Cracking a "Safe"...

[t00nces2]

My vocation is handyman. I have done many things over the years and my days are varied and interesting. Yesterday my customer had a safe that was pulled from a home that she could not open. She had lost the combination and the key (both were needed to open the safe). She wanted to know that she was not losing anything valuable, so... I brought over a Skil saw with a diamond blade for cutting masonry, tile, stone... Not really intended for the steel bars I expected to find in the wall of the safe, but I had a angle grinder with a metal blade so I thought I would use that to cut the steel part of the safe. Well, let me tell you. That diamond blade in the Skil saw went through it like butter. There was no steel bars in the wall of the safe. The compound inside the wall was like a fiberglass puffed and infused with a puffy cement type product. I popped the square out with a pry bar, used the angle grinder to cut through the plastic inside liner and. viola!

My analysis of the safe is this... As a resistant to fire, it might be okay (had I used an acetylene torch to open it, I would be able to speak more knowledgeably regarding its' fire resistance), but having popped it open like a walnut (it took me 20 minutes, and I didn't even know what I was doing), one should not rely on the "safe" for keeping things inside from being unsafe.

It will be tossed in with the next load. It will be a steel seed.

[eesakiwi]

I have 'popped' a few safes in my time too. Congratulations on your 'New string to your bow', safecracker, tankbuster, can man,.....

Basically a safe is to protect the valuables from fire, as security all it has to do is slow the person down long enough for Police to arrive or evidence to be dropped in the process, or just to make it plain **** difficult.

I was looking thru some older 1960's newspapers, every week there was a news item of a safe being broken into.
These days it'd be less then one a year.

I have a book about safe breaking and the history of safes.
One idea they used to use was to roll a tube of cellophane and slide it down the inside front edge of the door.
Once it popped out the bottom, they would mold some putty into a tray/scoop, up at the top and form the cellophanes top end into a funnel inside the putty tray.
They would put the detonator into the tray and slowly pour nitroglycerine into the putty tray and when it came out the bottom of the tube, they would fold it over to seal it off.
Then run out to where they had the battery or generator and fire the explosive so it blew the door open.
Old school..... I wouldn't recommend it myself....

[RLS0812]

I paid $5 for the last safe I dealt with ... 10 minutes with a grinder, and the door was off ( it had external hinges )!
$250 in silver certificates ( none of them worth more than face value ), and a few stamps from the 1960's .

[t00nces2]

I paid $5 for the last safe I dealt with ... 10 minutes with a grinder, and the door was off ( it had external hinges )!
$250 in silver certificates ( none of them worth more than face value ), and a few stamps from the 1960's .

Nice! I wish I could find a locked safe for $5

[eesakiwi]

My Father got called in to fix a locked safe once, they guy said it had been getting harder to open over the years and now, no matter what he did, it wouldn't unlock.

So, several hours, one 9 inch grinder, 8 discs, a watering can full of water and several stoppages for a sweep around and a cup of tea.
They remove a square from the face of the safe. Pull the locking mechanism.

After taking a close look.... They find that over the last 50+ years, dust has built up on the rear face of the inside of the lock, that dust stopped the key from going in right home, and stopped it turning.....

All it would have taken was a couple of minutes, a electric drill and 3/8 bit and a quick vacuum clean...