Serving Watertown and the North Country

Safe Opening

Safe opening can be a complex issue. Many questions are raised. What is the cause of the lock out? There can be many depending on what the safe is and what lock is in the safe. Depending on the cause will determine options on how to open the safe – some very simple and some very difficult. Below are some examples:

Lost combination: Mechanical dials – some safes can be opened by manipulating, I can no longer do manipulating because of health reasons. Manipulation can only be done on some safe locks as some safes are designed to prevent manipulation. Some locks have problems that prevent doing manipulation. We most often drill the safe to open and then repair the safe.

Have combination – dial type – but lock won’t open. There can be several causes here are just a few. Wrong dialing procedure, loose dial ring, loose spline key, mounting screws fell in the tumblers, broken tumblers, problem with bolt work that puts pressure on the lock bolt, tripped internal relock just to name a few.

Electronic safe lock – no longer works. Here are some causes: dead battery, using wrong battery, should use only Duracell or Energizer batteries, lock has lost it’s programming, keypad got wet, bad key pad, something gone wrong in the lock, using the wrong combination.

To open solutions are change batteries, replace keypad, drill to defeat lock.

Other problems: to cause a safe lock out includes bound up door / something jammed in the door, disconnected handle assembly, problem with bolt work / broken bolt work, tripped external re-locker, broken handle are just a few causes.

Safe drilling – is hard work as it requires special knowledge, requires a large library of information (we are also members of 2 international safe web sites with restricted membership), requires special drill bits, special equipment to put pressure on drill bit to make it cut and special optical viewing equipment that looks in the hole that also can look off to the side. Many safes have special barriers to stop drilling. Drilling can be a big challenge to get through the barrier that maybe made of hard steel, carbide chip included in the steel, ball bearing to name a few. Drilling a safe in most cases does not ruin the safe as the hole can be plugged.