Need Help on Old P.O locks

[vlm9517]

Hello I am a newbie on here and Have been an USPS employee for 5 years. I just started at a post office with bullseye dual dials just like this .
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Walnut-Post-Off ... 566ed7a1fd


At the Post office there is probably 100 of these still installed on boxes and are not being used because 1. they need some tlc. 2. nobody knows how to open them. 3. nobody wants to deal with them. Well I want to get them working again. They are very neat looking.

Ok here is the question. I found a book with some combinations and also matching the box number so I know I am trying the correct box. How on those locks would c1 - g2 work? Is there a certain way the dial needs to be turned. I tried 1st dial to c and second dial on g... nope didnt open. Or I found one like h2-e2? I need serious help to get these amazing old locks working. Any help is appreciated, Thanks

[Squelchtone]

Hi,

It sounds like a fun projects but you can probably appreciate, especially as a USPS employee that just like your organization, we take customer security pretty seriously as well and some containers we just do not discuss at length in order to protect the public trust. This will include things like vending machines, utility meters, PO Boxes using key or combination, and any other locks that guard money or product. Just like we wouldn't talk about the Arrow keys here or post photos of them, the same applies for PO Boxes, even these old ones, because I'm sure some ZIP code out there at some post office still uses them.

Someone here who has one of those old doors in their collection may give you instructions, but to go into any greater detail on cracking combinations would be against the spirit of what we do, and we would then recommend you contacting experts within the USPS to help you.

One of my first CAD projects back in school was drawing one of these mechanisms, so I vaguely remember how the wheels had a cut out in them for each dial and how a stump fit into them. There's a little button on the hinge side which would automatically scramble the wheels when one closed the door and the button pressed against the frame. I always thought that was a nice feature.

Start dialing one door without the use of that book, there are only so many combinations.
Squelchtone

[vlm9517]

Thank You for your response. Yesterday at work maintenance was at the building for other reason besides the locks. I asked him to look at a couple locks and it was so easy. c2-k2 for example. each letter has 3 notches on dial. simply line up the c move it to second notch behind c and next dial line up second notch behind k. bingo. A lot of doors havent been used for years and are very hard to open. I will get them going with some TLC..