1st Real World Manipulation–Rotational Conversion w/no flies
First post, and first attempted manipulation of an older S&G (don’t have the exact model number as I haven’t been able to match the dial to any pictures I could find).
It’s mounted in a wall safe I installed for my wife 20+ years ago. I did not retain the combo I gave her. She died a few months ago so I’ve been working on the lock in my spare time. Nothing inside is necessary but I’d like to get it open just to learn how to do it.
I think I’ve got the following combo through manipulation: x- L6.5-R90. I know I can brute force the last number and am getting ready to do so but don’t I have the rotation backwards? Doesn’t this lock need L-R-L and then R to open?
So assuming I discovered the numbers “backward” I wanted to convert the rotation. The problem is that the lock is so old and worn that I can’t feel the flies hitting. (there is also spindle play in 3 three dimension which I’m aware of. I’m maintaining the same pressure /feel with each spin and think I’ve accounted for the play when charting. The indications I get are fairy repeatable.)
The lock is so worn that when I was initially trying to count the wheels I could just barely feel the first fly hit and not any of the others. I eventually gave up and just said “probably 3 wheels” since I couldn’t really feel them to count.
So do I need to convert these numbers to get the box open? If so, how do I do that?
My current plan is to get the 3rd number by indicating and then reverse the numbers with a tolerance of 2-3 numbers on each side. So testing combos would be all variations of :
(1st#) Lx, Lx+1, Lx+2, Lx+3, Lx-1, Lx-2, Lx-3 - (2nd#) 4.5, R5.5, R6.5, R7.5, R8.5 – (3rd #) L89, L90, L91
What does anyone think about this?
(I’ve read most every post here, great info, learning a lot, just haven’t seen my problem addressed).