help with an OPEN safe

[holdthetape]

Thanks. The shirt and baby are probably the only new things in the picture, ha ha. The shirt says "One track mind"...

[devildog]

Good call on the reset button, Shrub, I wouldn't have thought of that but that's something that really sounds like something Sentry would do as they're not exactly high-security

Also, I second the battery idea. Although even the cheap safe locks are supposed to fail-secure in the event of power failure, that doesn't mean they always do (I've heard of it happening, and this was allegedly on a decent Group 2 lock ).

[holdthetape]

Okay. Well... here's a heads-up on what ended up happening:

I took the advice about opening the inside of the door up. It was pretty tough, but I got it off. There was a plastic backing to the inside of the door, which revealed the actual lock mechanism and the motor which I suppose drove the mechanism. This was pretty straightforward stuff. I was a bit surprised to see that the main gear driving the deadbolts (and is this the right term for these?) was made of cheap-o plastic. Then again, maybe this is so forcing the lock will result in the gear teeth being stripped? Not sure...

Anyway, once the backing was off, I realized that the only visible electronics was the small motor or solenoid of some sort, and the two wire trailing off it, into the actual door itself. They were threaded through the hole that the handle goes through. Seems to me if you knocked the handle off the door, and applied some current to these wires, you might activate the motor. I suppose I should say that by this time I had passed from "let's see if I can fix this" to "let's see if I can take it apart and find out what makes it tick"...

I removed the entire plastic backing for the door and set it aside. I then removed the locking mechanism itself (gears, bolts, etc) and the four 1" screws that were holding the "underplastic" to the actual metal door front. Oddly enough, removing THIS plastic showed me that it was simply a slab of material for affixing the fire-proofing material to, which was getting all over my carpet.

Turns out, there was no additional battery whatsoever. Removing the metallic-looking keypad panel from the remains of the metal door showed that there was only one battery source, connected to the keypad circuitry and the motor. I wasn't real impressed with the toughness of this safe, it didn't seem to be put together very well. I also found a fair amount of moisture within the actual door itself, and evidence of rusting in the interior of the door-- so I'm reasonably sure this was not due to having been put on the curb.

Hopefully, someone finds this interesting. Now I have to go lug it to MY curb. Thanks for all your help! I'll be lurking until next time I get a wild hair up. --Dave

ps- I kept the keypad. I'm sure it will be useful for some other electronics project eventually.

[Bud Wiser]

pics would have been great!

[holdthetape]

I wanted to, but my 2-year-old son was too busy "helping" me to bother with adding my camera to the mix.

[devildog]

Well, to be honest, Sentry's are considered to be a real POS; they're not even really considered 'safes' as per the proper use of the word, as they're not really, well, safe. They're fire-resistant boxes with cheap locks on them. They're really NOT designed to secure valuables from a half-determined attacker.


If you'd really like to learn a lot more about safes and what makes them good or not, check out these threads and other links (all of these threads are in the public section so you won't have a problem reading them):

http://home.howstuffworks.com/safecracking.htm

http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?t=10335&highlight=

http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?t=11226&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=underwriters&start=0


http://www.crypto.com/papers/safelocks.pdf (this is an EXCELLENT paper, as public domain stuff goes anyway, on how exactly safecracking is done, especially if you want to know how it's done through manipulation aka 'by touch')

[HeadHunterCEO]

thats not a safe its a fire box.

call sentry with the serial number and they may mail you keys

as for the combo reset i am not sure

normally i just cut those open with a 2 1/8 hole saw

they aren't worth being nice too

[kodierer]

http://www.crypto.com/papers/safelocks.pdf (this is an EXCELLENT paper, as public domain stuff goes anyway, on how exactly safecracking is done, especially if you want to know how it's done through manipulation aka 'by touch')

Yes, that is an excellent paper.

You should have seen if you could put the safe back together after dismanteling it. My guess is a little different than shrubs. I thought that the tubular lock would have been used to change the combo, but thats just a guess as I'm not much of a safe buff. However calling Sentry would have been essential in getting information about the safe. Like Shrub mentioned

[Shrub]

I could be wrong but i think the tubular lock would be a additional lock or an over ride, ive not heard of one being for the code change but again i dont do safes either yet,

[HeadHunterCEO]

the tubular lock throws the bolts
the combo retracts a solenoid that interferes with the bolts

both are needed .

[raimundo]

I totally believe that people throw out sentry fire boxes, I found one twice that size this summer, I wasn't interested, and it was in the alley behind an apartment building, it was the sort of thing that the trash dumpster company discourages sending to the garbage burner, so it sat there for a few months, I haven't been by there recently, but maybe I should go and look with a big rubber hammer to test it these strong boxes with sheetmetal and some sort of heat insulation are not safes, they may not even be rated fireboxes, they are cheap consumer junk, the kryptonite locks of document storage. suitable for your little sister diary.

[Legion303]

suitable for your little sister diary. :?

I've seen my little sister's myspace page, so believe me when I tell you her diary needs to be kept under armed guard at Ft. Knox. :P

-steve

[kodierer]

suitable for your little sister diary.

I've seen my little sister's myspace page, so believe me when I tell you her diary needs to be kept under armed guard at Ft. Knox.

-steve

Can I meet your sister and teach her to rake?
jk

[globallockytoo]

suitable for your little sister diary.

I've seen my little sister's myspace page, so believe me when I tell you her diary needs to be kept under armed guard at Ft. Knox.

-steve

Can I meet your sister and teach her to rake?
jk

And while you're at it....bake cookies and clean the bathroom

[Shrub]

kodierer, you need a hoe for what your thinking about not a rake