Need help manipulating old Mosler...

[mrjaffe]

I'll start with I am a hobbyist and very junior at this sport...

I started playing around with lock picking 30 years ago and have enjoyed the challenge with some success. About 8 years ago I purchased an old Mosler safe from somebody who found it in a building they purchased. It was locked and they had no idea what the combination was. The price was right and I loaded up the 200# or so safe and started pouring myself into learning about lock manipulation. At some point I reached out to Dave McOmie who is pretty good with manipulation apparently and he was kind of enough to send pictures of a similar safe opened. He said it had a 3 wheel lock and could be manipulated with a little practice. I have not succeeded in opening the safe but am determined to before I leave this earth.

I've been reading forums and downloading every document I could find on the internet for years. I've made a run at graphing the wheels dozens of times. With AWL I see a pretty good change of 1/4 on either side for a range of 5 numbers. I've gotten this same result several times over the years. Where I'm struggling is to identify which wheel this number is on so I can intelligently proceed to finding another wheel's number. When I try high low testing and other techniques I seem to lose the gate I found with AWL. I tried setting 2 wheels at a time on the number I was testing but still don't see the gate clearly. I don't do this for a living so my touch on the dial may be my issue. I've changed from grabbing the center of the dial to pushing on the outer face of the dial where I feel like I have better control using a single finger. I also added a 5" piece of wire with a point on it to the dial and printed a paper circle with 1/4 number increments and taped it behind the wire pointer. This gives me much better detail on position. Even with this, the lock feels sloppy perhaps because it's worn.

Many of you out there appear to be where I would love to be with manipulation and I'm hoping someone will respond with something that will help get me unstuck.

Thanks in advance.

https://ibb.co/6vvNDXQ

full size image:
https://i.ibb.co/q00xmJ6/IMG-7965.jpg

[femurat]

I like the pointer you made. It surely helps getting more accurate readings.

If you find difficult doing high-low tests, you can try isolating a wheel. Park wheels 1 and 2 at the "gate" you found. Then map wheel 3 around right. It's quick and easy and may give you another gate.

Best case scenario, you have your old gate on wheel 1 or 2, and a new one on wheel 3. It should be easier to find out if the old gate is on 1 or 2, having a new gate on 3.

So - so scenario, you find a low area on wheel 3, usually 20 - 50 numbers wide, that could reduce your mapping area on the next steps.

Worst case scenario, it's a completely flat graph. If the latter is the case, you found out the gate was on wheel 3, so you can proceed with 1 and 2 around right, 3 at the confirmed gate.

Hope this makes sense, let us know how your journey proceeds.

Cheers

[mrjaffe]

Thank femurat for your quick response. I will give your suggestions a try and report back....

[mrjaffe]

The Old Mosler finally gave in and is now opened! This was my first safe opening and boy what a thrill. The key to my victory was discovering that the lock was a Yale friction fence which behaves differently the group 2 locks I had been practicing on the bench all these years.

[femurat]

Congratulations!
The thrill never goes away.

Cheers

[MartinHewitt]

Really well done! An early Christmas present.

[Squelchtone]

Congrats, nicely done!