How to open a Leabank Champion CH103TG safe

[RJS]

Sorry if this sounds too implausible:

My office is closing and, as part of the stripping out of the kitchen, a small safe has been consigned to the scrap skip. I have, legitimately, obtained the safe. The reason that it has been dumped is that it is locked and neither the key nor the combination are available. This, probably, came about because the kitchen staff were made redundant approx. one year ago when the kitchen was closed.

So, am I wasting my time looking for a means to open the safe. A brief and rather fruitless Google suggests that I need both key and combination to open the safe.

It's a perfect size for a domestic safe.

TIA

Richard

[Harry Bloomfield]

RJS expressed precisely :

How about finding a locksmith's course and inviting them to open it?

[newshound]

not solve your problem, but fun. There's lots of stuff on the web.

[Skipweasel]

Tim Hunking is my hero! Well, not quite as much as Rex Garrod - I must take him up on a long-standing invitation to visit his workshop.

Secret Life of Machines should be used in school.

[The Medway Handyman]

All together now.....

Angle Grinder!

[brass monkey]

Start the fans, PLEASE.

[Frank Erskine]

WD-40 would probably solve the whole problem, wouldn't it?

[Andy Dingley]

Bad news I suspect.

The easiest way is likely to be to retrieve the key and combination from whoever had them last. Even if this involves phoning around a _lot_.

You can of course have it opened for you. This requires one phone call and a sum of money. However safes (small enough to transport) are fairly cheap these days, as there are plenty around from closures like yours, and many come with keys. So the chances are that an empty safe is cheaper to replace than it is to have opened for you.

You can open it yourself. This is fairly easy (just slow and noisy), although it's impossible (for practical values) to open it in a way that's re-usable afterwards, as it would be if it was drilled carefully by a locksmith. If you hack carefully though, and you take out a reasonably sized panel from around the lock, then you can remove the lock mechanism and the wreckage of the relocker plate, leaving enough access to the bolts to withdraw them. You can then repair by welding in a whole new lock mechanism, using the original bolts.

[John Williamson]

All interesting stuff posted by the others, but have you tried contacting the makers with proof of ownership?

They may have records permitting them to make a new key, and a record of the combination it left the factory with.

[RJS]

Thanks John

Google is strangely unhelpful in identifying a manufacturer. I found a few 'opening services'.

As for buying a cheap, but working safe; one of life's pleasures is bringing cast-off stuff back into use.

Cheers

Richard

[John Williamson]

Leabank are a supplier of office furniture based in Stockport, and list own brand safes on their website:-

've not searched the site in detail, but entering "safe" in their search button shows a few matches.

[RJS]

Thanks John

Yes, I encountered these people.

I've also had a call this morning from a safe opening firm. They explained that Leabank safes are no longer manufactured. They can open the safe but it would be unusable after doing so - I'd need a new lock afterwards and they wouldn't be able to open the combination without the original key. However the cost of doing so would be more than the price of a new, reasonable, domestic safe. They suggested slicing it open just for curiosities sake!

Cheers

Richard

[GB]

If there's stuff in it, can you keep it?

I'd be inclined to try an angle grinder on the back of it, as it sounds like it's worthless.

[Skipweasel]

Once the back's off, you could happily weld it back on again - once it's stood against the wall few burglars are going to check on the off chance it's easier to open than they expect.

Like most security, it's about delay and obfuscation rather than outright defence.

[Dave Liquorice]

Agreed, of course a safe you can pick up and stagger away with is of little use it needs to be securly attached to something imovable. FSVO imovable, see reports of thefts of ATMs with the aid of a JCB.

[Andy Dingley]

Safe opening tip for thin steel safes (domestic grade): Don't "angle grind the back off". In particular, don't use a cutting disk edge on to saw through the plates. Instead, use the face of a grinding disk to cut through the edges and release the back that way. This has the advantage of throwing the sparks et al _outside_ the safe, not inside. Also it leaves much less damage to repair afterwards.

For a thick walled case, it depends on the construction. In some cases though (and if it's light) it's easier to open it like a Spam can, cutting a narrow slice in a ring around the sides. Shortening the safe slight front to back allows it to be re-welded.

[Skipweasel]

When we bought a cheap tin safe (it's little more than an 1/8" plate box) I bolted it to the floor and the wall. Originally it came with floor bolts only, but that left it free to be levered away from the wall. A couple of bolts at the top made a big difference to how solid it felt. However, most of all, it's not in an obvious place and it's usually hidden under piles of stuff and it has a 3/4" chipboard box round it to help with fire resistance - anyone who's tried to burn chipboard will know why.

[RJS]

Hadn't thought about using chipboard to make our 'official' safe fire resistant. What an excellent thought. This 'official' safe is a tin box made by Yale that was bought by SWMBO as a means of keeping our essentials in one place to guard against loss - loss meaning putting somewhere safe and then forgetting where! Sometime in the next year or two I'll fix it somewhere obscure and forget . . . . .

Richard ;-)

[Skipweasel]

To be honest, that was the main reason I bought this one - we do already have somewhere "safe" but a filing cabinet is a bit too bloody obvious - filed under Passports and Bank Books etc!

The fireproofing idea came from trying to burn some old kitchen cabinets on a very large fierce bonfire. We noticed that if you didn't actually beat them around they just charred for sometimes up to twenty minutes leaving whatever was on the cool side of them relatively unscathed.

[GB]

You'd still need to make keys and reset the combination - sounds expensive!

That's passive security you're talking about.