My First Post - My First Manipulation - My Thanks!
My daughter's husband inherited a locked Sentry 1250 safe, when his father passed away, but no one knew the combination. My daughter and son-in-law are both currently teaching overseas at an international school but before leaving the country last year, knowing of my interest in all things mechanical and never one to shy away from a challenge, they left the safe with me hoping that I'd figure out how to get it open. Then, upon hearing this past weekend that my daughter and son-in-law would be coming home for a visit in July, the pressure was on me to get started on this project.
Before finding this great forum, I got a basic understanding of the Sentry 1250's lock mechanism here...
"Cracking a Sentry 1250 Safe If Door Is Already Open" by Lonestar1776... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqTtNNexQb0
... and how to construct a basic manipulation pointer setup as well as the probable identification of Wheel 3's gate (82), here...
"Sentry Safe Manipulation 3rd Wheel" (Parts 1, 2, & 3) by JM Lockpicking... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLS3b0G988U
...but unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in identifying the gates on Wheel 1 & 2 after watching JM Lockpicking's videos Part 2 & 3. this great site and only then began to better understand the manipulation process. With one third of the combination likely solved (Wheel 3), I resisted the temptation to go with brute force dialing; preferring instead to determine the entire combination by manipulation. While I now understand there are much better pointer setups, I nonetheless stuck with my basic (crude) pointer and ruler scale and started graphing in earnest. The safe with my rudimentary pointer setup is shown below...
My original AWR & AWL graph below...
... while very crude, seemed to indicate 7 & 8 possible gates (respectively), including the previously suspected 82 on wheel 3. I next focused on the 3 possible gates that were common to both the AWR & AWL graphs, and tried dialing in all the possible combinations of 15, 65, 82. But sadly, there was no joy to be found.
I then repeated the graphing process, trying to be as consistent as possible with the pressure I applied to the T-handle. which resulted in the following 2 graphs (Chart 1 & 2) which revealed essentially the same information I got in my original graph....
... and then tried dialing all the combinations of all the 17 possible gates indicated on either of the new AWL & AWR graph. And again, there was no joy!
I then did a little more searching and reading here on the KeyPicking forum and started learning about investigating individual wheels while parking any suspected gates on the other wheels. I also learned from Sentry's website that 1250 safes made prior to 2011 were L-R-L combinations whereas 1250s manufactured 2011 and later were R-L-R. Sentry also advised by phone that, based on the serial number, my 1250 safe was made in 1989. Armed with this new info, I graphed Charts 3 (2AR-3P@82) & Chart 4 (1AL-3P@82) as shown below...
... which gave the first real hint of something going on at 52.5 & 55. I started twirling all the possible numbers again and (voila!), I'm sure you all know how I felt when the safe opened with 5-55-82...
... and then immediately sent an email to my daughter and son-in-law, with a picture of the open safe, to advise that I was now "officially" a safe-cracker!
But the real pay-off though, for me, was in their individual emailed replies...
From my daughter... (rather matter of factually I might add!)... "Well there's another feather in your cap, Papa! Congratulations and Thank You!"
...and from my son-in-law... "Incredible! I'd like to hear how you did it. Was there much trial and error involved?"
I'm not quite sure yet what I should tell him!
I apologize for rambling on so about this but I do hope you all know how I'm feeling right now! I do welcome any comments anyone might have... especially as to what I could have (or should have) gleaned from any or all of my graphs that might have made this a bit easier!
ZT