I've bought a Yale Single-dial lock yesterday, mainly because I was wondering how it works.
But to fully understand, of course I had to demolish it...
During my rampage I've taken photographs, so I hope someone can learn something from this.
I know I did
Here's the lock before it met my hammer, it's a cheap combination lock, I think it was about $ 8 USD.
It isn't much work to get the back lid of using a hammer and screwdriver.
Once the lid is free, you can easily take it out and see another lid.
http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg28 ... C11305.jpg
I'm sorry if I don't know the correct terms for all the parts...
Once you've taken the second lid of, you can see the inside of the lock.
Attached to the lid are two cams. The third one is attached on the inside of the lock. The cams each have an indentation in them. When all three indentations are aligned properly, the latch can be pulled out and the lock will open.
Aligned wrong:
Aligned good:
This is what blocks the latch.
When the cams (in this picture I'll show it with one cam to make it more easy to see) are not in place, the lock won't open.
When the cams are in place, you can pull the latch and open the lock.
And here's one with the 3 cams in place.
Et voilà , the lock opened!
Maybe this will help somebody to understand it better.
Have a good one,
Bas
