LSA is intertwined into the lives of many of its members in the most curi- ous ways. Case in point: our member, Gerald Underwood, with Oliver Red- mond, Tom Peloso and myself, Al Moebus. After 17 years working at an east side lumber company, Gerald took lock- smith classes from Tom Peloso. He was also a millwright installing pre-hung doors that used Schlage wafer locks as their hardware. It was during this time that the Schlage representative gave Gerald a pinning kit and showed how to use it to change the combinations. Gerald’s curiosity to know more about locks led him to seek more information. He heard of classes being taught at a community college in Detroit and that is where he met Tom who also intro- duced him to LSA. Gerald’s life took a turn away from locks for a period of time when he joined the work force of Detroit Edison and he worked for them for the next 24 years. While working at the St. Clair plant, during a lunch break with a friend, he had to get an Edison “Best” lock open. It had no key and so he decided to pick it open. “It was easier than picking a Kwikset” he said. Oliver Redmond, a longtime friend, decided to retire and Gerald bought his locksmith van, lock, stock & Bible! Oliver said: “Take the Bible – I have many more!” Recently, Gerald re-joined LSA after a hiatus of 20 years and is now a full time locksmith. Among his other talents, he is a licensed contractor and teaches Green Doors Seminars four times a year. Looking back to Gerald’s pre-teen and teen years, he grew up in Portsmouth, Ohio. (This is my connection with him as I attended Hamilton Schools and the Portsmouth Schools played each other in sports.) We were in the oldest league in the history of Ohio ath- letics. After high school, in the late 1960’s, he came to Detroit to live with his aunt and uncle. He attended Highland Park Community College for two years and also took correspondence classes from a locksmith school in New Jersey. He did all of this while working at the lumber company. Gerald is married and has three chil- dren and six grandchildren. He is a commu- nity activist, working to beautify collective gardens of Northeast Detroit. LSA R EPORTER VOLUME 25, NO. 10 EDITORS: William M. Lynk, CML, CPS * Alvin Moebus, CPL J UNE, 2012 LSA Website: http://www.LSAmichigan.org Publication Deadline: Submit items Two (2) Weeks (14 calendar days) by 5:00 p.m. AFTER the last LSA meeting. President—John Hubel, CML (586) 254-7233 Education Chairman—Aron Boag (248) 321-2244 Vice President—Ray Sinai, CML (248) 543-5397 Membership Secretary—Alvin Moebus, CPL (313) 885-9365 Secretary—Randy Montpas, CRL (810) 694-4469 Public Relations—John Hubel, CML (586) 254-7233 Treasurer—Curtis Parks (248) 594-1552 Librarian—Larry Williams, RL, CPP (248) 917-2323 Sargent-At-Arms—Alvin Moebus, CPL (313) 885-9365 Program Director—Ray Sinai, CML (248) 543-5397 Newsletter—William M. Lynk, CML, CPS (313) 884-9800 Technical Operations Director—William Trout (248) 350-0027 Newsletter—Alvin Moebus, CPL (313) 885-9365 Board of Directors: Rob Rovinsky, CPL; Maurice Horne, CML; Webmaster—William M. Lynk, CML, CPS (313) 884-9800 Larry Walker, CRL; Robert Noble, CML, CPS; Photographer —Rob Rovinsky, CPL (248) 644-7939 Larry Williams, RL, CPP Refreshments—Mike Smolarek (586) 337-7041 →Please Volunteer and be part of our Group! LSA M EMBER OF THE M ONTH — G ERALD U NDERWOOD LSA Officers — by Al Moebus, CPL
Transcript
LSA is intertwined into the lives of many of its members in the most curi-ous ways. Case in point: our member, Gerald Underwood, with Oliver Red-mond, Tom Peloso and myself, Al Moebus. After 17 years working at an east side lumber company, Gerald took lock-smith classes from Tom Peloso. He was also a millwright installing pre-hung doors that used Schlage wafer locks as their hardware. It was during this time that the Schlage representative gave Gerald a pinning kit and showed how to use it to change the combinations. Gerald’s curiosity to know more about locks led him to seek more information. He heard of classes being taught at a community college in Detroit and that is where he met Tom who also intro-duced him to LSA. Gerald’s life took a turn away from locks for a period of time when he joined the work force of Detroit Edison and he worked for them for the next 24
years. While working at the St. Clair plant, during a lunch break with a friend, he had to get an Edison “Best” lock open. It had no key and so he decided to pick it open. “It was easier than picking a Kwikset” he said.
Oliver Redmond, a longtime friend, decided to retire and Gerald bought his locksmith van, lock, stock & Bible! Oliver said: “Take the Bible – I have many more!” Recently, Gerald re-joined LSA after a hiatus of 20 years and is now a full time locksmith. Among his other talents, he is a licensed contractor and teaches Green Doors Seminars four times a year. Looking back to Gerald’s pre-teen and teen years, he grew up in Portsmouth, Ohio. (This is my connection with him as I attended Hamilton Schools and the Portsmouth Schools played each other in sports.) We were in the oldest league in the history of Ohio ath-letics. After high school, in the late 1960’s, he came to Detroit to live with his aunt and uncle. He attended Highland Park Community College for two years and also took correspondence classes from a locksmith school in New Jersey. He did all of this while working at the lumber company.
Gerald is married and has three chil-dren and six grandchildren. He is a commu-nity activist, working to beautify collective gardens of Northeast Detroit.
LSA REPORTER VOLUME 25, NO. 10
EDITORS: William M. Lynk, CML, CPS * Alvin Moebus, CPL
JUNE, 2012
LSA Website: http://www.LSAmichigan.org
Publication Deadline: Submit items Two (2) Weeks (14 calendar days) by 5:00 p.m. AFTER the last LSA meeting.
President—John Hubel, CML (586) 254-7233 Education Chairman—Aron Boag (248) 321-2244 Vice President—Ray Sinai, CML (248) 543-5397 Membership Secretary—Alvin Moebus, CPL (313) 885-9365 Secretary—Randy Montpas, CRL (810) 694-4469 Public Relations—John Hubel, CML (586) 254-7233 Treasurer—Curtis Parks (248) 594-1552 Librarian—Larry Williams, RL, CPP (248) 917-2323 Sargent-At-Arms—Alvin Moebus, CPL (313) 885-9365 Program Director—Ray Sinai, CML (248) 543-5397 Newsletter—William M. Lynk, CML, CPS (313) 884-9800 Technical Operations Director—William Trout (248) 350-0027 Newsletter—Alvin Moebus, CPL (313) 885-9365 Board of Directors: Rob Rovinsky, CPL; Maurice Horne, CML; Webmaster—William M. Lynk, CML, CPS (313) 884-9800 Larry Walker, CRL; Robert Noble, CML, CPS; Photographer —Rob Rovinsky, CPL (248) 644-7939 Larry Williams, RL, CPP Refreshments—Mike Smolarek (586) 337-7041 →Please Volunteer and be part of our Group!
LSA MEMBER OF THE MONTH — GERALD UNDERWOOD
LSA Officers
— by Al Moebus, CPL
PAGE 2 LSA REPORTER
PRP GLOSSARY—LIST COUNCIL TERMINOLOGY
half-mortise hinge — n. a hinge which has one leaf mortised into the door and the second leaf applied to the surface of the frame
ignition puller — n. a tool for removing an ignition cylinder by pulling outward on it
jackscrew — n. a threaded rod used for centering and balancing a vault door & frame in position during installation
key bitting specifications — n. pl. the technical data required to bit a given (family of) key blank(s) to the lock manufacturer's dimensions
NEXT MONTH’S
LSA MEETING THURSDAY,
SEPT. 13TH, 2012
7:00 P.M.
Locksmith Security Association meets at 7:00 p.m., the second
Thursday of the month (Sept. to June) in the Metro Detroit Area in southeast Michigan:
1640 Stephenson Hwy., just north of Maple (15 Mile Rd.), on the east
side of street.
♦ LSA of Michigan supports all educational initiatives regardless of a specific supplier, brand or manufacturer.♦
Safe Tools For Sale
All of the tools are used but in excellent working order. Included in the tools is a complete Strong Arm mini drill rig with a add T4 template. A Hawk Eye 17in bore scope and 7in Linvatec bore scope. And Chiu tech lumina FO-150 light source with fiber optic cord. All together new this would be around $2500 I am asking for $2000 for everything. I am a little flexible on price but need to be right around there. Thanks, - Chris Field (810) 333-1969
VOLUME 25, NO. 10
Sometimes I feel as though I am writing a farewell speech this month, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. The elections held in May reveal that Ray Sinai, CML will be taking the reigns of the Locksmith Security Association of Michigan (LSA). Ray is a well qualified Master locksmith with more years of experience than some of our members are old. His leadership has an outstanding and proven
track record. All this is to say, that I am very proud to welcome my very good friend and professional associate Ray, as a return-ing President to the LSA. The LSA can expect nothing less than the best for these next two years. Kevin Smith will be assisting Ray as our newly elected Vice President. Curtis Parks will con-tinue as trustee of the treasury, Randy Montpas has committed to Secretary, and Al Moebus as Sargent-At-Arms; a fine and dedicated team, indeed. I, too, intend to stay involved in our thriving locksmith association. The LSA is an association for which ALL of our members can be exceedingly proud. To close out our spring 2012 season the LSA will be host-ing a pre-meeting locksmith flee market and swap meet. Addi-tionally Bob Simpson, our BDHHI representative will introduce several of their new products. The evening starts at 6:30ish with the market, 7:00 for dinner, and 7:30 for our featured presenta-tions. We encourage all our members to attend. Non-members are welcome to attend this meeting and are invited to participate in the locksmith flee market as well. Some of the proceeds will be voluntarily donated to the previously discussed ALOA fund. Have a great summer and see you in the fall.
John Hubel, CML—President, LSA
2011-2012—Dinner at 7:00 pm May LSA Meeting: 7:00 p.m., Thursday, 05/10/12 June LSA Meeting: 7:00 p.m., Thursday, 06/14/12
PAGE 3 VOLUME 25, NO. 10
“Qwik-Qwiz”
When viewing a safe door from the front and the lock appears on the left, the lock is referred to as a ___ mount.
A) left-hand B) right-hand C) vertical up D) horizontal side E) horizontal left
[answer on bottom of Last Page of this Newsletter]
WEB LINKS
CALENDAR OF LSA EVENTS—SEE WEBSITE FOR COMPREHENSIVE LIST
Pricing, like religion and politics, is a subject that I have been told not to ad-dress in my articles. Fellow locksmiths have advised me not to talk about it as it may be considered "price fixing". I promise not to write about price fixing. I do how-ever, want to write about increasing your prices if you haven't done so within the last 12 to 18 months (or longer). With the exception of fluctuating gas prices, which seem to change hourly, everything has gone up. Our suppliers are constantly notify-ing us about manufacturer price increases. I have always held the concept in my mind that if you raised your price $5.00
on each transaction (whether it be a job in the shop or on the road) and you performed 1000 jobs per year, your gross sales for the year would increase by $5000.00 . A five dollar increase sounds very minimal but a $5000.00 increase in sales sounds pretty substantial. You do the math regarding your particular business. However, you must be realistic; you can't raise your pricing drastically overnight. The old argument that you will lose business and lose
customers by raising your prices is just not true. If it were true, all businesses would be forced to close! Even the coffee shop where I purchase my morning coffee has had a recent price increase. All of our businesses have differing costs of overhead, depending on the size of your operation, the number of employees, the location of your shop as well as other factors. All of these factors, rent, wages, insurance, supplies, etc. affect your "bottom line", the paycheck you actually bring home. As I have written many times before, profit is NOT a dirty word. If raising your prices backfires on you and your customers complain, you can always go back to your old pricing. Frankly, I doubt that will happen as long as your price increases are reasonable. Remember we are not in business to fill our days or to stimulate the economy; we are doing this to make a PROFIT! Enjoy your summer! Ray Sinai, CML—Vice President, LSA
“Education, Knowledge & Cooperation—LSA”
RAY’S WAYS— “IS IT A BAD TIME TO RAISE YOUR PRICES ? ” -BY RAY SINAI, CML, VICE PRESIDENT, LSA
VOLUME 25, NO. 10 PAGE 6
PAGE 7 VOLUME 25, NO.
Safety Technology International, Inc.
Tim Zale, Inside Sales [email protected] www.sti-usa.com (248) 673-9898
Securitech Group 54-45 44th Street
Maspeth, NY 11378
(800) 622-5625
www.securitech.com
1100 Killian Road Akron, OH 44312
1-(800) 321-9602
Associate Members/Sponsors of LSA
♦John Hubel, CML
♦(586) 254-7233
BREAK- IN BLOCKER By Sovilok
Toll free: 888-SOVILOK www.breakinblocker.com Jon Hohauser-Mfg. Rep
(248) 650-7824
Your Space?
Contact:
Al Moebus
(313) 885-9365
P.O. Box 610 Mackinaw City, MI 49701 Kristy McFarland, Managing Director
Pre-Meeting Dinner Sponsors:
February: ADI-Warren, Tony Black March: April: May: June:
Thanks to all of our Pre-Meeting Dinner Sponsors. If you would like to participate for the 2011-2012 Season, contact:
John Hubel, CML or Ray Sinai, CML
FOR MEMBERSHIP INFO., CONTACT: AL MOEBUS, CPL—MEMBERSHIP CHAIR 533 FISHER ROAD, GROSSE POINTE, MI 48230
