Forgot how to dial the combination on that old safe? Think you got the right numbers but the handle is stuck? What safe should you buy? Ask your safe questions here!
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I have served on the security team for a large non-profit organization for the last 9 years. We purchased an old school building from the city that had been closed for some time. The school was built in the 1960s and at some point an in-floor safe was installed in the front office. The combination was not passed along to us when we purchased the building. There are no markings or labels except for the numbers "15880" that are inscribed on the outer rim. It's not even clear where the reference tick is for dialing the combination. However, the dial does spin. There appears to be an old attempt at prying it from the floor on the outer rim. I heard that some of our maintenance guys were responsible for the attempt at drilling. In the photos below, I have noted a possible dial reference tick and the numbers on the outer rim with yellow arrows. I failed to measure the exact diameter of the safe, but I don't think it's more than 12 inches.
I would like to find out the brand and model of the safe along with the proper way to dial the combination. (One of the last principals at the school is still alive here in town and I may try to contact him.) I would welcome comments about the best approach to take in getting it opened. Do we need to contact someone from SAVTA or is this a DIY project. TIA!
Are there 2 holes on the interior rim on either side of the opening index? If the opening index is at 12 oclock, there should be a hole at 9 and another hole at 3, around 1/4 inch big. That's where the handle used to be inserted. The handle was like the stiff wire kind you can find on a home depot bucket.
If so your safe could be Diebold lift out door safe. Not a beginner safe, finding a SAVTA technician is a smart move. will probably cost $500-$750 to drill and scope the safe.
Squelchtone wrote:Are there 2 holes on the interior rim on either side of the opening index? If the opening index is at 12 oclock, there should be a hole at 9 and another hole at 3, around 1/4 inch big. That's where the handle used to be inserted. The handle was like the stiff wire kind you can find on a home depot bucket.
If so your safe could be Diebold lift out door safe. Not a beginner safe, finding a SAVTA technician is a smart move. will probably cost $500-$750 to drill and scope the safe.
I didn't know to pay attention to that when I took those photos Friday, but it does look like there are holes on the interior rim at 3 and 9 o'clock if we call my suspected opening index 12 o'clock. I will double check that sometime this week. $500-$750? Ouch! I think reaching out to a former principal or maybe even the city school board would be a good idea to try first.
Squelchtone wrote:Are there 2 holes on the interior rim on either side of the opening index? If the opening index is at 12 oclock, there should be a hole at 9 and another hole at 3, around 1/4 inch big. That's where the handle used to be inserted. The handle was like the stiff wire kind you can find on a home depot bucket.
If so your safe could be Diebold lift out door safe. Not a beginner safe, finding a SAVTA technician is a smart move. will probably cost $500-$750 to drill and scope the safe.
I didn't know to pay attention to that when I took those photos Friday, but it does look like there are holes on the interior rim at 3 and 9 o'clock if we call my suspected opening index 12 o'clock. I will double check that sometime this week. $500-$750? Ouch! I think reaching out to a former principal or maybe even the city school board would be a good idea to try first.
If the safe tech you find has an ITL1000 or ITL2000 auto dialer, it may be cheaper to connect the dialer to the safe, leave it running over the weekend and voila, it will just dial every possible combination until it opens the safe. You may pay like $250-$500 for that service.
Squelchtone wrote: If the safe tech you find has an ITL1000 or ITL2000 auto dialer, it may be cheaper to connect the dialer to the safe, leave it running over the weekend and voila, it will just dial every possible combination until it opens the safe. You may pay like $250-$500 for that service.
3 digit combination, but I would have to look up the dialing order to see if it is Left Right Left or Right Left Right
Thanks, again. No rush, but please do look up the dialing order when it's convenient. There are 2 SAVTA techs in our area and one is at a locksmith I've used personally. I'm going to reach out to him tomorrow morning. I'm trying to work this from several angles so I hopefully have some options to present to management.
4 x Left to first number 3 x Right to second number 2 x Left to third number 1 x Right to drop the lever arm/nose into wheel/cam gates and rotate dial to full stop to retract the 3 bolts
4 x Left to first number 3 x Right to second number 2 x Left to third number 1 x Right to drop the lever arm/nose into wheel/cam gates and rotate dial to full stop to retract the 3 bolts
Huge thanks! Life got complicated last night and I never recovered today to call the SAVTA tech. Will reach out to him first thing tomorrow. (EDIT: Just now sitting down for the day at 2022 local time.)
Got in touch with the SAVTA tech today and shared the photos. He said he would get back to me with an estimate after positively identifying the safe. HOWEVER, he also shared a surprise with me: There is a default combination that schools were supposed to set when giving up a building. I'm going to give that a try tomorrow and will report back.
Meanwhile, I've got to figure out something to use as a handle to lift off the top if it works.
latch-key-kid wrote:Got in touch with the SAVTA tech today and shared the photos. He said he would get back to me with an estimate after positively identifying the safe. HOWEVER, he also shared a surprise with me: There is a default combination that schools were supposed to set when giving up a building. I'm going to give that a try tomorrow and will report back.
Meanwhile, I've got to figure out something to use as a handle to lift off the top if it works.
I mean, yeah, you could try 50-50-50 if they really set it to that, but mostly I think that's on walk in vaults to help fire departments get kids out who trespass and get them selves locked inside old bank buildings or other walk in fire vaults in factories and I guess schools as well.
There's a real naughty way to open this safe, it involves drilling some holes and using a hammer, but I can't give you the details in the public section of the forum because we don't want to teach any bad guys who might see these posts down the road. It would be interesting to find out how your tech opens it.
for handles.. You need two L shaped allen wrenches (like this style: https://www.amazon.com/EKLIND-10107-Hex-L-allen-wrench/dp/B0000CBJE1/) and two pair of vice grips. insert short end of the L of the allen wrench into the hole, grip long end of allen wrench sticking upwards with vice grip, repeat same steps on other hole, use vice grips to pull up on the safe head once it is ready to lift out.
Squelchtone wrote:I mean, yeah, you could try 50-50-50 if they really set it to that, but mostly I think that's on walk in vaults to help fire departments get kids out who trespass and get them selves locked inside old bank buildings or other walk in fire vaults in factories and I guess schools as well.
There's a real naughty way to open this safe, it involves drilling some holes and using a hammer, but I can't give you the details in the public section of the forum because we don't want to teach any bad guys who might see these posts down the road. It would be interesting to find out how your tech opens it.
for handles.. You need two L shaped allen wrenches (like this style: https://www.amazon.com/EKLIND-10107-Hex-L-allen-wrench/dp/B0000CBJE1/) and two pair of vice grips. insert short end of the L of the allen wrench into the hole, grip long end of allen wrench sticking upwards with vice grip, repeat same steps on other hole, use vice grips to pull up on the safe head once it is ready to lift out.
The "default" combination given to me by the local SAVTA tech is different than the one you shared above. The dialing order you shared is the same as what the SAVTA tech gave me, which is the same as my S&G lock at home. Today, I tried dialing both combinations, but neither of them worked. Because the dialing order is the same as my home lock, I feel pretty confident that this failure was not due to human error.
The dial has an inconsistent feel when being rotated. Sometimes it feels like it's almost freewheeling, but other times is gets a little harder to turn, You get the same feeling whether you're rotating it left or right. Occasionally, the bottom of the dial scrapes the top of the door.
If I don't hear back from the SAVTA tech tomorrow, I'm going to call him back Friday morning. Our building is literally around the corner from his office. I'm hoping he will come out and put eyes and a hand on the safe and at least verify that I dialed it correctly. I hope the dial is not broken somehow.
Huge thanks for your solution for a makeshift handle. The allen keys fit right into the holes at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions and the vise grips made perfect handles. If one of the combinations had worked, getting the door off would have been a breeze.
FWIW, I measured the diameter of the safe today and it was just 7.5 inches. Obviously, i have no idea of its depth.
Sounds like you have some safe experience, so I have a feeling you'll have this thing open in no time! Glad the make shift handle idea worked out, and I hope you get some good news from the SAVTA technician.
Please keep us posted, we're all invested in getting this opened for you now!
Squelchtone wrote:Sounds like you have some safe experience, so I have a feeling you'll have this thing open in no time! Glad the make shift handle idea worked out, and I hope you get some good news from the SAVTA technician.
Please keep us posted, we're all invested in getting this opened for you now!
Squelchtone
Brief Update: Met the SAVTA tech in person Friday and he a super nice guy. He said he was having to reach out to a colleague in another state to positively ID the safe. Meanwhile, I am going to give the 2 default combinations another try on Wednesday. I realized that I may have been a little too cavalier with my dialing technique.
@squelchtone I did (finally) respond to your PM several days ago. Didn't realize it was a PM when the system emailed the notice. Again, apologies for the delay. I'll be taking another crack at the default combinations this Wednesday.
Last night, I re-tried the two default combinations while dialing much more carefully than before. Neither combination worked. So, I'm down to the SAVTA tech or MAYBE the local school board office. I'm going to try the school board first and then ping the SAVTA tech again.
If anyone knows the secretary that worked in that office, often she would have the combo. She may recall it, or still have the rolodex where she kept numbers.
Re lifting the safe door out, it's not too hard to make a new handle. Find the dia. of the holes with allen keys as Squelch recommended, and buy the sized rod stock (also called "drill rod") from a hardware store or industrial vendor, like Grainger. Bend the wire into a "hoop" with a vise and fit to the safe door. You might have to soften the rod first with a torch for the 90 deg bends.
