Herring Patent Champion - dexter lock question

WickedVix

Hi Everyone!

I have a Herring Patent Champion safe that is in the locked open position (both the smaller internal safe as well as the external door.
I’d like to get the combinations working again…

Anyone know how many wheels in the wheel pack of these (if there was a standard)??

Any other tips to get to the bottom of it? I can see where a change key could have been used in the outer door lock, but that key is long gone.

Thanks!

wylk

Pictures? If nothing else, we all like to look at them🙂-:

http://www.antique-locks.com/showthread.php/3328-How-to-upload-images-to-your-posts

Generally, safes have three wheels but four is not unheard of. Thank goodness it’s locked open instead of closed!

Another thread addressed somebody with the same problem, probably a different lock, however some of the points and discussion might still be relevant:

http://www.antique-locks.com/showthread.php/2974-Open-safe-but-no-combination

WickedVix

Sorry.. I meant to add a few photos!

I grabbed a screwdriver and popped off the back of the lock which exposed the wheel pack et al. It would appear (providing I’m counting correctly) that it has 3 wheels as you mentioned.

I’ve found a couple of sites with “how to” instructions to get the combination worked out… now I can see the lock, I’m hoping I can get one of these techniques to work.. the bottom safe is going to be much more challenging I think as it doesn’t appear to have an easy access panel like the outer door does. Any suggestions/instructions etc. gratefully received. I have many photos so if you would like to see more, just let me know what you’d like to see 🙂

wylk wrote
Pictures? If nothing else, we all like to look at them🙂-:

http://www.antique-locks.com/showthread.php/3328-How-to-upload-images-to-your-posts

Generally, safes have three wheels but four is not unheard of. Thank goodness it’s locked open instead of closed!

Another thread addressed somebody with the same problem, probably a different lock, however some of the points and discussion might still be relevant:

http://www.antique-locks.com/showthread.php/2974-Open-safe-but-no-combination

[unknown]

wylk

Do you have any pictures of the inside surface of the inner safe’s door?

The outer door’s lock looks like it should be fairly easy to figure out.

Dean Nickel

Good picture of the lock case. Can you please get a closer picture of the dial?

WickedVix

wylk wrote
Do you have any pictures of the inside surface of the inner safe’s door?

The outer door’s lock looks like it should be fairly easy to figure out.

Laughing at myself - I took pics of a lot of spots inside the safe that I couldn’t get my head and didn’t look at the pictures. Since you requested inside the inner door, I took a look at the photos I have and voila! there are screws there I can probably access the back of the lock as well 🙂 thank goodness, because the dial to the inner door goes to 100 :/

I don’t have a close up of the outer dial, however I’ll get one today when I’m back in the store and post it. It goes 0 to 50.

Thanks for all the help folks - I’d really love to have the combination so I can use this thing 🙂

[unknown]

WickedVix

OK, with the backs off, it didn’t seem to take much for me to get the combinations of both the inner and the outer door. The inner is a 4 number combination, the outer is 5. I learned a great deal and felt pretty good about my result!! I’m definitely going to practice a bit with both before shutting and locking those doors… but at this stage, I think I’m there!

Thanks for the encouragement, help and support - I read a few threads on this forum that got me there as well as the article on crypto.com and some other places.

🙁hi):