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I know, I know... "They cannot be manipulated". I may soon agree with that statement, but...
around here, aren't those the very words we love to hear?! The reason we never sleep?!

My latest fetish folks. The J.B Miller Keyless Lock Co. Started in 1888, the company
changed hands at least three times before dying out in the early 1980's. This 90+ year
run resulted in numerous models of these locks - all varying slightly in quality and design.
The mechanism in these (which I don't fully understand yet) both challenges & fascinates me.



I'm jumping the gun here and will likely fall flat on my face... but who cares!
I will be more than happy to admit defeat if and when that time comes.
But for now, I believe these can be manipulated through sound.
A big shout out to CPT1911 for the mic!!





Another fun surprise is that they may require as little as 3, or as many as 6 'movements' for a combo.
The Red Dot above is a 4-digit combo: 4611. The little fella pictured below has a 6-digit combo! 52456.



Both these locks have known combos and neither were legitimately manipulated.
I've spent some good hours with 'em though & I've heard some VERY subtle but possibly
noticeable differences in sound that could be enough to decipher and arrive at a working combo.



HERE'S MY DILEMMA & REQUEST FOR HELP

These two locks are hardly a fair test group. I need more! Not looking to purchase... just borrow.
Here's the deal: If you're willing to send them to me, I'll ship them back to you (hopefully w/ a combo)
If I'm UNABLE to retrieve a combo I will include $5 in your package to cover your initial shipping cost.

You could see how this might get costly though, lol. 5 people, each with 1 lock could potentially be $50+
Ideally I could deal with just 1 or 2 people that happen to have a few locks to make shipping worthwhile.
Nevertheless, I'm open to anyone that may be interested. Please feel free to PM me. Much appreciated.

There's a number of people over on the Antique Lock Forum that not only have a lot of these, but know a
great deal about them. Although I'm a member, I have zero posts - so the trust factor probably isn't there.
If any of you know someone there that may be interested in this, please feel free to have 'em contact me.

So some progress has been made in the last week. I'm eager to share my first couple truly legit openings!!
However, I sometimes like to include the frustrations, difficulties, tries & fails along the way: The journey!
Not always interesting, but it keeps it useful and real. So the story from the start begins with these two.
BIG shout out to you guys who jumped on my request for some test locks. You guys are great. Really
Thank you to Mike727, who sent me this pair (even though he already had working combinations for both).
Fortunately he gave me a heads up that the combo was on the side of each lock, lol. So I had my lovely
Alison open the package. She removed the stickers & stored them safely away. Hope I don't need em!



It was late in the evening so I got right work. The one on the left had some friction between the dial and lock body.
Not in a way that made the dial difficult to turn... but it created far too much audio interference for me to make
much since of anything. Reminded me of an angry walrus, lol. So I set it aside to focus on the other one.

This one was much better on my ears. I could very clearly hear the mechanism inside. But I gotta say....
in terms of actually recognizing a notable difference as I moved my way around... man, it's really faint!
Two hours passed by before I called it a night. I went to bed a little discouraged. But at the same time
I also felt challenged and excited. After all, if it was easy, I suppose it would have been done by now.

Bright and early the next morning and I'm back at it. I settle in for a session that turns out to be six hours.
It wasn't long before the band-aids came out so I could continue on, lol. This eventually prompted me to
experiment with what I could securely fasten to the dial. Though my initial motivator here was pain, I also
wondered if this would create some consistency in sound, and maybe help highlight those faint changes.
No luck. Anything connected to the dial simply absorbed the sound - leaving me with even less to go on.

Everything included... (manipulation time, mic charging, dial fasteners, making drawings, crunching #'s)...
I have an easy 12-14 hrs into this project at this point. And no open locks. I think it's time for a break. lol

During my well deserved break, 2 different ebay purchases were about to arrive. Little did I know these
packages would offer my first glimmer of hope that these locks (or at least some) CAN be manipulated.