After a little practice it was pretty easy to identify the contact points and I methodically started mapping them out. I ran into some inexplicable irregularities (for a newbie at least) of areas where the contact points increased dramatically--almost disappearing to the touch--and multiple areas where the the points would narrow. By being very deliberate--identifying the correct wheel, going back and remapping after a new low point/gate was found, I thought I had the three numbers that would open the safe. Only they didn't, and no amount of further checking was narrowing my contacts points. I was stumped.
Over the next few weeks I tried again and again, used a shop stethescope (not much use) and rechecked my work over and over. Nothing. I was getting ready to drill.
Then by chance I discovered that if I jiggled the handle when testing the numbers the contact points would narrow. A-ha! I rechecked my first wheel, jiggling the handle each time, and my gate number remained the same. Checking the second wheel, what I though was the correct gate number no longer was. Starting at zero I progressed around the dial in 2 number increments until I hit 90 and--click--it opened. My cherry was busted!
The inside revealed a wet and musty smelling mess of papers bound by tape. Inside the damp mess was a small collection of mint proofs and a couple Eisenhower silver dollars--total value less than $100, but still exciting none the less.
The backplate revealed it was a class C with a tamper resistance mechanism. And pulling the plate off the back of the lock revealed three plastic wheels. Except for the gate at 90 (actually it was 91), my maniplulation had me spot on for one number and off by 1 for the other.
I'm cleaning up the safe now by sanding off the surface rust and repainting. I have other safes but this will be a good one to keep in the garage (if is very heavy) to store ammo and such.
Now I find myself scanning ads for other safes with "No combination" to work on.
Kontoboy
