Urgent help Mosler Safe

[Squelchtone]

Hello everyone. I’ve just registered here so try and get some help. Ok, here’s the backstory. My in laws have had this safe for as long as I can remember. We’ve all (my husband and his sisters) always known to go to the safe if anything were to happen to them, as everything we’d need was in it. My mother in law died a year and and last night my father in law died. We all knew where they kept the combination. They had told us each several times over the years but honestly they never told us how hard it was to open. Evidently his last will is in there along with his burial plot deed and some other really important stuff. We’ve been at it all morning trying to open this thing and we can’t figure it out. I’ve called a local locksmith who wants nothing to do with this and says good luck lol. I can try to figure out how to upload pictures here if needed. But basically it’s an old Mosler with double doors. It’s gray and huge. My husband says it’s at least 40 years old. The way his mom wrote the combination on a piece of wood on the wall beside it (all cryptic and hidden) it reads like this. 19 81 36 5. Then under the 81 says R 3. And under the 36 says 2. And under the 5 says 1. We believe it’s a 4 number combination. But no clue what we’re doing. I’d appreciate any help at all.

Edited to include a link for image

[MartinHewitt]

Hi, The standard way to open a lock has the sequence 4 times left, 3 times right, 2 times left, right to stop. The do some also write as "dial right to number N once". The 3 2 1 sounds like this. I read the first sign as R, but maybe a 4 is meant. The lock in your Mosler fire safe should follow this standard dialing sequence. You can view here a verbose explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEYjgOFKR1U . I assume, that you can ignore the last 5, because the lock stops you. If this doesn't help, then I would try the reverse dialling direction. For this we do need a fourth number. The start would be 4 times right. Because it doesn't matter if it is 4 times or 6 times the first R might mean "dial a few times right and stop at 19". So dial 4 times right to 19, 3 times left to 81, 2 times right to 36 and then something different: 1 time left to five and finally right until the dial hopefully stops and unlocks the safe.

[Squelchtone]

Firstly, sorry for your loss, this must no doubt be a difficult and stressful time, so you don't need this hassle on top of it.

If you can provide us a city and state you are in, we can get you the name and number of the closest qualified safe technician in your area. Not every local locksmith is a qualified safe and vault technician. A visit from a real safe tech to dial the safe open or to drill it if needed would be well worth the call out fee and labor since time seems of the essence here.

MartinHewitt has already provided you with some good info, but let me try to post some dialing sequence options as well in more of a list view.

I believe the lock you are using is a hand change friction fence model B-6 Mosler lock, with last turn to the Left to retract the bolt.

What we think the combination is, with the sequence written in short hand below it:
19 81 36 5
R 3 2 1

Please note when dialing:
Right = Clockwise
Left = Counter-Clockwise

I marked R 3 2 1 in Bold down below so you can see how that correlates to the combination numbers.

Dialing instructions:

Turn dial Right passing 19 three times and stop on 19 the 4th time around

Turn dial Left passing 81 two times and stop on 81 the 3rd time around

Turn dial Right passing 36 one time and stop on 36 the 2nd time around

Turn dial Left and stop at 5 the 1st time around (the dial should stop and not let you turn it any farther)

Try the handle to see if door will open.