On Sun, 25 Nov 2012 10:51:21 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 25 Nov 2012 09:11:54 -0500, micky
wrote:

On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 16:42:56 -0800, Oren wrote:

On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 17:45:51 -0500, micky
wrote:

OT In the movies, safe-crackers are always listening to the tumblers
in the bank vault door. Sometimes they use a stethoscope.

Does that really work?

Depends.

I've opened a floor safe with a second person. I used a pool stick for
the stethoscope. We had permission from the owner as he never even
knew how to open it.

We were young teens. He allowed us to store our slot-cars in it.

Well, to you and 'ormin, it seems like a mistake to make a safe one
can get into by listening, when it's possible and not expensive, it
sure seems, to make on where listening doesn't help. I don't get it.

I have actually had an old Mosler apart retrieving a lost combination.
It was locked but open
I am not sure what you would hear. It really looked like a better
machined Master combination lock.
There were disks with slots in them and a pawl that you could cam into
the slots if they all lined up. I did not see anything that "dropped"
or otherwise indicated when a slot was under the pawl

Exactly. In the case of my toy plastic safe, the tolerances were not
fine or tight at all, and it was totallly clear that nothing happened
until the 3rd number was dialed.

and the
machining was so tight that you couldn't feel the slot until the last
one lined up.

Esactly.

I think the dial locked when you rotated the unlock
handle so you couldn't "hunt".

That sounds good. The toy safe didn't have this. ;-)