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Posted: 11/19/2016 12:14:20 PM EDT
| I'm new to this safe forum so I apologize if this type of question is not allowed. I have a 24 gun safe that I purchased about three years ago with a manual dial combination lock. The dial is stuck and won't move. I called the company and they told me to contact a locksmith. The area locksmith can't make it for a few weeks and can't really give me an idea of what it will cost. He says $50 per hour until he gets in and told me that the last one he opened, about a year ago, cost around $800. I can't justify spending that kind of money on a $600 gun safe. I'm fairly confident that I could cut off the side with an angle grinder without damaging any guns but I'm wondering if anyone else has a better idea. My objective is to liberate my guns in a manner that would allow my safe to be repaired in the most cost effective manner. If I cut off the side then I'll still have to get the door opened at some point. Although this is probably easier from the inside, the center divider will be a hindrance. Has anyone else ever had to deal with this? The reason I went with this brand was because of the price and the purpose of the safe was for child safety. I never thought that the safe would hold my guns hostage. |
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A) Don't hire that locksmith. Guys who know what they're doing charge way more than $50 an hour, and those same guys would be into your safe for far less than $800. Unless you're out in the middle of nowhere where somebody has to travel, you should be looking at less than $400 in a worst case scenario (opening the safe, not including a replacement lock if necessary).
B) Who makes the safe and/or lock? |
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Let's see how good I am over the computer.
Just jiggles a few numbers back and forth? Does it make a metal to metal sound? Try putting pressure on the handle forcing the boltwork towards the open position. Hold that pressure while attempting to turn the dial and see if it frees up. |
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Most of the Stack On safes are direct entry locks. This means the lock has no mechanical function, and the boltwork of the safe directly enters a cut out in the wheels. The "driver" is the main wheel, and tends to have false gates. This prevents somebody from placing pressure on the handle, spinning the dial, and feeling for the cut outs in the other wheels and figuring out your combination.
If the dial itself is loose, but only slightly turning back and forth, making a metal to metal tapping noise, then your boltwork is pressing into the lock. Specifically into one of the false gates of the driver. Likely something inside the safe that the bolts are pressing up against forcing them towards the open position. The only way to overcome this is to force the boltwork back to the closed position. If you were able to do this when closing the safe, you should be able to do it again to get it dialed open. There are other things that can go wrong with these locks, but those things tend to display slightly different symptoms. |
| I googled direct entry lock and I see exactly what you mean. I'm sure this is the problem as it has been difficult to get the handle to close the bolts lately. The handle has a slight bit of play in it. Maybe I can work it back and forth for a while and see if it will go into a full closed position. |
| As it turns out, the cause of the problem was the bottom bolt on the side of the door was sticking and wouldn't fully extend, putting back pressure on the closing mechanism which forced the bolt work into a false gate. There are three bolts on the side of the door, all of which are attached to a single piece of channel. The handle mechanism connects toward one end of the channel. The bolt that was sticking was on the other end. Imagine trying to reattach a long piece of window trim with nails sticking out of it by only holding on to one end if it. The nails on the other end have a tough time going in the holes. I probably could realign and reattach the problem bolt but I think I'm going to play it safe and just remove it. |
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