Schlage Commercial 33-005-E 5-Pin Cylinder Plug, E Keyway

Just the plug. The 33-005-E is the key plug, the rotating core that the key enters and turns inside a Schlage cylinder shell, and it is sold as a commercial replacement part rather than a whole cylinder or a lock. If the shell, cam and trim on the door are sound and the trouble is a worn plug or the wrong key section, the plug is the piece you swap. On its own it will not give you a working cylinder; it goes into a shell you already have.

Match it to the key section already running the opening. The keyway is milled into the plug itself, so it decides which Schlage keys will enter once the plug is in the shell. The 33-005 is stocked in an E keyway and an R1 keyway. Drop an E plug into a cylinder on an R1 system and the building keys will not enter, no matter how correctly it is combinated. Check the key section stamped on a working key before you order, and if you are doing a run of doors, order them all in one keyway.

It shows. The plug face is the ring around the keyhole that you see from the outside of the door, which is why the 33-005 is stocked in 626 satin chrome and 605 bright brass. Put a bright brass plug into a satin chrome cylinder and the repair is visible from across the lobby. Match 626 to satin chrome and brushed nickel trim, 605 to polished brass. Either finish is available in either key section, so finish and keyway are two separate decisions on the order.

It is a bench job, not a screwdriver job. Swapping the plug means getting the cylinder out of the lock, releasing the cam or retainer, and pushing the old plug out with a follower so the top pins and springs stay captive in the shell. The new plug then has to be combinated with bottom pins cut to the key that runs the door. Without a follower and a pin kit the shell empties onto the bench. A property manager can order the 33-005 with confidence, but hand it to a locksmith or an in-house tech who pins cylinders.

Yes, provided every cylinder is five-pin and every plug goes in on the same key section. Ordering the 33-005 in one keyway across the run, all E or all R1, puts those openings on a single key section, which is what lets one key or a master system cover them. Mixed key sections is the usual reason a building ends up carrying a ring of keys instead of one. The plugs still have to be combinated to the system, so pair the order with whoever holds the keying schedule.