I had the foresight to quote this job “... plus bits”!) I’ve always been partial to the holesaw method of removing the dial on an S&G 8400 type lock (see my article in S&VT March/April 2012). But because of the hardplate I was expecting (and, turns out, WAY underestimated), I wanted to use my minirig instead of just freehand- ing it with a lever rig. So I had to get the whole dial and dial ring completely out of the way to mount the template. I resorted to the old rocking the dial up and down with a pair of large Vise- Grips to snap the spindle. It worked, but leſt me VERY little spindle sticking out of the door with which to work (Figures 4 and 5). It was a pain in the butt to work with, but doable. Other than the hardplate from be- yond hell, it was a fairly textbook S&G 8400 opening. Signs of Trouble The original problem was a malfunction, with symptoms as follows: You couldn’t get the lever to “drop” at all most of the time. Occasionally, it would feel like it dropped, with some finagling, but then the dial would stop at 96. However, continuing to increase turning pressure on the dial would just cause the lever to pop back out. The dial would then stop at its normal place with the cam expanded. I tried a bunch of times with the same combination of results, then decided just to drill. I started out with a 4" x ¼" StrongArm, right off the bat (Figure 6). Aſter going through the ½" mild steel of the door, I hit what reminded me of run of the mill Black Label hardplate, and thought to myself, “This is gonna be a breeze!” (That elation was shortlived.) Aſter sailing through the first piece of hardplate, I hit what at first felt like nor- mal Red Label hardplate. Yeah, this was a Black Label container. But I’ve seen some WWW.ALOA.ORG Figure 2 Figure 4 Figure 3 Figures 2 and 3. The hardplate was so tough that, at times, even diamonds weren’t making any progress, making old school drill/pound/drill/pound drilling necessary. pretty tough stuff on the occasional Black Label. And this being a post office safe, I went in expecting “bad.” Tough Stuff One of the worst openings, as far as hard- plates go, that I’ve ever experienced was a post office safe in Joe Cortie’s GSA Defeat and Repair class I took at a SAFETECH Convention many years ago. So I wasn’t exactly expecting a cakewalk when I walked up to this thing. (And the first piece of Black Label-like stuff on THIS container really caught me pleasantly off guard.) Anyway, expecting your run-of-the- mill Red Label hardplate for the second piece, I broke out a diamond core (Figure 7) as soon as I heard the “click, click, click, crunch, crunch, crunch” of my carbide bit saying goodbye. Just as a side note, I like to mark my bits — especially diamonds — with a Sharpie, just so I can easily see what kind of (if any) progress I’m making. Figure 6. Drilling started out with a 4" x ¼" StrongArm and seemed deceptively easy. APRIL 2017 KEYNOTES 23 Figure 5 Figures 4 and 5. Rocking the dial up and down with a pair of large Vise-Grips to snap the spindle worked, but left very little spindle sticking out of the door with which to work.
