Missing combo?! (safe door open? figure out combo yourself)

[Squelchtone]

I saw an advertisement on eBay the other day with a safe for sale. There was a picture with the door open and the door plate removed. Disks were plainly visible. Comments were: "Old safe for sale, no combination. You will have to hire a locksmith to set the combination".

This person obviously did not know that by looking at the disks you could simply dial the combo to align the gates with the fence.

[GWiens2001]

My son figured that out the first time he saw a safe with the door open and cover plate off. Let's face it... some people are just not mechanically inclined, some are.

Gordon

[ARF-GEF]

Let's face it... some people are just not mechanically inclined, some are.

+1 on that one

[fgarci03]

How... How do you figure out a combination.... Just by looking at the wheels...

And aligning them?

[Squelchtone]

How... How do you figure out a combination.... Just by looking at the wheels...

And aligning them?

Remember, just because it is obvious to us hobby safe guys, doesn't mean someone from the public will know what to do when they open the back door cover on their safe. Let's be helpful and keep posts on task. This new area is for the public to ask questions, not for all of us to hang out and shoot the breeze.

Perhaps someone needs to write a post with some photos or maybe even a youtube video demonstrating this process (of dialing the dial and watching the safe wheels in order to retrieve the combination), so folks who find this post in the future will be able to follow along and retrieve their combination if they are lucky enough to have the safe door open.

Thanks everyone!
Squelchtone

[Squelchtone]

Ooops! Sorry Squelchtone! You know me, it's not intencional!

Perhaps someone needs to write a post with some photos or maybe even a youtube video demonstrating this process (of dialing the dial and watching the safe wheels in order to retrieve the combination), so folks who find this post in the future will be able to follow along and retrieve their combination if they are lucky enough to have the safe door open.

GREAT idea!
I'll try to do that tomorrow if I find the time!

[ARF-GEF]

Reason: minor edit, move along, nothing to see here.

LOL

I think it's the same as with every special area. Thing which are obvious for the initiated are not necessarily so for those who do not know(/do not care). I mean I know a guy here who is a car mechanic and there is a lot of thing which are obvious to him but totally mysterious for me
I'm sure every person has something which he knows better than I do.

[GWiens2001]

Sometimes even car mechanics get mystified by things they see. Owner of this car works for a circus. When it was running very rough at idle, a 'friend' of theirs at the circus 'fixed' it. But the check engine light would not go out. It was brought to me yesterday. Current code for EGR insufficient flow.

Pulled out the EGR valve, expecting to see soot blocking it and the passages.



Turned the valve over...



The valve was sticking open, so they made a gasket with no holes from an aluminum can (Red Bull, in this case). Think that could cause 'insufficient flow' ?

Gordon

[fgarci03]

Haha very cool!

Here the EGR valve gives lots of trouble to Smart Car owners.
We just remove it, put a resistor in there and delete in from the ECU. No more trouble

[phrygianradar]

Had it been a beer can, I would have laughed... Red Bull can gets a smile. Still funny, but not as.

[LockDocWa]

[Hachronn]

Sometimes even car mechanics get mystified by things they see. Owner of this car works for a circus. When it was running very rough at idle, a 'friend' of theirs at the circus 'fixed' it. But the check engine light would not go out. It was brought to me yesterday. Current code for EGR insufficient flow.

Pulled out the EGR valve, expecting to see soot blocking it and the passages.

Turned the valve over...

The valve was sticking open, so they made a gasket with no holes from an aluminum can (Red Bull, in this case). Think that could cause 'insufficient flow' ?

Gordon

Forgive me for continuing off topic, but we do see some crazy things...

I do smog inspections at a "Test Only" shop (No repairs, just the inspection/test and and certification). We see that sort of thing all the time. I recently had a Honda Civic return for a retest after it failed the timing portion of the inspection because of excessively high idle RPM. The customer's mechanic "solved" the problem by shoving a large ball bearing into the PCV hose.



When the vehicle failed again, the customer called his "mechanic" and handed me his cell phone so that I could explain the problem. The "mechanic", believing that he still had the customer on the line, launched into a rant that included the phrase, "I'm sorry, but these jerks won't work with us...".

[Hachronn]

Had it been a beer can, I would have laughed... Red Bull can gets a smile. Still funny, but not as.

I think that Red Bull is just a sign of the times. We used to see Pepsi or Coke a lot (Depending on the Vending machine in the shop), but these days we see Red Bull and Monster.

[Squelchtone]

Guys, I would like this sub forum and the posts in it to serve as a collection of answers to commonly asked questions from the public. I want those answers/tutorials to be easy to read and on point, not a thread of general banter that someone trying to fix a lock or safe has to weed through.

I'd rather not have to moderate this area, and I already thought of assigning some moderators to be the only ones who can answer the public's questions in order to keep the threads on task, but a lot of people here have lots of lock experience so I don't want to limit the quality and quantity of answers, but I must ask that you please only reply if you are answering the OPs question, not to comment on someone else's reply unless it's going to help the OP, and certainly limit the number of "cool lock bro" or "LOLOLOLOL that's what she said" replies.

Thanks for helping me keep the forum clean,
Squelchtone

[Drahcir]

Hey it's my first post here and I hate to bump an old thread but I recently acquired an old diebold safe that is already open and since I have no prior knowledge on anything lock related, I'd like some guidance if at all possible.

I pulled the plate off the inner door, then the smaller plate to the actual mechanism. I've watched a few videos where some famous safe picker unlocked a safe and then gave a simple explanation how it worked. Then I found another video of a guy who half explained how to do it, then said, well, I could o into more detail since it was confusing, but I won't!

I have no idea if it's 3 or 4 numbers, or the secuence, left, right, left, right, etc.

There appear to be 6 brass plates, with two plates turning per number, so I assume its a 3 number safe.

There are numbers stamped within the concrete on the safe and I believe these are the day/month/year of mfg being 5/18/38

Any help is appreciated thanks.