OldddffAASSTT the Spin Master Extraordinaire and American Lock Slayer
Posts: 4412
Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:16 am
Location: Michigan
Re: Safe Chronicles, Part II - Beyond the Lockroom
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Not an all out manipulation this time.
More trouble-shooting/dialing diagnostics.
Basically a drop/cash box with a round door atop. Never thought to get
exact measurements... but I do know the door is 8 inches. I'd wager
the width & depth of the box itself to be 2 ft. squared and 3 ft. tall.
No clue on age though. I was told this is maybe 1940's -ish?
I had woke up to two messages that morning. 1) a local business simply stating they had a safe they were unable to open.
And 2) Walter, a locksmith who has become a good friend to me over the last year or so. He wanted me to call him when I
gotta chance. It seemed more than coincidental that these two messages were literally within one minute of each other.
Sure enough, Walt HAD worked on this safe earlier in the week. He'd also recently dropped off a fairly hefty bill that was
yet to be paid. It all seemed rather fishy to me. I told him to say the word and I simply wouldn't return their call. But he
wasn't concerned and in fact urged me to go. So I gave 'em a call. They immediately mentioned Walt had been out
there. They expressed no concerns over his work or the bill they had received. And it sounded like they had every
intention to continue working with him, as they mentioned he was going to track down some replacement parts.
At this point I felt better about it all & headed over. Besides, I might be able to save Walt a 2 hour round trip.
Maybe they were in panic mode & knew I was closer. Or they wanted to avoid adding to the bill. I dunno.
(above & below) You can see how the the round door rotates after dialing the combo.
It rotates CCW within the limit set by the bolt & slot you see. You can then pull it open.
Not long before the guilty stepped forward. Wheel 2 opened 6 incs ahead of its' time.
Further tests reveal yet another shift - w2 now opening 2 incs beyond its' set number.
One scenario might be too much friction/drag between wheels 2&3. Hard to say though
without delving deeper into the lock. As much as I wanted to tear into it for a closer look
and maybe some more photos... I didn't really feel like it was my place. I was done. With
access to their funds they could get back to business as usual. And thankfully the owner
agreed it'd be a good idea to remove the door entirely and set it aside for the time being.
The lock, by the way, is an old Diebold 900. It would look something like THIS one I think.
On Walter's behalf: He is meticulous. He'd brought the door back to his shop and invested
a fair bit of time in servicing the lock. With it working smooth and consistently opening many
times over, he was obviously confident enough to install it again and have it put back into use.
This could've just as easily happened to me. Locks that old can become a little temperamental.
I headed outta there but received a call before getting home.
It was another business - they apparently had TWO safes for me to play with.
Well then, this day is shaping up to be an adventure. Stay tuned for more lock-porn.