers push deeper, and the cylinder survives; drilling is what happens when someone improvises first.
The two amateur mistakes are pliers that wedge the fragment further in, and superglue on the stub, which welds the piece in place and sometimes the whole lock shut. Ten patient minutes with the right tools beats both, and the surviving halves carry the full pattern for cutting a fresh key on the spot.
Questions, answered straight
Can you copy the broken key?
Yes. The two pieces together hold the complete cut pattern, cross-checked against a decode of the lock, and a brand-new blade gets cut on the truck. The taped-together relic retires.
Why did it snap in the first place?
Fatigue, almost always. Worth checking the sibling keys on the same ring for cracks now, and worth letting the technician test the lock: a cylinder stiff enough to snap a key is often the underlying patient.
It snapped in the ignition, not the door.
Same discipline, tighter quarters. Extraction first, then a check of the ignition wafers, because a snap sometimes bends them on the way.
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