Different lock, different dial, same result (S&G R6700)
Black chrome Liberty dial and the silver privacy dial used for the LaGard 3330.
This was my first time manipulating an S&G group 2 lock.
I began with AWL and looked for low spots every 10 increments. The graph showed identical lows at 20,30, and 40. After double checking I chose 20 as the lowest. The next step was leaving W1+W2 @ L20 while mapping out W3 in increments of 2.5. I was rewarded with an unmistakable gate signature at 68.
So far so good. I proceeded with W1@L20, W3@L68, and mapped out W2. The resulting graph was not as helpful this time around. My initial thought, while still graphing, was that 40-45 was looking good. But after finishing I noticed that 17-35 was just as low for both LCPs and RCPs. Here is where I went with my gut, looked at the points around 45 and ended up with R44.5 as a candidate for W2.
All that was left was to brute force W1 and hope my technique and intuition was correct. Going by increments of 2 I started at 0 and began working my way up. The longer this process goes on the more you question assumptions made in the previous steps. Fortunately, before exhausting all numbers, that always welcome clunk sounded and the lock was open to me.
L82-R44.5-L68. Further investigation with the back cover removed showed 83-43-69 to be better centered.
Final thoughts:
The LaGard 3330 is definitely a smoother lock than this one. Stopping a half increment short almost always resulted in skipping over the target when trying to break the friction. The internals sounded "drier" when spinning the dial meaning that picking up a wheel or skipping over the CPs produced harder clicks. Using a different dial took some adjustment also. I had to reevaluate what I defined as 1/4 and 1/8 increments because it didn't always seem obvious. This was most likely due to better clarity than with my previous dial.
On a positive note, using a dial with white ticks on a dark background that was not sloped inward for privacy resulted in much easier viewing. The silver dial used for the LaGard reflects the black tick marks in that little valley in an eye straining way under artificial lights. I'm guessing a dial with white on matte black is even better than the black chrome.
Overall, with a little skill and a little luck this manipulation worked out. All I need now is a change key for the lock and I can try again. Enough blah blah blah for now...
Thanks for stopping by!