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Hey all. I am new to the forums and have been browsing for a few days. I have picked up a lot of good info and have enjoyed reading about several topics. I thought I would give back and post a few things that I learned while working on this safe.

I was given a small Sentry fire safe a few weeks ago and had played with it a little, but didn't give it a serious run until yesterday. It is a combination safe with a tubular key lock. The tubular lock is not an override, but must be solved in addition to the combination. It is direct entry with three wheels. The fence would ride on wheels 1 and 2 and then there were false gates on wheel three (11 false, one real). I tried several times to map wheels 1 & 2 looking for possible gates, but never really found anything on this safe that jumped out. I tried pointers attached to the handle and then did the laser pointer thing (which is a GREAT idea). I think one thing that made the pointer setup difficult on this safe was that the handle is plastic and had some give to it. It was difficult to apply pressure to the handle without over-pressuring it and bending the handle which throws the readings off. After several hours of messing around, I had only come up with one number that showed any promise (and it didn't end up being a gate). I also checked the width of the false gates looking for a noticeable difference in size, but did not find anything.

I was starting to get frustrated (and kept thinking about the wonderful assortment of cut-off tools that were at my disposal), but went back and thought over my processes. Here is what I ended up doing. The third wheel really didn't matter since it was lower than the other two. It will be the last wheel solved and will be easy to solve once the other two gates are found. I would know when the fence is dropping into the first two gates, because the dial would bind when the fence dropped onto the false gates of wheel three. I also assumed from reading other posts that I probably was dealing with gates that were about 3 increments wide. With that in mind I decided to park wheel 1 (I started at 39) and then dial wheel 2 around in 2.5 increments checking to see if I happened to have the gates aligned (each time you check, you have to make sure that wheel three is positioned at a false gate). Once I worked my way around wheel 2 and failed, I went back and adjusted wheel 1 by three increments and then started dialing wheel 2 again. I got real lucky because wheel 1 was 42, so I hit it on the second series. When wheel 2 came around to 20, I could feel the fence drop onto the false gate. At this point it is just a matter of running around the 12 false gates and checking to see which one is real.

The other thing that you have to deal with is the tubular lock. I did not have a key, so I just pulled the lock out. I picked up a tip from another topic on the forum that there is a metal clip just under the plastic face on the door. If you pry the plastic up, you can reach under and pull the clip off and the lock slips out. There is a relocking device that you can push out of the way through that same hole after you solve the combination. I have picked and decoded my lock and will make a new key with my Blitz and tubular adapter.

The safe did have contents in it. That is always exciting. However, I got this safe from a local nursing home that I work for. It had been collecting dust in the corner of a maintenance shed for several years. Most of the contents were not real significant, but there were a couple of rings and an old family photo that I feel need to be returned to the families. Maybe I'll get some good press out of it - but more importantly, I'll be able to sleep at night!

I hope this helps someone out. I will try to post a picture when I figure out how to do that!

Saw the attachment button right as I hit submit on the first post!

i believe the sentry is an S3421. the method of unclipping the ace lock is known as the 'the DeWeese bypass' method.

Good job!
Sentry safes are good to begin with, challenging enough but easy enough to not
loose faith in yourself. In time you'll be able to manipulate more difficult ones.
Keep on spinnin' !

M.

Nice story and good to hear you cracked it

Great story, and welcome to the forums. That first opening is a thrill for sure, but really, they all are. Keep it up!

It's nice to have another spinner out there, especially one from Iowa

-Mike

Hadn't messed with this safe for a while and decided to put it back together and cut a key for it. I decoded the tubular lock and cut a couple keys for it on my Blitz. The clip for the tubular lock is a lot trickier to put back on than it is to take off, but I got it done. I figured that I might as well yank the cover off the inside of the door and take a look inside while I was at it. Thought someone here might enjoy seeing the inside. I have another safe to go work on next week. I was hoping it would be a "real" safe, but I have a feeling that it is going to be similar to this one. I will let you all know what I get into. I may be asking for help!

Thanks for the pics!

-M

Where does the key lock mount? Behind the white toothed wheel? Or is it in the black rectangle? Key lock interacts with the lever or the gear?

Here is a picture of the end of the shaft that comes off of the back of the lock. It blocks the end of the toothed bar that is attached to the bolts. If the tubular lock is removed, that rectangular plastic piece (spring loaded) slides up and blocks the boltwork. It is a relocker of sorts, but it is easily defeated by sliding a piece of wire in the hole from the front and pushing the relocker down after you have set your combo and before you throw the bolts.

Thanks.

Thanks for sharing all this. In a way, I wish I had started with Sentry safes rather than the high end safe locks, lol.
I still have trouble with them. Granted, I only have one to play with. It's an old 1250. The gates are much wider.
On mine I'm able to determine the true gate for the drive cam, then dial the other 2 wheels until it opens.
However, I think I'd have problems with the newer ones. So this was an interesting read for me.


Mine has a plastic handle too and I had similar issues.

I even set up a rig for consistent pulling pressure -
had the lazer shooting all the way across the room -
and worked the dial KNOWING the combination -

I still couldn't get any of the gates to jump out at me. lol


I've heard from more than one person that just 'dialing' these open is the way to go.
I like your train of thought here. Think I'll give it a try next time I play with my Sentry.

The first safe that I opened was an older Sentry. My wife and I help at a Christian School here in town and they had a safe that they kept some of the confidential student records in. There came a point a few years ago that nobody seemed to know what the combination was. I decided one night that I would take a whack at that thing and about 2 hours later I had it open. It was much "looser" than the safe in this post.The wheels were metal and the gates were wider. You got a lot of feedback through the dial and the handle. It had false gates on the drive wheel, but they threw another little trick in by putting a deeper false gate in directly across from the true gate. So you had the shallow false gates around the third wheel, then a false gate that was about half the depth of the true gate, and then the full depth true gate. As you are feeling your way around the third wheel you will drop into the deeper false gate before you hit the true gate. It makes you think that you have the combo set because you get significant movement out of the handle, but you still can't quite throw the bolt all the way to get the door open. This safe door had just enough wiggle in it that I could just flex the door over enough to get it to pop open. It did not have bolts all the way around the door, just a little flat plate that retracted from a slot in the door frame. If you are working on one of these and hit that false gate, just back out of it and continue to work around the third wheel. The last number is probably straight across the dial from where you hit the false gate.

As I was thinking about the safe in this post, it occurred to me that it would be extremely easy to open if you had a boroscope. The tubular lock could be popped out, retract the relocker, slip the scope in, line up the wheels, then transpose the wheels around to the correct spot to open the safe.

My Sentry has the false gate across from the true gate on the last wheel.
I was thinking the narrow deeper false gate was also used to accept the screw used to lock the wheels for transport.
Maybe also to confuse manipulators.?
The gate is much narrower. Easy to spot.
The true gate on my last wheel is very much wider.
I wrote out the Carl Black "Brute Force Table", after finding the third number.
It ended being the 66 combination. Have only done it once, so really can't say if its the way to go.

Edit: See "Remove Screw" sticker in first photo.

jharvvee - That is the same safe as the one that I am describing. I hadn't noticed the shipment screw sticker on the one that I worked on, but that makes sense. It would line right up in that slot. It does add a bit of confusion, so I guess that funky gate gets double duty.