How to crack a dial safe

Metal safes reverberate the sounds and make them easier to hear. Reset the lock again and turn the dial clockwise and listen again as you turn slowly counterclockwise. Repeat times. Once you found out where the two clicks collide move the dial to point degrees across. Setting up a line graph is part of the hard work of opening a safe yourself. You will need to record a lot of information on the graph in order to crack the safe. Do the same for the right side. The y-axis only needs to cover about 5 of the numbers.

Spin the dial a couple of times in several rotations clockwise to disengage the wheels, then set it at the zero position. Rotate slowly counterclockwise and listen. Reset the safe lock and set it 3 number left of 0.

Continue recording the location of the two clicks. Look for points on your graph where the two y-values converge.

Write down the x-values at the locations and from the two charts the number closest together and write them down. Try every possible sequence of the number you located. Remember to reset the dial between each attempt several times. Keep writing down the numbers as you go. Test your results and try to combine adjacent numbers if the safe won't open.

For instance, you can't have the combination be the same 3 digits, because those stubs on the sides of the cams would run into each other when trying to get back to the same number. Also, the notches on the cams that match up with the lever don't fit into each other exactly. If they fit precisely, you would need to be incredibly careful when dialing the combination and it would take more care than anyone has time for.

The notches are a good deal bigger than the lever, so if you're one number off, the lock will still open. These and several other factors greatly reduce the number of possible combinations that Master Lock can claim are the only combinations that open the lock.

The first digit could be any of the 40 digits on the dial, but once you know one digit there are certain rules that link all the digits in the combination together. So let's get down and look at those rules. Ah, numbers!!!!. Okay, I'll explain what those blocks of numbers are above.

Here's how it works, to get a combination, you pick a block, pick a number from the first line, one from the 2nd line, and one from the 3rd, and that's a unique possible combination. What that means is that any one digit in the combination could be any of the 40 on the dial, but once you know one digit, there are not 40 possible digits for each of the other digits. There are only 10 possibilities for each. That probably didn't make too much sense, so I'll take you through an example.

Let's say that for some reason you know the last digit to the combo 19 ; find that number in the last column of one of the blocks. In this case we are looking at block 4. Now, you have 10 possible 1st digits, and those are the numbers in the first line of block 4.

The 10 possible numbers for the 2nd digit are in line two. If you know that the 1st digit of one combination is 12, you look at block 1 and you can see the 10 possible numbers for the 2nd digit and the 10 possible numbers for the 3rd digit. Make any more sense? The basic idea is that if you know one digit to the combination, there are only combinations that your lock could have. Now if you put in a combination every 10 seconds, it takes 16 minutes or so to try all the combinations.

Half the time you will get the combination in 8 minutes. That's way better than a week! Plus, there are several methods to put in combinations faster and cut down on time.

If you were a spy and needed to break into a box that had a Master Lock on it, 16 minutes might be too long to go undetected, but if you just want to open one of them, that's awesome time.

All things come to those who wait. I was thinking of buses. I know this is a lot, but bear with me. If you understand the rules that govern the possible combinations then eventually you can work out the combo to a lock without having the write anything down. SO, moving on. If you look at the blocks of numbers up top, you'll notice a few things. First, in any particular block all the numbers will be either all odd, or all even.

So if one digit in the combination is odd, all will be odd, and vice versa. Another thing you might notice is that in every line of numbers 4 is added to each number to get the next number. You get these belts like These belts are always 10 numbers long, they progress by 4, and they can only start at 0,1,2, or 3. There are only 4 different belts of 10 that you can have. Looking back to the blocks at the top of the page you can see that every block starts and ends with the same belt.

Block 1 starts and ends with Belt 0. In between there is Belt 2, and Belt 2 is just Belt 0, but everything is shifted over by 2. Block 3 starts and ends with Belt 2. In between there is Belt 0, which is Belt 2 shifted over by 2. Are you starting to see the pattern? Here, I'll show how you would use this knowledge to write down all the combinations if you found out the last digit, and you will learn a method to figure out the last digit.

SO you find out that the last digit is 8. You want to know what belt you are using for your 1st digit and what belt you are using for your 2nd digit. You know that the 1st digit belt is the same as the 3rd digit belt, so you find the belt that contains 8. That happens to be Belt 0.

You know that the belt for the 2nd digit is the first belt but shifted over by two, which in this case is Belt 2. To recap everything, you know the 3rd digit is 8, the 1st digit is is one of the numbers in Belt 0, and the 2nd digit is in Belt 2.

If you are writing on paper while you solve the lock, I would write down Belt 0 and 2 like this If none of that made sense, it's okay. You can still open Master Locks; I'll just be incredibly disappointed in you and never really love you. So everything I've talked about so far is pretty useless unless you know one digit of the combination.

Which just so happens to be a piece of cake! You can figure out the last digit of pretty much all Master Locks through a mechanical manipulation process.

Remember back to the explanation of how the lock works? Time to exploit that guy. If the lock had been perfectly machined, when you lift the shackle the latch would press evenly on all three cams.

Luckily for us, all the cams are slightly different sizes, the 3rd cam being the largest. So if you lift the shackle and spin the dial, the latch will apply pressure to the cam, and eventually get stuck in the notch!

Or, at least, that's how it would work on old Master Locks. You just needed to lift, spin, and when the dial got stuck it meant you had found the last number.

Unfortunately for us, Master Lock wised up to that trick and all Master Locks now a days have an extra security feature to make our lives hard. Or safer, depending on how you look at it. They added 11 shallow notches spaced around the edges of the 3rd cam. This makes your job a bit harder, but still doable. If all the 11 fake notches were just like the real notch you would not be able to tell the difference between them, but then all 12 notches would open the lock.

That's unacceptable, so Master Lock made the 11 fake notches much shallower than the real notch, that way they won't open the lock, but you will get stuck on them if you lift the shackle and spin.

When you get caught in one of these fake notches now referred to as sticking points you will be able to move the dial back and forth a small amount, usually the range of movement is 1 number or so. Each sticking point has a beginning and end, often in between numbers of the dial. One sticking point might look like To get out of a sticking point, you just need to release pressure on the shackle, turn a bit, and then you'll be ready to look for the next sticking point. So now, if you lift the shackle and twist, you will find 12 sticking points and be able to write down what numbers those sticking points start and end.

One of them is the real last digit and 11 of them are fake. Your job is to figure out which is the real one. Go find a lock, and right down all the sticking points.

When the dial is stuck in between numbers, just guesstimate. You don't have to be exact, just consistent. Perfect, below are the sticking points for a lock I had laying around. I'll only write the end of the sticking point. Again, it looks like a bunch of numbers, but there is a pattern hiding. This is also where I think a lot of other tutorial on this technique fall flat. Often, you will be told that 5 of these sticking points will have a whole number in the middle of their sticking point, 4 will end in the same number, one is the odd one out, and that's your last digit.

While that is often true, it's not the whole truth. But first, the patterns. Every lock will have 4 sets of 3 sticking points. A set is 3 consecutive sticking points. You notice the first 3 are 0, 3. That's the first set.

The next three numbers are 10, That's the second set. Same for sticking points and Most sticking points in the same group ie, 0, 10, 20, The abnormalities are what we are looking for. Looking at the "0" group, they are all pretty much the same, and In the "3" group 3.

In the "6" group 6. So your contenders for the last digit are 30, 23, and Because the sticking point at 23 was the most different from the other sticking points in its group, that means that 23 is going to be your 3rd digit.

You've done it! You've defeated the man! You've conquered those simpletons' sense of security and you're ready to take the world by storm! Well, you still have to try all the combinations. Maybe try taking the world by drizzle instead. To recap, the 3rd digit will most likely be the sticking point that is most different from the others in its group. Sometimes you will have two numbers that you think might be the 3rd digit, and you just need to make your best guess and try one.

If that wasn't it, try the other one. You'll get there. I almost forgot! I told you that there are 64 possible combinations once you get the last number, not Make sure to note the exact number you heard each click. You'll need two separate points, usually within a few numbers of each other.

Graph these points. The y-value is the number on the dial where you heard the first click. You can now label your y-axes. Leave enough room to graph a spread of 5 numbers on either side of the y-value you just recorded. Reset the lock and set it 3 numbers left of zero. Spin the dial clockwise a few times and set it 3 numbers further clockwise of zero. This new number is the next x-value you'll record.

Continue recording the location of the two clicks. Find the new y-values of the first and second clicks when you start at this location. They should be near where you heard them last time.

When you've recorded the second location, reset the lock again and set it an additional 3 numbers counterclockwise. Keep testing until your line graphs are done. Once you've mapped the entire dial in increments of 3 and are back at the zero position, you can stop testing. Look for points on your graphs where the two y-values converge. At certain x-axis points the difference between the left and right contact point values y axis will be smaller.

Each of these points corresponds with a correct number in the combination. You should know how many numbers there are in the combination, either because you've used this safe previously or because you followed the instructions for Find the Combination Length.

If the quantity of converging points on the graph doesn't match the quantity of numbers in the combination, make a new graph and see which points are consistently narrow. Write down the x-values at these locations. If you successfully followed these steps, these numbers should be the ones used in the combination, or at least close enough to work.

Note that we do not know which sequence of these numbers is the correct one. Read on for additional testing and tips. Part 4. Try every possible sequence of the numbers you located.

If you wrote down 3, 42 and 66 at the end of Search for the Combination Numbers, test the combinations 3,42,66 ; 3,66,42 ; 42,3,66 ; 42,66,3 ; 66,42,3 ; and 66,3, One should open the safe. Remember to attempt to pull open the safe door after each complete combination! You don't want to be absent-minded and move on to the next combination before checking for success.

Remember to reset the dial between each attempt by spinning it several times. If your dial has more than 2 or 3 wheels, you'll probably want to write down each combination in advance and cross them out as you go.

Try combinations using adjacent numbers if the safe won't open. Most safes allow for a 1 or 2 number margin of error while dialing, which is why you only needed to test every 3rd number.

It's possible your safe is more exact, especially if it is more expensive. Don't get confused and start testing combinations like 41, 42, 65 ; each combination should contain exactly one number from each bracketed trio. This is really only practical for a 3 digit combination or less requiring a maximum of attempts.

For a 4-digit combination, the number balloons to a maximum of 1, attempts. This is still much faster than trying every possible combination, but will waste a lot of time if it turns out you made an error in your cracking attempt.

Try again from the beginning. Cracking a safe takes a lot of patience and effort! Keep your old graph and notes handy. If your new attempt gives the same partial results for instance, 2 of the 3 numbers are the same ones you tested before , it's much more likely those results are accurate. Did you know you can get answers researched by wikiHow Staff? Unlock staff-researched answers by supporting wikiHow. Not Helpful 3 Helpful 4. I have a Mosler safe that was in a fire, but the dial turns free.

Aug 14, will this have a 3 wheel lock? If I can't determine the combination, who could I get to open it for me? Glenn Letteer. Yes, it has three wheels. Not Helpful 8 Helpful There aren't really four numbers. The last number doesn't count. It is a stopping point or the point at which the bolt retracts. The process is 4, 3, 2, 1. That means AT LEAST four turns to the left, stopping on the first number the fourth time, three turns to the right stopping on the number the third time around, two turns to the left stopping on the number the second time you reach it, then turn the dial to the right until you feel the bolt in the lock retract.

Not Helpful 13 Helpful I have a four number key combination safe and lost the combination. What is the best method to get it open? Usually if you can prove that it's your safe Notary public with a signature as well as proof of purchase , the company can provide you with the combination.

There's also destructive ways to get into safes, notably an angle grinder. Or a professional locksmith can get into it for you by drilling at a precise point that will allow the latch to retract this can be expensive. Contact your local locksmith after trying the aforementioned method. Most will not open it without you being there so that nothing can be claimed to be missing after opening it.

If bolted down,they're going to need to come to you. Not Helpful 4 Helpful The only normal situation which would lock a dial in place is if the dial has a key lock installed. This key prevents the dial from spinning when it is locked.

The dial lock is generally a wafer lock with very little security. Not Helpful 8 Helpful 9. A water glass with the ring of the glass held to the safe door, and place your ear firmly against bottom of glass. Not Helpful 7 Helpful 6. Turn safe dial 4 times left. Stop at zero and all wheels are parked at zero.

Turn safe dial one time right, and your only turning the drive cam. Turn it a second time right and you are turning both the drive cam and third wheel, this is how you park only wheel 3 where you choose. Turn the dial a third time and you can park both wheels 2, 3, and drive cam where you choose.

Not Helpful 0 Helpful 1.