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Help with opening 1871 Yale safe lock

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!
Forum rules
You are posting this in This Old Safe, a public area of the forum.

Safe manipulation discussion is allowed, but safe drilling or other destructive entry is only allowed in the Advanced - Safes and Safe Locks area.

If you are a guest of the forum and have a safe you need to open, but you do not have the combination, we cannot tell you how or where to drill it.

Help with opening 1871 Yale safe lock

Postby relock » 17 Dec 2025 13:52

Hello, I have an old safe door with a combination lock that I have lost all information to. The combination lock says "YALE LOCK M'F'G Co.-STAMFORD CONN." around the edge, and in the center it lists patents in the middle.

"PAT'D
JULY 25, 1871
SEPT 2 1873
JULY 28, 1874
SEPT 7, 1880
NOV 2, 1880
NOV 2, 1880"

Can anyone help me with how to correctly guess the code and what the pattern of the spins are?

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relock
 
Posts: 1
Joined: 17 Dec 2025 13:31

Re: Help with opening 1871 Yale safe lock

Postby MartinHewitt » 17 Dec 2025 18:15

First: After working on the bolt work or lock don't close the door before testing the combination and bolt work at least three times.

It is a Yale 063 1/2 with a bronze case, as far as I can see. The dialling sequence is 5R to 1st number, 4L to 2nd number, 3R to 3rd number, 2L to 4th number, R to stop. The wheels are mesh change. A more modern lock with mesh change wheels is this Mosler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6L_jQJRQXQ So you can disassemble the wheel pack and look at the wheels, but don't mix up the order of parts when you reassemble it. Or you look at the location where the fence (this V shaped part) touches the wheel pack and do the dial sequence and stop every time the gate/gap in the respective wheel is there. The wheel with the 4th number is most near to the dial.
MartinHewitt
 
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Joined: 16 Nov 2016 18:11


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