Schlage Commercial Cylinders Tailpiece Only for ALX-70 Classroom Function

Tailpiece only. This is the cylinder tailpiece for the Schlage ALX-70 classroom function lever lock, the flat blade on the back of the cylinder that carries the key rotation into the lock chassis. The cylinder or interchangeable core is a separate order, and the tailpiece has to suit the core format you are running: one version is built for Schlage FSIC, the other for Schlage SFIC.

Match it to the core, not to the lock. FSIC is Schlage's full size interchangeable core, the large figure-eight core; SFIC is the small format interchangeable core used on best-style keying systems. The ALX-70 classroom tailpiece is sold in a Schlage FSIC version and a Schlage SFIC version precisely because the two core formats drive differently, so pull the core out of the door, identify which format you have, and order to that.

Classroom function means the outside lever is locked and unlocked by key from the outside, while the inside lever stays free at all times so anyone in the room can get out. Everything the key does on that lock passes through the tailpiece: turn the key, the core turns, the tailpiece rotates the lock's locking mechanism. A wrong or damaged tailpiece and the key turns without changing the outside lever's state.

Order by function. This tailpiece is the one called out for the ALX-70 classroom function, and Schlage breaks tailpieces out by lock function because the drive the cylinder has to accomplish differs from one function to the next. For a storeroom, office, or entry ALX, get the tailpiece specified for that function instead of this one. If you are stocking spares for a building with mixed functions, keep them separated and labelled by function and by core format.

That is the whole point of running interchangeable core, and this tailpiece is what keeps it working on an ALX-70 classroom lock. With FSIC or SFIC, a control key pulls the core out of the lock and a new core drops straight in, so rekeying a wing of classrooms is a core swap rather than a lock teardown. The tailpiece stays in the lock and has to match the core format you standardize on, Schlage FSIC or Schlage SFIC, across the whole building.

Usually, yes, on an interchangeable core lock. When the key rotates the core freely but nothing happens at the outside lever, the drive between core and chassis has failed, and on a Schlage ALX-70 classroom lock that drive is the cylinder tailpiece. Before ordering, confirm the core format in the door, Schlage FSIC or Schlage SFIC, because the replacement has to be the version that fits the core you already have.