New member with an old vault and a Corliss...

GregM

Hi, I’m a new member to this forum. I have a Locksmith license but am pretty much a novice, especially with safes.

I recently purchased a small old Bank building built about 1895. It has a vault and a Corliss Ball Safe in the basement. The vault door is missing parts but I’d like to restore it. The Corliss is open but partially disassembled, although there appear to be pieces inside the safe. I’m hopeful that most of it is still there. I’d like to restore it.
I haven’t had a chance to personally inspect it yet. I’ll post a new thread with the few photos I have.

Thinking of restoring the front room of the bank to a period configuration for use as a small banking museum or possibly as a working office keeping the period configuration. Interested in any blueprints that might help with the design, will post the one period photo I have.

Regards,

Greg

Doug MacQueen

And this building is in Indiana?

David Hovey

Greg,

Would like to see what pictures you have of the Corliss.

GregM

The photos I have are not very good but they are what is available at the moment.

I believe what we are looking at is the back of the internal ball, but with all of the back compartments missing. You can see a few parts inside on the bottom of the Corliss.

This Corliss is in the basement of an old 1890s bank building. It was dropped through the floor so is unlikely to ever come out again.

Assuming all of the back is really missing, this will be a long term restoration looking for parts or making replacements, possibly using 3D printing.

If you can help in any way, please feel free to contact me.

Greg

GregM

I have a little more information on this Corliss. Almost all of the back inner drawers and parts are missing. I’ll be looking for parts if anyone has any. This is a long term project.

An alternative is to fabricate or 3D print replacement parts but I’d need access to original parts to do the drawings

if you can help, please contact me.

GregM

I realize this is an old thread, but the old Corliss isn’t going anywhere…

I finally got a chance to take a few more photos. They should give an idea of what parts are there, and what parts are missing.

Probably the most practical solution is to 3D print the missing pieces. The safe will never be used as a safe again, but only as a display piece. The parts don’t need to be exact to original specs, but I don’t even know what the components that fasten to the back of the rotating door might look like!

So I need your help…

Doug MacQueen

As fate would have it, what looks to be the exact same model has shown up here in Ohio for restoration. I have disassembled all the interior compartment pieces except for the locks and a few other mechanical parts which you are missing. I know next to nothing about 3Dprinting but I suspect it would require a laser scan of each part to have any hope of duplicating the numerous interior sections. I think a bit of hand fitting was also involved. Add to that the numerous locking components that you are missing, it would probably be cheaper and easier to buy another Corliss and lower it into the basement. So a trip to Matt’s outside of Ashland is in your near future if you want to find out what you are up against. I could meet you there on most any day.