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Center Manufacturing 100 locks are mesh change. Some come with metal wheels/inner hubs while others come with plastic wheels/inner hubs. The two cannot be interchanged due to slight diameter differences. Turning dial to the left is Counter Clockwise.
viewtopic.php?f=100&t=12869&p=118567&hilit=Meilink#p118567

Thank you ALL for your responses! The safe is in an outbuilding so will get out there tomorrow and give it another try using your suggestions. I'll post again with the results sometime in the afternoon on Sunday. Regards, John.

You are absolutely right and I was wrong. I think I was a little tired when I posted that.

Hi all. The bottom line is that the safe isn't open yet.

The long story is that from L4R3L2, I turned the dial several times in one direction, set at 50. I reversed direction and yes, there was a slight amount of additional resistance each time I passed 50 for the first three turns. So from mdc5150, this is a 3 wheel key change lock mechanism, and from bitbuster this is a Meilink with the Center Mfg #100 lock, mesh change lock mechanism.

From all of this I take it that I should be using the 4-3-2-1 sequence <carefully and slowly>:

Turn dial CCW 4 times (minimum) to clear, and stop on the first digit.
Turn dial CW and pass the second digit 2 times, stopping on the second digit the 3rd time.
Turn dial CCW and pass the third digit 1 time, stopping on the third digit the second time.
Turn dial CW slowly. I should feel/hear the nose drop into the drive cam.
Continue turning the dial CW until the bolt is retracted and the dial stops turning.
Safe should open using the handle.

From jharveee and bitbuster, I varied the combination numbers + and - 1 or 2 numbers, shifted the order of the combination numbers, and slowed down my last turn to R to allow the nose to drop into the drive cam.

No good. So I'm thinking I don't really have the correct combination after all. I may have tricked myself out by changing not only the order of the three combination numbers, but also transposed the first and second digits of each of the three numbers to further twart others from learning the actual combination. Really smart, eh?

I don't think the safe is really worth that much anymore so I may need to resort to plan B - a drilling job. Plan C might include something more exciting light explosives.....

So thanks all again for your helpful thoughts on my behalf. I've learned a valuable lesson about how not to save the numbers of a combination lock.

Regards,

John, WB6FRZ

It's too bad you don't live closer to me.

John you didn't say if you tried the trial combos jharveee gave you. If ABC represent your numbers you can try and orders of those numbers. They are ABC, ACB, BAC, BCA, CAB & CBA, any 3 given numbers have but 6 pssible orders. Give all the of those a chance before you drill.

Ah, yes. But it gets much worse... I wrote down the numbers in Morse code and tried to be tricky to the point of possibly writing them in reverse direction order. All but one number in Morse code becomes another number if read backwards, meaning two digits read to the right could be one of four possibilities and the same backwards. So that's eight possible numbers for one spin of the dial... for one of three numbers! So now you have 8 X 8 X 8 possibilities with a 3-digit combination lock not to mention going in different orders.

Yesterday I wrote out some number possibilities that I thought I would have most-likely used. I came up with 72 permutations and tried 40 of them.

Yes, I have really done it to myself.....

Again, thank you for all your help and to everyone else. I won't give up until I run through more numbers but as I said I have learned painfully what not to do next time!

Regards,

John

Keep dialing. Until you try all 72 of you possibilities. Its not that much dialing and will go by fast. Good warm up to getting a feel for manipulation. Your last number in your combination, most likely wont be between 1-20 or 95-100. Bitbuster or others may know what the forbidden zone is for that lock. That may help reduce the numbers of combos you need to try. All that spinning may jog your memory.

Thanks jharveee, that helps. And yes, I will keep turning that dial!

John

All - SUCCESS!!! I remembered one of the combination numbers and from that I discovered the others.

All that turning helped me solidify the dial sequence too.

Thank you Thank you Thank you All for your help.

Sometimes it does take a community.

Hey if any of you may need some machining done, I'm a machinist and may be able to help you out. Don't hesitate to ask. If you ever want to know about amateur (ham) radio I can help you out there too.

Have a super new year.

John.

Well, truly a Happy way to start the New Year!
Congratulations.

Glad to hear you got it open!
73