Old (?) Yale Safe, ID and Advice Requested

[abnowack]

Hello all!

I've finally gone ahead and delved into learning safe manipulation in order to eventually be able to open a large safe left in our garage by a deceased family member. It's been here for a few years, and I think was owned by their father beforehand.

It's a large safe with a Yale combination lock.



I have two questions I'd like to ask this crowd.

1) What type of yale lock is it? Model number?

2) I've previously bought 'The Challenge Vault' from Sparrows and I've been able to open it successfully several times on the hardest (realistic) setting. I believe it's basically a Sargent & Greenleaf model 2 combination lock. My question is, are the skills for opening this transferrable to the Yale safe I have, and how does that older Yale lock differ from this one?

Thank you much, I'm loving looking around this forum so far.

[MartinHewitt]

Hi, what sound and feeling do you get, when you turn the dial?

[abnowack]

Not sure what specific to describe, so I just took a video messing around with it. I tried an 'amateur' approach for finding a contact point but wasn't successful.

Sort of feels like there's three wheels I think.

[MartinHewitt]

I think that sounds like an OC-5. Look for a contact point around 0 when you turn left. The opening is similar to the Chinese lock, but dialling is reverse.

[abnowack]

Ah, thank you! And you know, I was thinking there was something at zero.

And to understand the order, I'd turn CW a few times first, then turn CCW to look for a contact point?

[MartinHewitt]

What you do before feeling the CP depends on your manipulation session. It is the same as with the Chinese lock. But with this one you need need to move a bit CCW to be able to feel the CP. There is the play you already felt and the fence is turning a bit too. So you need to start maybe 10 numbers before the CP to be able to feel it. To feel it again you need to move back these ~10 numbers and start again. Another helpful information is the intensity how hard the hit at the CP is. This is a short video of this lock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALCe_tpmoSo

[abnowack]

Thank you Martin, very helpful