French Safe Lock (key + Combination)

[FrenchKey]

Few days ago, I was with a locksmith of my friends and a client asked him to make
a key for a safe lock and to find and change the combination.
So we had some fun with this lock, quite old (50 years maybe), made by Vigie Picard.
Here is a dismantling report :

As you can see, there is 4 dials and a keyway for a Bramah’type lock, or a Pumps’Lock.


Under that, the locking mechanism :


Here are all the elements taken apart :
[url=http://nsa06.casimages.com/img/2009/03/22/090322112335834916.jpg]
[/url]

The rear gear of a dial :


The back of the lock, with the gears, here scrambled :


And here aligned for receiving the locking plate' teeth :


The locking plate :


The lock ready to unlock :


Here the plate pushed with the hand for changing the code :


Here the front of the key’lock :


Here the back of the lock :


The pumps and the blocking plate (shear line) :


The pumps in the lock, not at the shear line (we can see them in the groove)



And here the key done for the lock !






How to open this lock without the proper key and code cannot be discussed here,
but I want just to show a better view of the pumps :


We can see that the bottom part of all the pumps has the same length, so we can easily
find the combination of the key when the lock is mounted. It is probably advanced
(although it’s easy) so I will not tell you how to, but you may find yourself
The using of an umbrella can be useful but not necessary.

If you have question about this lock, feel free to ask

Happy to share it with you

FrenchKey

NB : The client gave the right to share pictures.
NB2 : Some information has been hidden to avoid photographical decoding of the key

[TheSkyer]

That's a pretty awsome job you've done there! Thanks a mundo for sharing

[tester293]

Nice work, thanks!

[MacGnG1]

wow thats pretty cool. mmm insides

[ridinplugspinnaz]

Excellent thread FrenchKey, and certainly an impressive lock too! Thanks for sharing that with us.

[Raymond]

I am truly impressed with your skill and the photography.
Very well done.
Raymond

[Legion303]

Very nice. We don't get too many breakdowns of safe locks, so this is a good addition.

-steve

[FrenchKey]

Hi,

Glad that you liked it.
I liked it when I had to play with, that's why I wanted to share with you.

We are building a locksport group, so I will probably have others interesting locks to breakdown,
from clients or from members of the group.

Next time I will try to make a video for others locks, because I think it's difficult to understand the
working with only pictures.


FrenchKey

[raimundo]

I see that you used a swirly to obscure some of the bitting. I will just mention that there was a recent case of a fugitive in thailand who's photo was on the internet and obsucred by a swirly, but it got unswirled and they could see his face.
something you should be aware of in the future.

[FrenchKey]

Yes, I know that possibility, but I altered the picture with another effect before, but it was not enough in my opinion. And the risk here is not very important, the client allowed to share the non altered pictures, but I decided to alter them a little bit.

But yes, for the future, for a more secret info, it may be important to know that.
Thank you

FrenchKey

[Engineer]

Great pictures and wonderful to see such a lock - Thank you!

When you were servicing the mechanism, was the gear in the second picture a bit worn? It looked it, but theat picture was a little fuzzy and so I couldn't be sure.

I also wondered how the springs were holding up in a safe of that age? They didn't look like standard ones, so if one of them went, yuo would probably have to make one from scratch for it, unless the manufacturer was still able to supply them of course...

[FrenchKey]

little used, yes, but let's have a look :
Here is the high def version of the second picture :


And for the springs, there are only 2 springs and they are still in good state.
If we would have need new ones, they would be difficult to make new ones, but we would propably have find similiar others. The one you find to be not standard can be found in several mechanism in French Locks. Not really common, but still produced.

If you like that kind of report, You will have others later

++

FrenchKey

[greyman]

Frenchkey

Thanks for sharing these interesting pictures. Nice job making the key - did you use a key cutting machine (sorry if this is already answered, but I found it gard to read this post because it's too wide).

I didn't realise Vigie Picard made safe locks with combination dials. I though that was mainly Fichet (and other European manufacturers like Lips, but not other French ones).

[FrenchKey]

Sorry for the very large picture, I didnt know it would have modify the page.
If a mod can replace the large picture by this thumbnail link :

Thank you



Concerning the key making, we used a key cutting machine, and my friend is one of the best key making locksmith in Paris
But it was pretty difficult, due to the lack of any already cut key, no depth and spaces available, and no guide.
But I told him "I took a lot of precaution for filing down the key to fit the keyway and not damage the surface, don't fail it !"
So he did it well !


A friend told me that it is a combination lock with 4 dialers from Carmine with a Vigie picard ' Pump, sold by Decayeux or Fossier ;
if it can be useful for you.

Regards,

FrenchKey

[FrenchKey]

By the way, I did not explain how you should use this lock :

You can turn each dial to the right as far as you want, but if you turn to the left, it will block at a certain point.
So you turn counterclockwise until it blocks, then you turn to the right for the number of "clicks" needed for the good combination.

You probably noted the rough looking of the dials. The client did too and ask us to make them more comfortable to turn. After a time of thinking, we found the solution : the key is the button for the dials !
You can see that the key has the perfect shape for going in the dials

After that, turn the key in the pump'lock and it's done !


FrenchKey