Combination locks can be a little confusing to operate. We’re here to help!

A mechanical combination lock is one that has a dial you rotate as opposed to an electronic keypad. There are a variety of types of mechanical locks available today, but this article deals with the most common type we find around Central Arkansas. These instructions will not help you if you are trying to open a Sentry Safe. Sentry uses an entirely different type of lock, but we have videos explaining how to operate them as well!

The technical term for this type of lock is a Group 2 Mechanical Combination Lock. This is for a 3 wheel, or 3 number, version.

The basic dialing sequence for a 3 wheel combination lock is as follows:
4 rotations left (counterclockwise) to the first number
3 rotations right (clockwise) to the second number
2 rotations left to the third number
1 rotation right until the dial comes to a complete dead stop.

Shut The Front Door Ep. 2 - Combination Locks How to open a mechanical combination lock and preventative maintenance

For example, let’s say the numbers in your combination are 65-15-70. You would begin by turning your dial left (counterclockwise) and every time you see the number 65, you count it as a revolution. Continue rotating the dial to the left until you see the number 65 for the 4th time, and stop directly on it.

Now you can proceed to the 2nd number in your combination, which is 15 in our example. Begin rotating the dial to the right, and count every time you see the number 15. Continue rotating until you see 15 for the 3rd time, and stop directly on it.

We proceed on to the last number in the combination, which is 70 in our example. Rotate the dial to the left counting every time you see the number 70, and stop direcctly on it the 2nd time you see it.

Now that you have dialed in your combination, all that remains is to retract the bolt to unlock the safe! This is accomplished by rotating the dial to the right until it comes to a complete stop. This usually happens between the numbers 0 and 85, depending upon the manufacturer of the lock.

Now you can rotate the handle on the door and open it!

The video above provides additional visual instructions and details to this process.

If you have more than 3 numbers in your combination or some other different detail involved in your safe, give us a call! We will try to walk you through it over the phone, and if that doesn’t work, we will come to your location and help you gain access.

Bad things happen around the world all the time. We can’t stop that.

But we can help disaster victims in Conway and North Central Arkansas gain access to their possessions.

We provide safe openings for local disaster victims free of charge. If you have suffered loss due to Fire, Flood, or other natural disaster, give us a call.

Many times after surviving flood or fire, a safe lock will fail, particularly if it is an electronic lock. For those who have been the victim of a total loss fire, sometimes the only familiar things left in existence are contained inside their fire safe!

After a safe has been in a flood or fire, time is of the essence to minimize damage to the items inside. Most safes are not waterproof, so if they are submerged, you can assume that the contents have been exposed to water.

In a fire, a fire rated safe becomes extremely humid inside which can be problematic for items such as guns. It induces rust in metalic parts like gun barrels.

If you have a safe to which you cannot gain access after a disaster, give us a call. We will work with your schedule to help you get back to your possessions as soon as possible.

Disaster recovery is a process, and we would like to help you start that process by reuniting you with what remains after the disaster!

People often ask us, “What do you locksmiths do besides unlock houses and cars?” In short, we service anything in a door opening—from the threshold to the closer, and anything in between!

To the right you can see a gallery of before and after pictures from a recent commercial threshold replacement we provided at a local Sonic in Conway, Arkansas. This back exit at receives heavy use for trash removal as well as stock replenishment. As you can see from the first picture, the threshold took all the abuse it could stand! This problem presented not only an inconvenience, but a safety hazard as well due to the sharp edges of the aluminum sticking up at ankle height!

This door required a special rabbeted threshold that is not readily available at local hardware stores. This typ of threshold is common in food service applications for health department code compliance because they provide a seal around the full perimeter of the opening, preventing intrusion from insects, rodents, or windblown debris.

Next time your door is slamming, or won’t close, or won’t latch, or your key is difficult to turn in it—contact us! We will help you in the right direction so you can get back to your important work without distractions from your doors!

If you have ever been the victim of a burglary, you know how unnerving the experience can be.

And that concern doesn’t go away overnight! Unfortunately we can’t heal all the trauma associated with the experience, but we can help provide you with a little peace of mind!

A common method of attack used by burglars is to kick in the door. This is a very fast way to gain entry to a residence due to the cheap locking hardware frequently used in residential construction.

When a door is kicked in, what usually happens is the jamb is broken out at the location of the strike plates. This is where the latch on your lock enters the door jamb. These strike plates are often only secured into the jamb with 3/4” screws. This means it requires surprisingly minimal force to to split out the trim and have the door wide open!

The video below demonstrates a product that can not only prevent a kick-in attack, but can also usually repair a door jamb after it has been split out. Not only does it repair the jamb, it makes the jamb much stronger than it was before the intrusion!

Take a look, and give us a call if you have any questions! We want to help you avoid an intrusion or recover from one.

Shut The Front Door Ep. 4 In this episode, Ted Nugent joins us for an Installation and Demonstration of the Jamb Enforcer, and we make unfounded blanket statements about gamers! Great product to reinforce a door frame against forced entry, or repair the jamb after a kick-in attack.

After a long hiatus for a complete redesign of the website and branding, (Thanks to Silverlake Design Studio) Shut The Front Door is back in business!

We hope to bring you interesting and helpful information on a more regular basis moving forward.

Would you like more information about a security or door harware topic? Drop us a note and we will contribute what we can to the discussion!