How would you open a safe with conventional tools?

[Avenged7Fold]

As title. No damaging what's inside. You can assume things like coins, paper money, important documents and all the top limited edition snacks which are no longer being produced. Real contents will be announced in the near future (i know what's inside but telling would ruin the fun)

To your disposal you have standard DIY tools and anything you can buy from the shops for up to £278. Bonus points for methods which would open the safe quickly.

At the risk of ruining the fun in the thread: the safe is not stolen, It is our office's accounts department safe. About a month ago it decided that our key no longer fit in the safe (after operating happily for decades). We have tried drilling the lock mechanism and various other things like getting lock smiths and such out.

Getting it open isn't hard but time consuming. We are almost done with getting into it but its taken quite a bit of my colleague's time.

Spoiler

So what would you do differently if you had to get it open?

Not after advice in this thread but rather want to provoke creative methods. I imagine the safe will have a large hole in it by the end of the day, if the thread is still alive, i will announce the contents with pics. If my colleague gives up, then I will announce the contents early.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

What I first do is ask how old the safe is, then pending on that knowledge, I wouldnt go smashing the top/sides of it off, seeing as how it could potentially be lined with asbestos or have asbestos rope.

Have fun

The picture shows its lined with 3" of concrete. It is about 30 years i would say

 

[Avenged7Fold]

How tall is your office building ? mavity ..... no tools required.

3 stories and it was the first thing we tried. Carpark now a bit dodge lol

 

[Avenged7Fold]

maybe have some fun with a small amount of thermite to begin with - not an excessive amount but enough to cause some damage/weaken the safe... then go to town with that chisel/drill etc... (I'd probably be attacking the door rather than the top tbh..)

Door is solid steel, so not an option.

I have offered some thermite but there is now way we can use it without burning the contents. The smallest amount required would still need to melt through

 

[Avenged7Fold]

Thermite on the lock.

That would just break the lock not unseal it. Unsealing with thermite isn't an option for the reasons mentioned before

 

[Avenged7Fold]

why would it need to melt through?

How would thermite get in without melting the steel?

Also i am a deft hand when it comes to lock picking but this is no normal lock. If we can free the key later, i will post it.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

but you don't want the thermite to get in do you... it would burn the contents

Like i said, thermite not an option. An amount used to open it would be enough to burn the contents. The paper inside would burn before the steel would melt through, just because of how quick the safe and its contents would heat up.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

It will be open within the hour, just wondering what creative things others can come up with. Drill and cutter seems to have worked really well so far, if a lil slow.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

but I'm not suggesting melting all the way through with it - I've already pointed out that would burn the contents

if you're hammering away at the top you could weaken the top too with it

I don't understand how the thermite would help at all if it isnt to be used to melt through the steel layers. Steel conducts heat too well to use it, i just suggested it for the sake of entertainment. The first layer was just done by drill and saw, concrete was a few wacks of a hammer and chissel. Last layer is the hardest. We dont know how thick it is, so drill and saw might not work

 

[Avenged7Fold]

So instead of heat with thermite, how much liquid nitrogen would £278 buy ? I'm thinking get the metal really cold and brittle then hit with a sledgehammer.

Enough to cool it down but it wouldn't break before it heats back to room temperature.

As for lock picking...

The lock is silly and the key which pushes the pins down is three dimensional rather than a flat toothed thing which you twist.


Safe is open now btw. My mate started at 11am and only just finished. Pictures to follow and the £278 was recovered

 

[Avenged7Fold]

Melt the hinges with thermite.

Hinges on the inside and it still wouldn't unseal it.

Disc cutter?

Essentially what was used with a heavy duty drill.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

ask somewhere with a plasma cutter? would that work?

Probably be a little quicker than the cutter but more dangerous to the contents

 

[Avenged7Fold]

Hire a pneumatic road drill jackhammer thingy?

I like your thinking!



The last layer was surprisingly thin and was easier than the first layer and concrete apparently.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

Finally, precious arcade money.

If only it was still the 80's

I feel that the safe manufacturers really cheeped out with the thin panels and concrete filler. TBF though, its too heavy to move without some powered device to assist and takes so long to break into that the safe would need to be in their safe possesion. If there was a few more layers of steel i would imagine it would just slow robbers down after they had already reached safety.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

It's all an attitude of mind....

BTW what's in the blue boxes - case fans?

Not sure, i didnt check. They look like the same boxes as we sell some of our socks in. #Must be a secret prototype

Since i do IT and other things for the company, im not really familiar with the products any more but it is likely something cheap and silly.

Who puts 2ps in a safe?

well, would be weird not to keep it with the rest of the money.

 

[Avenged7Fold]

Drill + cutter + giant chisel for concrete