Friction fence lock variation
Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 9:52 pm
The junker HHM safe I picked up last week was just for parts, it didn't add to the fleet per se. I really don't need any more safes but the safe gods don't seem to see it that way. The wife drug me to her company picnic last Saturday. While in a discussion with a coworker of the wife, she said to me, "You work on old safes don't you?' "Yeah...?" , I replied. She went on to tell me her father had an old safe that he wanted to get rid of, it was free, he would even load it with his skid steer. FREE??? I'll take a dozen! It turned out to be a Cary safe, just a plain old square one slopped up with grey paint. door open, inside partitions missing, and combination inside.
After removing the rear door panel, I was pleased to find a friction fence lock. With only the name Cary on the dial I was not sure who made it. I wonder if it was made by Yale as the is a Y stamped on the wheel pack cover and a Y6 and RH cast into the removable cover on the lock. The wheel pack itself is the same as others I have seen.
With a little more searching I found that the patent date of Jan 1, 1907 has a patent assigned to an employee of Yale & Towne for the vertical moving bolt in the lock. It would seem the lock is a Yale.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US840269A/en
As I said, this lock has a removable cover which makes for excellent viewing of the inside workings. The friction fence is of the crimped assembly design like in the Yale and Mosler styles. In the locks I have seen the fence throws the bolt horizontally. In this lock the bolt is moved vertically. (hence, the patent) The bolt is made from laminated pieces of brass riveted together. An intricate piece that the fence fits into nicely.
Here are a couple videos. First shows the action of the friction fence, the vertical bolt, and how it blocks the door bolt action. The second one gives a view of the action going on inside the lock when dialing.
I'm not really sure what will become of this safe. For now it will get shuffled into the "someday" gathering of safes. There are others that are more important to get done than this one. But it was free!
After removing the rear door panel, I was pleased to find a friction fence lock. With only the name Cary on the dial I was not sure who made it. I wonder if it was made by Yale as the is a Y stamped on the wheel pack cover and a Y6 and RH cast into the removable cover on the lock. The wheel pack itself is the same as others I have seen.
With a little more searching I found that the patent date of Jan 1, 1907 has a patent assigned to an employee of Yale & Towne for the vertical moving bolt in the lock. It would seem the lock is a Yale.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US840269A/en
As I said, this lock has a removable cover which makes for excellent viewing of the inside workings. The friction fence is of the crimped assembly design like in the Yale and Mosler styles. In the locks I have seen the fence throws the bolt horizontally. In this lock the bolt is moved vertically. (hence, the patent) The bolt is made from laminated pieces of brass riveted together. An intricate piece that the fence fits into nicely.
Here are a couple videos. First shows the action of the friction fence, the vertical bolt, and how it blocks the door bolt action. The second one gives a view of the action going on inside the lock when dialing.
I'm not really sure what will become of this safe. For now it will get shuffled into the "someday" gathering of safes. There are others that are more important to get done than this one. But it was free!