Jamed Safe In Unlocked Position

[Eberhard]

Hello, I have a Herrns-Hall-Marvin Co.safe, circa 1911, unable to fine a model number, has two fixed pins on hinged side, three pins on other side of door, none in the vertical, four digit combination,safe worked well in a drug store for Class A narcodics for Dr Kellett(1911 to 19500 after that for Dr Henry McGee and his son Joe(1950 to 1982)at which time I acquired it and has worked well for me until last week. I grew up working in the drug store, apparently Kellett knew the combination, Mcgee did not, we just closed the door every night, and everyone thought it was locked, store got robbed a couple of times over the years, but they never tried the safe.........all they had to do was open the door.....so much for the history

I will skip the part where I went to pick up the safe, Joe died, I took a weeks vacation, went down and helped his wife close the store, transferring Rx to other stores,(they overpaid me for years so that I could go to college ...the least I could do)then later took a friend(drinking buddy) to help me move this HEAVY thing, so pick-up truck with trailer belind parkin illegally on the very wide sidewalk, had a key to store,(still do), unlocked door and then the fun began, could not remember the code for the alarm, here come all the cops in a small Southern town, did I mention it was Halloween night..........and it went downhill from there

finally got the safe home, drink buddy sat down with a couple of beers and figured out the combination........

safe has worked well for me, however, I had it open, talking with my son, and I(for whatever reason) was "twirling" the dial back and forth, went to close and lock the safe, but the handle is jamed....with the pins in the unlocked position, tried the combination to no avail, took the interior "back" off the door and removed the(?) wheels  in one piece(where you set the combination) and found a flat bar 'jammed' in the open position and before I continue and totally ruin the safe I thought I would seek help........so........HELP

thanks

[Albanwr]

Bill,

That's a heck of a story - if you had video taped it you could probably be on America's funniest home video's!!!

Anyway, You have a couple of options.  First send me photos of the bolt work and lock so that I can try to determine what the problem is - basically this is a hands on problem - so you are going to have to be my hands.

Your second option, and the one I recommend the most, would be to have a safe technician check the safe out, service and reassemble it to ensure proper operation.

Oh, by the way, the safe is not a class A narcotics safe - it is a record safe, designed to protect records from heat.  There is very limited burglar resistance as it was not designed as a burglary resistive safe.  Also, as the safe is over 50 years old it does not meet current standards for fire protection.  It should not be used for over night storage of cash, jewelry or valuable documents.

So, send me the pics - high resolution 1-2 mb per pic.

Send them to me at:  [email protected]

Andy