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Or even better buy a mini-rig.

A few days ago, an new customer inquired about a combination change on a vault door...
I asked the few mandatory questions...Just to know what I was going to be dealing with.
A few minutes later, I knew that their vault was a Securifort, class 2, burglary and fire resistant.
The gentleman on the phone was well educated on the type of vault and the kind of lock he had installed on that door.
he gave me more details than I cared to know and from what he said, I was pretty sure he had an 8500 series S and G lock.
(The 8500 lock is a 3 wheel combination with a manipulation proof fence. Once the combo is dialed, the dial must be pressed in at 0 to release the fence lever.)
"Ok", I said, "I'll be there later this morning".
Upon my arrival, I found out that they are a pharmaceutical distributor and they use the vault to store narcotics.
The combination change went well but they raised an issue regarding the dial and ring. Health Canada did not approve of it.
Health Canada had requested that they have a spy-proof dial and dial ring. The thing is, they already had one. It was, in fact a
Sargent and Greenleaf spy-proof dial and ring. Funny how Health Canada was ok with it every year since the facility was built in 2006, but now, in 2014, they are no longer satisfied with the dial...? Weird.
I did some research, looked in catalogs and inquired with distributors to find some kind of shield. None were available for this dial.
I've seen shields in some banks that they had made with cardboard and magnets, but Health Canada was not going to approve a cardboard and magnet rig.
I had to come up with something better and here is what I fabricated.

http://s1155.photobucket.com/user/Altas ... f%20shield

This is only a prototype, to show my client. He is happy with it, and hopefully, Health Canada will be too. Now waiting to hear from them to know if it was approved.
I painted it black to match their vault door but I left the inside gray primer to allow more light to reflect so that it's not too dark to see the numbers.
It also works with Lagard dials and the Asian knock offs.

M.

Wow, nice work! That's a great solution

Altashot, you do good work and all, and I don't want to nitpick or anything, but...where is the retinal scanner?

Interesting solution. I wonder just how Health Canada thinks spy-proof stock dials and rings can get I know there are some Kromer locks with completely enclosed dials that only have a small plastic window that you can see a few numbers through but getting one would be quite the pain.

There is always the X-07/X-09 where the numbers can only be read from the top, Riy.

Altashot - that is a nice design. Simple (in theory), yet well made. Always look forward to your posts.

Gordon

Well, a new X-09 runs around $1,000+ which is a really expensive solution to their problem

Beautiful work Alta! Love the looks of it.
I'm sure the final one will look even nicer.

Beautiful work Alta...that's a great solution. You've got some amazing skills! Thanks for sharing your work with us.

-Mike

Thanks Guys for the nice comments.
They had to have it done by the 24th of August, so I should hear from them soon.
I remember some dial covers that fit some top read and some were also made for front read dials. The Banks were using them. Can't remember who made them
and couldn't find any. I remember how hard they were to dial too. With such a small window, it was impossible to watch the numbers whiz by the index so it was
really easy to pass them, people hated those covers and most of them went "missing", I never see them anymore.

Retina scanners! LOL!
Come on
I'm a serious locksmith and safe tech, I believe that mechanical locks are still the first line of defense and they are here to stay...And so am I!
I leave these electronic gadgets and gizmos to the IT or alarm guys, I don't have time to mess with them thingnies when I have work to do.

M.

I know, I know, it's been a loooong time...

Update. Health Canada did approve the shield I made, so,
the pharmaceutical distributor bought the prototype.
Done deal!


Now, let me tell you about
a vault lock out.

I got a call from another locksmith, he was at the bank, trying to get that door opened.
He said: "M, I've got a problem. Both combs are spun off but the handle wont turn."
I asked if the timelock maybe was over wound, he said: "Y'know, I put my lock amp on the door but I
can't hear the timelock at all...I think a re-locker is fired..."
Oh sh*t! I hate fired re-lockers, especially on a Bank Vault Door...

The Bank did not want the door drilled, they preferred having the wall cored.
Their thinking was that they don't want the door damaged and repaired
because that could be visible, and coring the wall from and adjacent room,
one that the public can't access, would not.

We made arrangements and I was to drive out there the next day.

Coring concrete is dirty work so I sub-contracted professional concrete cutters.
Upon my arrival, the cutters were at it.


I looked at the door, it's a Chubb, both combs are spun off but the handle won't turn...



I knew the coring would take a while and it was just about lunch time, so, I went the the little eatery next door
and had lunch. By the time I got back there, the coring was done.
This is what I was left with. An 18" hole through the 16" thick wall.

All I had to do was to break through the dry wall...Or so I though.

It turned out that the hole was bored half behind a cupboard and half behind a safe...
Damn! this was going to be the hole I'd have to crawl through.
I don't know who told the concrete cutting guys to drill there but, too late now, that's where the hole is.
So, I broke through the drywall and the plywood cupboard with a variety of tools and was able to crawl in.
I had to empty all my pokets, remove my suspenders and hope I wouldn't lose my pants while squeezing in.
I'm not what you would call a BIG guy; 5-10", 200 lbs, but years of indulging in my favorite drink
created what we call....A beer belly.
I knew I had to stay calm squeezing through there because if I was to start panicking while I'm in there, I'd most definitely get stuck.
I kept my cool.
It was a pretty tight squeeze, my back against the flat and my rounded gut towards the rounded hole, my pants did come down a bit as I sucked in my gut but it
gave my waist a little more room.
Finally, I was in.

I can't believe I fit through that hole. It sure made a mess inside the vault too.

Next, I turned towards the locked door, the bolts are all out so, indeed, it's locked.

I had to remove the heat sensor as to not damage it before I could open the back panel.

Once I opened the back panel, this is what I saw.
The timelock is at 0, so, unlocked...

...both locks are unlocked and the re-locker is indeed fired.
It's the part with a rod attached to it towards the bottom right.
The other half of the rod is laying at the bottom of the door.

Close up of the re-locker in the locked position.

This is the same re-locker in the unlocked or normal position.

The rod coming off the re-locker attaches to a pivot point on the right and the other rod that was at the bottom of
the door is on the left...

The rod to the left, after passing behind both lock bolts, hooks here.

Here's a bigger picture so you can see how the rods work.

You now can see that if one lock bolt gets punched off how the top rod gets knocked off the hook,
thus releasing tension on the pivot which in turns release the bottom rod to which the re-locked is attached
thus firing it.
Here is the whole thing in their normal or un-fired position.

Here was the problem. A stretched spring. The re-locked spring was too weak to keep
the tension high enough to hold the top rod on it's hook. Closing the door a little too
hard probably release the top rod from the hook and.....Fired the re-locker.
Here's the picture of the stretched out spring versus the one I installed.

And that was it, the door was fixed...But wait, there is still a hole in the vault's wall...
I cut a round plug of plywood to close the inside end of the hole, drilled hole in the concrete to
attach pieces of rebars...

...And partially covered the outside of the hole.

In the garbage can, is a fast set concrete that I mixed and shoveled in the hole.

Every now and then, I hit the particle board with a hammer to settle the concrete and remove air bubbles.
Once full, I put another board to fully cover the hole.

Now all that was left to do was to fix the drywall, which the Bank was going to look after.
We were done.

I say we because the local locksmith, the one that called me, stayed with me all day and help
though-out the entire thing. really nice guy.
He gave me "a tour" of his service vehicle. I thought it was pretty cool.

An old ambulance...Pretty cool set-up in there!

Hope you enjoyed!

M.

Awesome!
This is my favorite KP thread.

Whoa, dude.
That is one incredible post.
Seriously neat.

I love looking at the lockworks in safe doors.

That's quite a job and lucky the hole missed the small safe by "just enough".

Thanks for sharing

That is very, very cool. I love safe/vault stuff . Thanks for sharing!
Kinda scary how easy it was to drill through the vault wall though ... Maybe they should get that looked at!