Question

Re your article on Hartal door locks. This is my feedback. Dismantled the lock, the lock spindle needed to be pressed out rather than fall out. I found that there were still some lands of sprue from the molding on the barrel- removed them with some emery paper, also measured the diameter of the spindle - found that it had a slight taper which as it was pushed in and locked with the circlip made it very hard to move. Filed the hole and it now turns easily. Looks like a manufacturing problem. Seems very widespread as well.

Answer

As you say, this problem of very stiff locking mechanism is fairly widespread with the Hartal locks. When new they work fine but for some reason the plastic must expand with use. Filing out the hole does relieve the problem.