Few years back the electronic lock on a safe in our office somehow died. The locksmith who supplied it was on vacation, but we somehow were able to convince him to give us the drill plan with the assurance that he will be the one to fix the safe after we had opened it ourselves. It was not that much of the drill-plan, but “take an angle grinder, cut there and the internal part of the lock should just fall inside the safe, 15min of cutting tops”, well it took most of the day and we busted entirely new DeWalt angle grinder in the process. Well, the procedure he gave us was for the lower security model, so instead of cutting through the bracket that held the lock in place, we were cutting through the actual locking bolt. Still, it was kind of a fun experience.
Unlocking a Gary TL-15 Round-Door Safe (2009)
41–50 of 52 posts
Re: Unlocking a Gary TL-15 Round-Door Safe (2009)
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
You sure about that? J-B Weld claims its resistant to a constant temperature of 500F, and 10 mins of 600F. With the heatsinking of the steel body nearby, it'd be quite difficult to melt out the epoxy. Not impossible, mind you, but... this isn't intended to be a bulletproof fix, I assume. Why would a would-be thief even think there's epoxy there in the first place?
The hubris around here. Yes, I’m sure about that. You are a person who is easily manipulated by marketing, and clearly has zero practical experience in this field. I do. There are no epoxys that are good to 500F. None of them. See username, Buildsjets. The epoxy resins that we build jets out of are cured in an autoclave under high pressure, and at best they are good to 350F, and they are absolutely the highest perfor…
I am intrigued to learn more if you post anywhere (nothing in your profile); this all seems intriguing.
Re: Unlocking a Gary TL-15 Round-Door Safe (2009)
#43I once bought a vacation home that was a century-old English cottage that went through 7 different owners over time. It once belonged to a US state senator. Another time it belonged to a prominent local businessman who went to jail for white collar crime, and went through a nasty divorce. Anyway, the house had a TL-15 Star Safe embedded in the wall in the master bedroom. The previous owner did not know the combinatio…
Everyone always says it was empty :) If it contained $100,000 in cash, the smart thing to do is say it was empty.
Probably cost about 10K to open it.
Re: Unlocking a Gary TL-15 Round-Door Safe (2009)
#44[deleted]
Re: Unlocking a Gary TL-15 Round-Door Safe (2009)
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first thing I though about when listening to his description of moving the dial was a servo motor with a torque measuring shaft hooked to a microcontroller. It sounds like you could just graph torque required to turn it over 360 degrees to get the same info he was getting.
This is called the "soft drill". And strangely, this can still be a destructive attack. There are systems that can do proper manipulation by graphing out the gates, and there are systems that just do brute force attacks by dialing every combination. I've been told that the brute force machines that try every combination typically wear the lock out and it needs to be replaced afterwords.
Not the hallmark of a resilient design.
Re: Unlocking a Gary TL-15 Round-Door Safe (2009)
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is called the "soft drill". And strangely, this can still be a destructive attack. There are systems that can do proper manipulation by graphing out the gates, and there are systems that just do brute force attacks by dialing every combination. I've been told that the brute force machines that try every combination typically wear the lock out and it needs to be replaced afterwords.
Yeah, I certainly figure someone has done this before with varying success. At the extreme end I imagine someone could just design a dial with a centrifugal clutch that if spun beyond a certain speed clutches out permanently and locks the dial shaft. My limited understanding of anti-theft mechanisms in safes is they are generally destructive, making it impossible for anyone to open the safe once activated.
With traditional safe combination locks, it's kinda normal for them to be spun fairly fast.
Often to enter the first digit you often have to turn the wheel four full revolutions, the second digit three full revolutions and so on. So users will be trying to spin it pretty fast under normal operation.
Of course there are other solutions to autodialers. For example, making sure burglers can't spend 3 days with the safe waiting for the autodialer to run.
Re: Unlocking a Gary TL-15 Round-Door Safe (2009)
#47I have not one but two safes I've inherited which I ought to get opened. My thinking is that both safes would not be empty, as you can store as much emptiness as you like in a single safe. I should figure out where to begin, do I bring the safes to the locksmiths, how are the safes disposed of, et al? It should be interesting.
If the safes are portable bringing it to a locksmith is probably the cheapest option.
You could also find how much they weigh, and how much they should weigh, and if that's the same leave them for someone you don't like.
Re: Unlocking a Gary TL-15 Round-Door Safe (2009)
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Very interesting. A TL-15 is an excellent container, but I'm not familiar with a 5 wheel combination lock in commercial service in the US. I have a S&G vault lock which has 4 wheels. I don't doubt 5 wheel locks exist though, especially if the safe was possibly installed for a US Senator. Would definitely be interesting to see some photos of the lock (both outside and inside) if you still have any. Reminds me of this:…
Here is a picture of the inside: https://ibb.co/sF8RLDv I can't seem to locate a picture of the outside. The politician owner was not a "US senator" but a "state senator", IOW not a member of the US Senate but of the state senate. So not as prestigious as you think :)
wowzers, I guess that's my fault for not searching for images of the safe you were talking about but when I heard "in home safe" I imagined those things like a gun safe but they weren't kidding around!
I actually would guess that replacing the damaged door would put that back in operation and would make for a cool perk for selling the house, but with that much steel(?) I can't imagine how much such a stunt would cost
Re: Unlocking a Gary TL-15 Round-Door Safe (2009)
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
You sure about that? J-B Weld claims its resistant to a constant temperature of 500F, and 10 mins of 600F. With the heatsinking of the steel body nearby, it'd be quite difficult to melt out the epoxy. Not impossible, mind you, but... this isn't intended to be a bulletproof fix, I assume. Why would a would-be thief even think there's epoxy there in the first place?
The hubris around here. Yes, I’m sure about that. You are a person who is easily manipulated by marketing, and clearly has zero practical experience in this field. I do. There are no epoxys that are good to 500F. None of them. See username, Buildsjets. The epoxy resins that we build jets out of are cured in an autoclave under high pressure, and at best they are good to 350F, and they are absolutely the highest perfor…
[deleted]
Re: Unlocking a Gary TL-15 Round-Door Safe (2009)
#50I once bought a vacation home that was a century-old English cottage that went through 7 different owners over time. It once belonged to a US state senator. Another time it belonged to a prominent local businessman who went to jail for white collar crime, and went through a nasty divorce. Anyway, the house had a TL-15 Star Safe embedded in the wall in the master bedroom. The previous owner did not know the combinatio…
Everyone always says it was empty :) If it contained $100,000 in cash, the smart thing to do is say it was empty.
In what scenarios would someone paranoid / secretive / foresighted enough to have a TL-15 safe in their home also be negligent enough to leave the $100k in cash behind when the sell they house? (And without any widow / family / "business associates" who would know enough to invest in the prompt services of a SAVTA tech?)