“I lost the combination to my safe. Can my safe be opened without damage?” Usually the answer to this very common question is yes.

Many home fire safes and antique safes can be opened by a trained locksmith or safe technician by drilling a very small hole in a precise location into the safe lock. The locksmith uses surgical scopes to enter the tiny hole and view the lock tumblers.

Opening a safe with a tiny hole is called “Micro-Drilling” and should be performed by a trained professional. The object is to open the safe with such a small hole the repair will go unnoticed. Micro-drilling is any size hole measuring 3/16 inch or smaller. The most popular size hole for micro-drilling is 1/8 of-an-inch.

Medical grade arthroscopic scopes are what makes micro-drilling possible. The scope allows the locksmith to see in vivid detail the tumblers of the safe lock. The locksmith lines up the tumblers at the correct location and unlocks the safe.

If you were to shine a flashlight down a 1/8 inch size hole you would not see anything to help you unlock a safe.  A very narrow scope is necessary and the serious safe technician or locksmith will have these tools.

This post is to let you know you have options to opening a safe with a lost combination. Be mindful however that not every safe can be opened with a tiny hole. Some safes must be opened with a ¼ inch size hole or larger because of the barrier material used by the safe manufacturer to protect the safe lock from a drill attack.

Micro-drilling is only used for lost combinations on mechanical safe locks. If your safe opens with a keypad other procedures must be employed to open the lock. Electronic safe locks must always be replaced after opening by any method.

Safe lock malfunctions cannot be overcome with micro-drilling. Sometimes malfunctions require more than one hole to get the safe open. Malfunctions are usually (but not always) the result of neglect and/or abuse by the end-users of the safe.

If you need a locksmith or safe technician to open your safe go to www.clearstar.com or www.findalocksmith.com to find a professional in your area.

My first “lock-in” service call happened when I was still an apprentice. A woman had a double-keyed deadbolt on her apartment door. Apparently the key was misplaced or lost inside the apartment. The woman and her children were trapped inside, a very bad situation to be in. I had to climb through a window and take the lock apart from the inside to get the door open.

Over the years I have had to open doors on homes where the locks were unlocked, but the doorknob would not turn. These jobs are rare, but they still happen without warning. And they can happen with any brand of lock. The cause of the lock malfunction is a dead-latch failure. The dead-latch is used with key operated doorknobs or levers. The dead-latch is designed to prevent a burglar from pushing the latch back with a knife or ice pick, this is often called “jimmying,” the door open.

The dead-latch has a button next to the latch. When the door closes the button stays depressed. This activates a block inside the latch assembly and the latch cannot be pushed in. It will only retract when it is pulled in by the doorknob. If the dead-latch fails, the “block” inside the latch assembly will not allow the knob to pull the latch back. Usually this problem is an inconvenience and everyone has to enter and exit the home through another door. If there is only one entrance this problem could escalate into a crisis.

The only way to get the door open is to remove the lock and dissect the latch into pieces and remove it from the door until the latch retracts. I have seen some jobs where the door is butchered and hacked until the door opens. If the door is wood the repair can be made with wood plugs, but if the door is metal or fiberglass a wrap-a-round plate is used to hide the scars and the holes. The purpose of this Blog is to inform the reader the door does not have to be hacked apart to get it open.

I would advise you to find a professional locksmith to get the door open and replace the lock. The photos in this Blog are to show you how difficult and ugly this job can be. I would also advise you to replace a dead-latch with a spring-latch if you only have one entrance into your apartment or efficiency. You should have a good deadbolt lock on your door for security. The main purpose of the doorknob is to hold the door closed while the door is unlocked.

You can see how difficult this job is even for a seasoned professional in a controlled environment. Do yourself a favor and seek out a good locksmith in your area before you need one. Ask around your neighborhood or the local hardware store. Someone in your area has used a locksmith, maybe more than one. You can learn a lot from the experiences of others. A good place to start looking is www.findalocksmith.com