Service 05 · per unit
We open drawer safes and cash boxes, not vaults
A small safe combination reset or a locked-out drawer safe is bench work we know cold. A fire-rated floor safe or a commercial vault is a different trade with different tools, and we'll tell you that on the phone before you book a visit for nothing.
Where the line sits
Small personal safes only, by design
Small safe service, at this bench, means the kind of unit a household actually owns: a drawer safe bolted inside a closet, a portable cash box with a three-number dial, a hotel-style electronic lockbox that's stopped taking its code. These are mechanically simple compared to a commercial vault — smaller bolt works, thinner steel, wheel packs or basic electronic keypads instead of a UL-rated relocker system — and that's exactly why we're comfortable opening and resetting them without guessing.
A combination reset on a mechanical dial safe involves opening the case (by the combination if you still have it, or by manipulation or drilling a service hole if you don't), removing the wheel pack, and resetting it to a new combination you choose on the spot. On an electronic keypad unit, a reset is usually a battery and a master-reset sequence specific to that lock brand, and sometimes nothing more complicated than dead batteries mistaken for a broken lock. We check the simple explanation first, every time, because it's the actual cause more often than people expect.
What we won't do is pretend a small-safe toolkit scales up to a vault. Fire-rated floor safes, UL-listed burglary safes, and multi-line commercial vaults use hardened relockers and drill-resistant plate that need specialist rigs, and often a factory-certified technician working from the manufacturer's own procedure. Forcing one of those open with small-safe tools risks triggering a relocker permanently, which turns a bad day into a very expensive one. We say no to that job on the phone, not at your door.
In scope
- Drawer safes and closet safes with a mechanical dial or basic electronic keypad
- Portable cash boxes and small document boxes with a combination or key lock
- Combination resets where you still know the current code, or believe you don't
- Opening a locked-out small safe by manipulation first, service-hole drilling only if manipulation fails
Turned down, every time
- Fire-rated floor safes and UL-listed burglary safes — different construction, specialist tools
- Commercial multi-line vaults or bank-grade units
- Any safe with a relocker system we can't identify from the manufacturer plate
- Opening a safe without proof you own or are authorized to access it
How a dial actually gets read
Manipulating a mechanical dial means listening and feeling for the wheel pack's contact points as the dial turns, not brute force and not guesswork through every number on the ring. It's slow, methodical work — on a worn or low-quality dial it can take longer than drilling would, and we say so before starting if the lock looks like it'll fight us.
If manipulation genuinely won't get there, the fallback is a small service hole drilled at a known point specific to that lock model, just large enough to reach the wheel pack with a scope and pick, then patched after. That's a different scale of intervention entirely from drilling out a relocker on a fire safe, which is why we're willing to do one and not the other.
How the visit runs
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Identify the unit over the phone first
Brand, size, dial type or keypad, and whether it's ever been opened before. This is how we tell a job we can do from one we can't, before anyone drives out.
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Confirm ownership or authorization
Same rule as a lockout. We need to know the safe is yours to open, or that you're authorized by whoever it belongs to.
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Try the known combination or the simple fix
Dead batteries, a worn keypad button, or a combination that's just been misremembered account for a good share of "broken safe" calls.
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Manipulate the dial or reset the keypad
Non-destructive first, same policy as every other lock on this bench.
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Drill only if that fails, then reset your combination
A service hole, patched after, and a new combination set to a number you choose before we leave — not one we hand you on a slip of paper.
Per unit
Describe the safe
Brand and size if you know them, whether it's a dial or a keypad, and whether you've got the current combination. That's usually enough for us to tell you honestly whether this is our job.
Furniture and mailbox locks live here
Furniture & drawer locks