Unidentified Remote Combination Viewer Vaults

VaultDoors

I need help identifying these Remote Combination Viewer Vaults. Please let me know if you recognize any of them - Thanks!

Doug MacQueen

Frederick Holmes, a New York vault engineer, incorporated this design in vaults made by Remington Sherman, York and possibly others. Wylk may be able to help further on ID.

wylk

I’ve seen the first two images in the book Lure of the Lock (Holmes wrote that section), but I don’t know where they were installed. The other two are interesting but are new to me.

T Davison

I have worked on these doors for years . The right angle gear is the main problem with the combo lock. The pin in the gear loosens and move starts and it all down hill from there. The locks on these doors are on the wall behind the the viewing station. The door is locked with a rod system. The vault alarm is a vibration type. That hook up to a control that floods the vault room and area around the vault floor. thats the basic over view of that type of vault. TJ

T Davison

Huw Eastwood

Amazing mechanism shots you’ve posted there medeco, a complete first in terms of remote combo viewers I think, so a BIG thanks for posting those.

The outer unit with the bevel gears is pretty much exactly how I’d imagined it tbh, but the real shocker has been seeing the simplicity of the internal locking layout, theres a lot less in there than I’d imagined!

wylk

The middle image is particularly interesting, showing a staggered pattern of circles on the side of the door. Might these be assembly pins, used to attach parts of the door together after being fabricated separately?

I presume the two “cans” above the frame are alarm contacts.

Chubby

medeco wrote
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16890[/ATTACH]

Note the WD40 in the foreground.

[unknown]

Doug MacQueen

Wylk, your attention to detail continues to surprise me. More than likely those were manganese steel pins installed around the perimeter of the door, although that does seem like excessive overkill on a door of that thickness. But during that period, overkill was the name of the game and to my knowledge there was never a successful door attack on doors of that thickness. The overkill would discourage even making the attempt.

VaultDoors

medeco - THANK YOU for posting the interior of the remote combo viewer. These devices are of particular interest to me and I have wondered about their interior for years. The closest I could find was a patent on Cylindrical Vault Doors used at the NY Fed and PA Treasury. See attached file

I have not seen the vault door in the pictures you posted, where is this vault located? I created an inventory of remote combo viewer vaults, see attached file. Could you please review and let me know if I missed any.

Can you post pics of other remote combo viewers? Thanks!

us2081316-remote-combo-viewer-vault.pdf

2MB

remote-combination-viewer-vault-inventory.pdf

1MB

RiemannHypothesis

Hey guys,

as a “remote combination viewer addict” I want to participate here 😃 So if the question is

How does a RCV work?

this is simple to answer: All you need is a way to remotely control the bolt work. This is done via two pins - one for opening and the other for closing the door. The RCV provides the necessary mechanics for this and the rest is details.

But if the question is rather

How is this done for the various doors?

then we need blueprints or other photos.
Unfortunately I understood the inner workings of RCVs only recently so my big model door does not show this. But if I build a new one, it will have a fully functional and original RCV 🙂

Best regards

Maik

PS: I calculated the weight of my current door: 506,8kg or 1013,6lbs. Yeah, me too 😃

T Davison

This is the same type of viewer but the door lug locks of the pressure system locks into the viewer case. There are two dials that can be seen. The big spoke wheel is used to open the locking collar or ring that is affixed to the frame. This door only swings . In the center of this round door is a door that hides a triple or quad time lock. Hope this helps.TJ

Huw Eastwood

Nice, the matching emergency door to the main rectangular door you posted- what a monster, always love the exaggerated proportions on the emergency doors- the filing cabinet gives a good sense of scale. Also has the same alternated pins/plugs visible around the edge. Thanks for posting these TJ, you will have made the forum fans of these doors very happy!

wylk

Thanks for this latest picture! Emergency doors often are “different but similar” to their big-brother main door. I like the two arrows that line up to show the locking lugs are aligned for closure. There are pins in the door like those in the main door. Both halves of the alarm contact can be seen. No surprise there is a beefy door stop. A data plate of some sort is on the lower hinge that has been painted over, demonstrating that this was not the original paint (if it was even painted at all in the first place). Was the central area was originally glass, replaced with metal at a later time when the glass broke?

All that dust makes me wonder if the door has even been closed recently. The greasy appearance of the door frame makes me want to grab that can of WD-40 and do some cleaning.

VaultDoors

What is the purpose of the manganese steel pins installed around the perimeter of the door?

VaultDoors

The main door appears to have a single combo and the emergency door has a dual combo, is that right?

VaultDoors

I believe the data plate on the lower hinge may be an access panel for servicing the hinge. Similar plates can been seen on the Cleveland Federal Reserve’s Emergency Vault Door:

and One King West’s Main Vault Door:

T Davison

The main door has two locks if you look at the viewer you will see in the lower area of the case a second helix gear. That was the second dial hook up. It was removed for repair.

The pins are a anti- drill system that most vaults use for protection. The idea is hard to soft to hard . This type of construction or lamination of hard to soft metal will break drill bits off in the hole. ( A drill bit edge will wear or dull with the factors of cutting speed to cutting pressure to the materiel hardness. When you change the materiel hardness you change the fiction or drag on the edge of the drill bit. This change will break a drill bit off in seconds.)

Those little plate are doors to adj the hing system on the crane arm. The wrenches are made custom to fit each door. Hope this explains some of the questions. TJ