"DoN. Nichols" writes:


Looking at the photos, I think that it is older -- before the
S&G patent expired so Mosler could also make key-settable locks -- but
he will have to open the back of the door to be sure of this.

Come to think of it -- there is no resetting index visible on
the dial, so it will have to be disassembled to reset the combination.

Mosler locks were not GSA approved, so I never worked on such.
(Some agencies had waivers for same inside well-cotrolled areas.)
But I agree that no resetting index is indicative.

You can see all this with the back cover of the lock off. Note
there's a gotcha to keep the gate from dropping with the cover
off, but you can still spin the wheels.

There is another gotcha on some which will permanently lock the
bolt in position if you do manage to withdraw it with the cover off.
(You can reset it -- as long as the cover is off. If the door is
closed, you are out of luck.

The S&G's had several "relock" schemes. One was a solder blob;
heat the box and it melts. The other was the the back cover
relock. Lose either and drilling is pointless.

The new boxes use hardplate that is {allegedly} undrillable.
The SOP is now a cutting wheel. It clamps on the top, and
pivots down; cutting a ~0.75" wide vertical slot in each side
of the front AND the 1" bar behind it. That gives you slack
to push the bars inward and open the drawer. Then replace the
drawerfront, reusing the untouched lock...AFTER setting and
recording the combination.


Did I mention... TEST THE NEW COMBINATION before you think
of closing the drawer. Where will you keep the new combination
written down?

One thing which we did at work was to memorize words (or
sometimes short sentences for several safes in a row), and look the
letters in the words up on a phone dial -- two letters per combination
number. (A few digs at certain employees were included in those
sentences. :-) This does eliminate combinations with ones or zeros in
them -- unless you take the two missing letters from the phone dial (Q
and Z) and mentally put them on 1 and 0. :-)

Record on the SF-600, a 4x6 size form with several layers and partial
carbon paper. The result is one copy with the combination, one without.


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