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Posted: 4/21/2022 10:27:44 PM EDT
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[#1]
Give Bonafide Safe and Lock a call. They are located in Brookfield.
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[#2]
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[#3]
Quoted: Thanks, what's your connection? Did they help you get into an old safe? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Give Bonafide Safe and Lock a call. They are located in Brookfield. Thanks, what's your connection? Did they help you get into an old safe? I've never used them but they sponsor some local race cars and go karts. |
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[#6]
Quoted: Give Bonafide Safe and Lock a call. They are located in Brookfield. View Quote This ? Mike the owner is a friend of mine and I have referred him to many of my clients over years an no one has told me they had any problem. now that you mention it, I think he still owes me $40 for a Holley 650 double pumper carburetor from 1979. |
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[#8]
Don't let this be a safe thread... We want to know what's inside of it now
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[#9]
I called Bonafide Safe & Lock this morning on my break and described the safe/circumstances. He said it is often not worth the cost of drilling/breaking into it. (With the minimum price he gave I would tend to agree.) I've sent him an email with photos, etc., for further analysis. Earliest he'll see that email is Monday morning... so it looks like we have a safe thread.
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[#10]
Quoted: I called Bonafide Safe & Lock this morning on my break and described the safe/circumstances. He said it is often not worth the cost of drilling/breaking into it. (With the minimum price he gave I would tend to agree.) I've sent him an email with photos, etc., for further analysis. Earliest he'll see that email is Monday morning... so it looks like we have a safe thread. View Quote I've been a "safe-smith" for 35 years... I agree with his assessment 100%. An old Victor safe is made with 'ancient' technology. It has no real value other than a curio. The possibility that there's something of value inside is very remote. The only thing of real value on it is lock parts, for someone who has one identical to that they drilled open and are now trying to repair it. Those parts haven't been made for about 75-100 years, and there are no substitute locks to retrofit. Just for the hell of it, see if you can get a few pictures of the lock and the handle on the door. |
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[#11]
Quoted: I got a paperclip....lol View Quote Paper clips, rubber bands, pencils... and a will from someone who died in 1937 is what I found in the last one like that. Otoh... there was that wallsafe that I opened back in 2011, for a guy who found it in a closet of an estate sale house.... that had 200 1-oz gold Kruegerands inside! |
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[#12]
Quoted: I've been a "safe-smith" for 35 years... I agree with his assessment 100%. An old Victor safe is made with 'ancient' technology. It has no real value other than a curio. The possibility that there's something of value inside is very remote. The only thing of real value on it is lock parts, for someone who has one identical to that they drilled open and are now trying to repair it. Those parts haven't been made for about 75-100 years, and there are no substitute locks to retrofit. Just for the hell of it, see if you can get a few pictures of the lock and the handle on the door. View Quote @rfb45colt If you remember the advice you gave me about a month ago... I couldn't make it happen. I ended up cutting the top of the safe off with my Sawzall because a new safe is cheaper than having someone come out and get it open and fix it. So I got it open, I'm going to find a new lock and just weld the top back on this one. Sweet, 2 safes Also, Arfcom has a live video channel on Discord and I streamed it for a couple of guys. |
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[#15]
Quoted: The funny thing is... there is a 6-digit number stamped into the dial. Could have been an old combination... could be the current combination and the mechanism is broken. Could be an added detail to throw potential burglars off. Sorry for the huge pics. (Edited for clarity.) http://i.imgur.com/JgXVFPF.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/WTzKUf2.jpg View Quote Typical set up on an early 20th century Victor. In my 35 years, I think I may have drilled 2 or 3 of those. That number on the dial is either a patent number or a serial number. No way is it the combination, unless it was done by an owner at some point. And a safe that old has probably had the combo changed dozens of times anyway. "Drilling" a safe can mean different things. Some drillings are destructive, especially on electronic locks. You have to "destroy" a part of the lock on those, there's no decoding the combo to open it. On manual dial locks that are functional but no known combo, you can open them with destructive drilling too, but it must be fairly accurate and precise or you make things worse... sometimes MUCH worse. More commonly you're just drilling a single 1/4" or 5/16" hole directly into the lock body through the door, to enable sight reading and alignment of the tumblers with a borescope. Size of whole is determined by the borescope size. Video borescopes have made this process much easier today than it was 15 years ago. The one I have now is 5.5mm and has dual cameras, one that looks straight ahead, and another that looks 90 degrees to the side. That makes it easier, as it can see around corners. I'll look through my safe opening logbooks and see where that would need to be drilled. I don't recall the exact spot offhand. |
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[#16]
Quoted: Typical set up on an early 20th century Victor. In my 35 years, I think I may have drilled 2 or 3 of those. That number on the dial is either a patent number or a serial number. No way is it the combination, unless it was done by an owner at some point. And a safe that old has probably had the combo changed dozens of times anyway. "Drilling" a safe can mean different things. Some drillings are destructive, especially on electronic locks. You have to "destroy" a part of the lock on those, there's no decoding the combo to open it. On manual dial locks that are functional but no known combo, you can open them with destructive drilling too, but it must be fairly accurate and precise or you make things worse... sometimes MUCH worse. More commonly you're just drilling a single 1/4" or 5/16" hole directly into the lock body through the door, to enable sight reading and alignment of the tumblers with a borescope. Size of whole is determined by the borescope size. Video borescopes have made this process much easier today than it was 15 years ago. The one I have now has dual cameras, one that looks straight ahead, and another that looks 90 degrees to the side. That makes it easier, as it can see around corners. I'll look through my safe opening logbooks and see where that would need to be drilled. I don't recall the exact spot offhand. View Quote How about using a plasma torch to demo it? Advisable? Bad idea? |
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[#17]
Quoted: How about using a plasma torch to demo it? Advisable? Bad idea? View Quote There's an outer and inner layer of steel with concrete in between. If you want to get in using a caveman method, just cut a hole in the door with a grinder with cut off wheel, between the lock and the opening edge of the door, closer to the lock. 8" x 8" should do. You'll have to chisel away the concrete after cutting away the outer steel skin. Then look inside for the lock bolt and hammer it out of the way or unbolt the lock from the door. WORD OF CAUTION: There won't be any relockers, but if you see any glass tubes behind the lock, they contain CS gas, so don't break one!!! Older safes were sometimes equipped with tear gas booby traps. If the liquid inside contacts the air, run. I've done this numerous times when people wanted the contents out of a malfunctioning safe and they didn't want to save the safe, and save the time and expense of drilling to diagnose and open a broken lock, that likely cant be repaired anyway because its obsolete. Now we have a safe thread!!! |
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[#19]
Quoted: There's an outer and inner layer of steel with concrete in between. If you want to get in using a caveman method, just cut a hole in the door with a grinder with cut off wheel, between the lock and the opening edge of the door, closer to the lock. 8" x 8" should do. You'll have to chisel away the concrete after cutting away the outer steel skin. Then look inside for the lock bolt and hammer it out of the way or unbolt the lock from the door. WORD OF CAUTION: There won't be any relockers, but if you see any glass tubes behind the lock, they contain CS gas, so don't break one!!! Older safes were sometimes equipped with tear gas booby traps. If the liquid inside contacts the air, run. I've done this numerous times when people wanted the contents out of a malfunctioning safe and they didn't want to save the safe, and save the time and expense of drilling to diagnose and open a broken lock, that likely cant be repaired anyway because its obsolete. Now we have a safe thread!!! View Quote Hmmm.. should we be concerned about asbestos fibers in the concrete? |
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[#20]
Quoted: Hmmm.. should we be concerned about asbestos fibers in the concrete? View Quote I've never heard of asbestos being used in old safe linings. Its usually a specialized concrete (or drywall-type boards) with a high moisture content used on more modern safes. The heat of the fire "cooks" that moisture into steam, which gets the contents wet, significantly raising its combustion point. A safe with that type is only good for one fire. After that the fire protection is depleted. However, a safe this old is just plain (thick) concrete, and it surprised me at how well it worked as old as it was and as hot as that fire was. |
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[#21]
Quoted: I called Bonafide Safe & Lock this morning on my break and described the safe/circumstances. He said it is often not worth the cost of drilling/breaking into it. (With the minimum price he gave I would tend to agree.) I've sent him an email with photos, etc., for further analysis. Earliest he'll see that email is Monday morning... so it looks like we have a safe thread. View Quote Mike from Bonafide emailed me back and I plan to call him tomorrow morning on my break. Lol, maybe he's following this thread. |
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[#22]
Earlier I said after cutting a hole in the door, hammer the lock bolt out of the way. That's what I did on that safe in my pictures (I actually punched the handle cam away from the lock bolt to clear it, then pried the bolt works open by turning that cam with a long screwdriver). But that safe had a handle separate from the lock. It's probably been 20 years since I last worked on an old Victor, I don't see a lot of those up north, and I don't recall exactly how the door bolts connect to the lock. That lock has the bolt handle integral with the lock, so things are a little different on that set up. I'll look through my old pictures, see what I have (Polaroids...remember those? ).
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[#23]
I spoke with Bonafide on the phone today and he strongly discouraged me from brute-force opening the safe due to there possibly being CS gas. I did find an archived historic brochure about victor safes (link) and a briefing about tear gas in safes from the CDC (link).
I'll need to get the dimensions of the safe and dig a little deeper to see if there is a real concern about tear gas, etc. |
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[#24]
Quoted: Earlier I said after cutting a hole in the door, hammer the lock bolt out of the way. That's what I did on that safe in my pictures (I actually punched the handle cam away from the lock bolt to clear it, then pried the bolt works open by turning that cam with a long screwdriver). But that safe had a handle separate from the lock. It's probably been 20 years since I last worked on an old Victor, I don't see a lot of those up north, and I don't recall exactly how the door bolts connect to the lock. That lock has the bolt handle integral with the lock, so things are a little different on that set up. I'll look through my old pictures, see what I have (Polaroids...remember those? ). View Quote Anything you dig up on your experience with Victor safes will be greatly appreciated! |
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[#25]
Quoted: Anything you dig up on your experience with Victor safes will be greatly appreciated! View Quote I'm turkey hunting this week, I'll check my notes when I'm done. As far as the tear gas goes, there's no rhyme or reason as to which safes have it. It was an option from the factory on some brands, a dealer installed option on others. It was never standard equipment, afaik. Being used in a bank or jewelry store seems to raise the odds. I've encountered it about 10 times in 35 years. Luckily I never broke one. My wife worked in an Ace Hardware store that had 2 Mosler safes that had it on both, and they weren't all that old. They were not the "steel & concrete sandwich" type. Afaik, they still use one of those safes (but they removed the gas when I told them what it was, as like most people, they had no clue). I found another one in the office of a summer camp for kids. The Forest County clerk's office had one on a walk in vault door in the courthouse building. I was in there getting paid for rekeying some locks and the door was open so I noticed it, and told them what it was. They freaked out. |
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[#26]
If you are not looking to save the safe and just want to find out what is in it, could you drill a hole (holes) in the back and rent an inspection camera from a Rent-A-Center to look inside?
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[#27]
Quoted: I'm turkey hunting this week, I'll check my notes when I'm done. As far as the tear gas goes, there's no rhyme or reason as to which safes have it. It was an option from the factory on some brands, a dealer installed option on others. It was never standard equipment, afaik. Being used in a bank or jewelry store seems to raise the odds. I've encountered it about 10 times in 35 years. Luckily I never broke one. My wife worked in an Ace Hardware store that had 2 Mosler safes that had it on both, and they weren't all that old. They were not the "steel & concrete sandwich" type. Afaik, they still use one of those safes (but they removed the gas when I told them what it was, as like most people, they had no clue). I found another one in the office of a summer camp for kids. The Forest County clerk's office had one on a walk in vault door in the courthouse building. I was in there getting paid for rekeying some locks and the door was open so I noticed it, and told them what it was. They freaked out. View Quote Thanks man, appreciate it. Enjoy turkey hunting and please post pics here if you bag something. I can be patient... After all what's a safe thread without the long wait. |
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[#28]
Quoted: If you are not looking to save the safe and just want to find out what is in it, could you drill a hole (holes) in the back and rent an inspection camera from a Rent-A-Center to look inside? View Quote I have thought about sourcing a small electronic endoscope for just that purpose. [Edited for spelling] |
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[#29]
Quoted: I have thought about sourcing a small electronic endoscope for just that purpose. [Edited for spelling] View Quote They're really cheap. Just make sure you get a 5mm one so you can use it for barrel inspections on all your firearms when you're done with the safe. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PBF6DX5?tag=arfcom00-20 Just an example of what's out there. If it doesn't work, you can always return it. |
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[#30]
I couldn't find any pictures of the door's interior or the bolt works. I know i had some digital's, taken with my Motorola Razor, from about 20 years ago. I lost a bunch of pictures when a prior PC crashed and the hard drive self destructed. They might've been part of that.
But nevertheless, I have a dialing sequence with try-out numbers for you to try, it may work if combo is original... worked for me once. The proper dialing sequence is: 1) Left until the first number (72) is under the index the 4th time. 2) Right until the second number (39) is under the index the 3rd time. 3) Left until the third number (68) is under the index the 2nd time. 4) Right to dial stops and it's open. "Drop in" point is 72. Oscilate the dial back and forth around 72 a few times in step #4, then try to turn it further right. If it goes around to zero again, it's not open. If those numbers above don't work, add 9 to each number (81-48-77) and try again. If still no luck, add 9 more (90-57-86). Do this sequence a total of 10 times, each time adding 9, until you're back where you started. If the above doesn't work, then the next best option is to drill a hole into the lock itself, insert a video borescope, and visually line up the tumbers, using the above dial sequence 4 times -3 times -2 times etc. I have the drill points, I'll send them in a PM. But if you decide to try drilling to sight read tumblers into alignment, spend a little time on Youtube watching and learning how a safe combo lock works. Otherwise you can drill in the perfect spot and not know what you're looking at, or what to do next. If you plan to buy a video scope, I recommend 3.9mm Endosnake I've had several of the $20 Amazon scopes that didn't last very long. The Endosnake is worth the extra $40. |
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[#31]
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[#32]
For research purposes, for those interested:
https://youtu.be/BbrPWpq5i-g?t=203 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxj1RXW5080&ab_channel=LOCKMASTERSINC |
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[#33]
Quoted: @rfb45colt - Thanks, I've received your IMs. Hopefully we'll be able to take a crack at it sometime after this holiday weekend. Based on the outside dimensions, I believe this to be the No.3 Victor Fire-Proof Safe. It's only 500lbs. http://i.imgur.com/wgXfz4g.jpg http://i.imgur.com/iFsNGPBh.jpg View Quote Whether it's that exact model or not, you can be certain that it has multiple compartments inside. ALL safes of that era do, unless some previous owner removed them. Which makes drilling a single hole anywhere, to see what's inside, not feasible. |
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[#34]
Quoted: Whether it's that exact model or not, you can be certain that it has multiple compartments inside. ALL safes of that era do, unless some previous owner removed them. Which makes drilling a single hole anywhere, to see what's inside, not feasible. View Quote We'll be attempting to drill and scope the mechanism to open it. If that fails or we bungle it up out comes the angle grinder. |
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[#35]
Quoted: They're really cheap. Just make sure you get a 5mm one so you can use it for barrel inspections on all your firearms when you're done with the safe. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PBF6DX5?tag=arfcom00-20 Just an example of what's out there. If it doesn't work, you can always return it. View Quote Hey, this is great. I ordered one and it works. Hopefully will be able to attack the safe this weekend. |
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[#36]
Quoted: Hey, this is great. I ordered one and it works. Hopefully will be able to attack the safe this weekend. View Quote Helpful tip... Get some rigid tubing that your scope will fit inside of. I use some cut from an old aluminum arrow. This will help in keeping your camera lens clean. A small speck of dust on the lens will look like a boulder. The hole you drill will go through concrete so there will be a lot of dust in the hole that will blur your view when it gets on your camera lens. Insert the tubing first, then blow into it to blow the dust out of the tubing, then slide your camera in, inside the tube. A plastic straw works too in a pinch, but is usually too short. My Endosnake is small enough to fit into the larger size brake line. If you have a shop vac handy, suck the hole clean first, then use the tubing too. |
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[#37]
Just want to say I am enjoying this thread, and have learned a lot.
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[#38]
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[#39]
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[#40]
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[#41]
Quoted: Here's what it looks like when you drill and scope into the tumbler cavity: http://i.imgur.com/aJCw6eU.png?1 This was after we were able to discern the combination. View Quote But WTF is inside it? |
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[#42]
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[#43]
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[#45]
Quoted: Does that appear to be real gold? View Quote Appears to be plated. It's marked "SF" on the bottom. There is a similar chai on eBay (link). |
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