WrightLine Databank Safe opening…
…a demonstration the industry standard tools available to safe techs…
Lock diagnostics are always performed on the container to determine if the lock is functional and if it will be likely that manipulation techniques will be successful. In this case, the lock is functional, there is no known combination and the lock does not rotate smoothly enough for manipulation.
Plan ‘A’ is to drill a hole into the lock for a good view of the wheels so they can be dialed into the correct position to open the lock.
The lock dial and outer ‘dial ring’ will need to be removed. The hole will be drilled in the area under the dial. A new lock will be installed after repairing the hole through the door for an invisible repair.
Here (above) a dial puller has been attached to the dial. The large bolts are turned to pull the dial off of the dial spindle.
Then, two screws are removed to remove the dail ring:
The dial spindle (above) is still attached to the cam inside the lock case and can be used to operate the lock.
This is a mini-rig tool, one of several drill rigs used by safecrackers. There are many templates available with pre-drilled holes to target various locations inside the lock. Template T1, hole ‘A’ will be used here to provide access for a 90 degree (right angle) borescope to an open area inside of this lock to see the wheel gates and the lever fence that needs to drop into the wheel gates for an opening. A safe lock is mounted in one of four possible positions inside the door. Knowledge of the interior of the door, including how the lock is mounted, is an important part of the research performed prior to an opening.
The Minirig mount has a quick release to allow the drill to be removed and reattached without affecting the drilling position and angle. The drill has to be removed periodically to check the hole for progress through barrier materials and finally to view the lock internals.
StrongArm Mini-rig, Diewalt drill motor (box around the Diewalt is part of a lever rig. Middle of lever attaches to the back of the drill and a chain at one end would wrap around the left door handle in this case. Pressure would be applied at the at the right end of the lever. There are also pneumatic rigs, and mag rigs to aid with penetration through hard plate materials. Special StrongArm Safecracker bits will get you through the toughest materials. GSA containers have hard plate material surrounding all six sides of the lock. This safe had only a soft steel threaded plate to hold the lock. This is a fire safe with no burglary protection. This safe might have been opened with a cordless drill and a flashlight!
Above left is a borescope. On the right, I am attaching the fiber optic light guide to the borescope from the light source sitting on top of the safe. A 90 degree mirror tube has been slid onto the borescope for a sideways view inside the lock.
A can of air is used to blow out the debris inside the drilled hole prior to inserting the borescope. Below the hole, I use a rare earth magnet to collect much of the steel during drilling. I use business cards or 3x5 index cards to protect the safe door paint and facilitate removing the magnet.
The drill, scope, drill process is repeated to monitor the drilling process and ensure that the lock is not damaged. Drilling too far can damage the lock or possibly trigger a relocking mechanism. This can complicate an opening.
Once inside the lock with a good view, an emergency dial can be attached to the dial spindle to make dialing the lock open and easier exercise. A pair of vice-grips will suffice. In the bottom picture, you can see that with this offset dial attached (with set-screws) the borescope hole is still accessible. The smaller hole is one of the two (vertical) threaded dial ring mounting holes (still usable).
Once the wheel gates are properly aligned, with the aid of the borescope, the dial is turned to the right to retract the lock bolt. Then the handle can be turned to retract the door bolts and swing the door open.
At the top, in the above picture, you can see a spring-mounted lever. This is an external relocking device. If the L shaped bracket (mounted with two screws to the back of the safe lock) holding the lever up is knocked out of position, that lever will drop down into the notch below it and re-lock the door by blocking the movement of the handle necessary to retract the door bolts and open the door. This is an additional security measure to defeat a specific burglary attempt where the dial is removed and the dial spindle is punched in and through the back of the lock. There is an additional relocker inside the lock itself to defeat this type of attack.
In the above picture, note the steel plate where the lock, re-locker and handle are mounted. This area is often protected with some form of hardened steel plate. It can range soft, mild or hard. There can be one, two or three welded or loose plates, it can contain free spinning steel bearings, carbide chips, discs of various materials or even irregular stainless steel chunks welded in back. Some pretty devious, nasty stuff sometimes. Of course, it can be protected with a glass plate that, when scratched, fire other types of relocking devices….
Holes repaired, new lock installed, new combination set….
There are many variations of this opening and many other opening methods for opening safes. This particular opening is is the most standard ‘by the book’ opening scenario you experience.