Well my 30ish year old safes mechanical dial lock died. It has been getting harder and harder to get it to unlock and today I decided to take a look inside :). Everything looked clean and moved smooth the problem was with the "hammer" that moves over and engages the device that moves the locks bar. It acted like the spring that moved it had gotten to weak or it needed some lube. I put a drop of gun oil on it and wiggled it back and forth seemed to get better. So I tried it 10 - 15 times and each time the hammer would move less till the point it would
not engage again.


So a manual lock is 50 bucks cheaper than the electronic one. Is there a reason I should change it over to electrical . Both would be Laguard's same as the one that is in there.

its going to be from 300-400 for a new lock and getting it installed sure seems like a lot of cash for a 30 year old safe. its 32wide 30 deep and 6ft tall.

When I got my vault door it had a bad mechanical on it.  I replaced it with a push button S@G.  14 years has past with maybe three battery changes.  I wouldn't do it any different.  That being said I think it depends on how often you plan on accessing the safe.  We keep everything from guns to family pictures in the vault so Im in and out of it many times a day which make that electric lock the best choice for me because it is very fast.  If you go days without getting in that safe I don't see why a mechanical would be an issue.

How paranoid are you?  If you worry about EMP, stay away from electronic locks. OTOH,if you think you might need to get into it in the dark, without using a flashlight to illuminate the dial, the electronic lock might make good sense.

its only used to store non home defense weapons and stuff I don't need to get to everyday. I would say it gets opened 1 time a week at most and there are also times it goes a month without opening.


So I found a mechanical used one on ebay that matches mine how hard are they to swap out ? I guess the lock on there is trash so I cant hurt it by removing it and seeing is there a trick to getting the dial off the front ?

thanks

meh simple to remove I was being a wimp.

Now 3 days till a new unit gets here :) new was only 25 more

There's not much to them when you working on them from the inside out.

True that

I was very lucky mine failed while open and I was trying to figure out why it was taking multiple trys to open it.

On a side note I was telling my brother and he said you know what my floor safe is starting to do that same thing. I bet he does not fix it and will soon pay the price.

if you can wait, they are starting to put out a combination set. both mechanical and electronic.

but if you are just trying to save a buck then carry on.

but my guns feel naked without being locked inside there cozy home.