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Oldfast, (and other contributors) I ran into something interesting tonight on my safe opening. I finally got the safe unloaded this weekend and moved into the batcave in the basement. I was cleaning as much of the old dust and grime off of it and felt this lump, so I looked closer and scratched off some of the paint. It looks like this safe might have been drilled a long time ago. This lump looks like a hole that has been spot welded closed and then ground down and painted over. The thing that puzzles me is where the hole is located, 3 1/2" from the dial ring or 5 1/2" from the center of the dial itself. It is actually closer to the bolt handle than the dial, so not sure what the purpose was.
Please take a look at the pics and see what you think.
thanks ron

Again, I'm at a loss.... knowing absolutely nothing about drilling.

But yeah, it does seem odd being that far from the dial. Hmmm.

I wonder if they punched out the linkages so that they didn't need to open the combo lock and just turn the handle to open it.

How or what would you punch out on the linkage? Im not following, explain further.

thanks ron

If there is a bar attached to the handle of the that goes to the safe lock they might have drilled a hole to push that bar back so they can just turn the handle without having to open the lock.

Right now the handle is loose inside of the door. I can manipulate it so that it catches on what feels like the bolt linkage, but the bolt handle is definitely loose and flops around when you turn it. It will turn about 3/4 of a turn and then catch on the bolt linkage or something that feels solid, it cant be turned any further after that. I have tried it in both directions and the same thing. I also used a feeler gauge to feel the bolts in the door and they are definitely engaged into the holes in the door.

Im making slow progress with manipulation, the old dial sticks and binds a lot, but have definitely found one combo number on the wheel. The left and right gates were obvious with the first manipulation, so now on with the next two.

Thanks for the input. Ron