Repairing Pocket Door Locks

I spent the day yesterday working on the locks for the pocket doors at the house on Walnut Street.  It was a wonderful day.

I have always loved old pocket doors.  They are surprisingly complex and interesting in design, and wonderful in function.  They create a way of closing off a room without losing floor/wall space by having to accommodate the swing of doors.

The Walnut Street house has 5 pocket doors - one set of double doors and three individual (large!) pocket doors.  They've all been abused, and none of the locks worked.  So yesterday, I spent the day taking them apart, removing years of paint from the beautiful brass, and making sure everything worked.  Then I reinstalled them.

Ever wonder how a pocket door lock works?  Here's a description:

The mechanism for the pocket door handle and lock

The lock and handle set fits into the edge of the door, so you can pull the door out of its pocket, and so you can close off a room and actually lock it.  To pull the door out, you press the button at the bottom front edge of the lock (A).  The button moves the lever (B) that holds the handle (D) in place. When the lever moves out of the way, there is a spring (C - hard to see) that pops the handle out, so the door can be pulled open.  When finished moving the door, the handle is pushed back into the lockset, and the lever again holds it in place.

To lock the door once it is closed, a skeleton key is inserted into the keyhole (E).  The key moves the back bar (F) and forces it up, which disengages a wedge (G) from the main bar.  The main bar (H) then is pushed forward by the key and forces the lock lever (I) out and into the plate on the opposite door (or on the wall, if it is a single door).  This prevents the door from being moved back until a key is reinserted and turned back to move the lock back out of the way.

Pretty ingenious, and yet relatively simple.  The locks don't require any grease or oil, and once I cleaned the years of paint and gunk out of them, they work smoothly - ready for another 100+ years of service.  (Note that the picture was taken before I disassembled the mechanism, so all the paint etc was gone by the time I put the cover back on and reinstalled it in the door.)

Fixing old mechanical things: I highly recommend it.  It uses a part of my brain that I don't get to use much while at my paid gig, and can be deeply satisfying.

Next up: front door locks, and fixing weights/ropes/pulleys in windows.  Can't wait!