I thought you guys might enjoy seeing the monster early 1900's York vault door I have spent the last couple days drilling. Finally got it open yesterday.
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I thought you guys might enjoy seeing the monster early 1900's York vault door I have spent the last couple days drilling. Finally got it open yesterday.
Nice, sounds like another job well done Doug, you know we have to see pictures of it open though, you can't leave us looking at the front of it!
More pictures will be forthcoming but probably not for several days. I am recuperating as the drilling was a real bear. It was about 19" to get into the lock. Fortunately I had a much younger helper on the job.
Hi Doug, this door deserves it's own thread, away from the miniatures. Sorry! If you don't mind please post your opening true to this builder. Also includes a famous Vault Engineer Benjamin Tripp as well as the first I've seen of a labeled Bank Engineer Thomas Bruce Boyd.
DH
Here are the first group of pictures right after the door was opened. Its not the biggest door I have worked on but it is the biggest drilled so far. That's a 24" drill bit. The door is 6 feet wide and about 8-1/2 feet tall. Note the inner heavy door. From what I have seen, this 2 door system was popular in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Then the really thick doors came in after that.
Doug that's very impressive, have to say hats off to you again there.
It always amazes me how you guys maintain pin point accuracy on those big doors with those hand held drilling set-ups.
The old Bux mag drill I used was a pain when using long drills and extensions but was in its favour a rigid setup, albeit a very heavy one. Even so it suffered a fair bit of wandering over say ten or twelve inches and the magnet gradually slipped down under its own weight. Even tightly cabled with a caravan winch it was never perfect.
But its only really when you've drilled in such circumstances that you know how difficult it can be, and how a tiny amount of gradual deviation leads to being way off target on a thick door like you've drilled there, which makes me understand and appreciate what you've done all the more.
Very impressive and worthy of the credit it deserves- hope you bill them accordingly complete with smug grin included !
Btw, if that's you in the photo and not your stunt double, you actually look vaguely familiar- wondering if we met lock impressioning at the NEC Convention in the 1980's but can't remember which year, around 87 or 88? Small world if we did.Not sure if you got the PM but let me know if you want any changes.
Almost forgot - beautiful door, don't seem to see so many with those fine steps, very nice.
Thank Huw, yes drill deflection was a big concern. However after years of fantasizing about drilling the 4 foot thick Cleve Fed door, I was somewhat prepared mentally. We did start off with a Baby Bux, hence the orange support strap, but switched over to the lever rig at about 9" deep. The 5 very thick layers of 5 ply hardened chrome steel interspersed throughout the door laminates made for slow drilling. Never been to NEC, so we haven' t met before.
Do you start with a shorter bit and then change out when you need the extra length?
What do you use as lubricant?
Nice drill job Doug and very impressive vault door, nice big lock with plenty of open space for a scope hole, had you serviced the door before, so you knew for definite the lock type?
Nice work Doug! Not many have the knowledge or ambition to complete that opening. I'm familiar with that door and it's location, impressive to say the least. Either your very short or that door is very large. ;)
A rare door in my opinion. I've drilled two of these Tripp doors of a smaller model and maker, both in active banks. Looks like the inner vestibule door didn't need drilling? It would have been nice with twice the pay day.
Congratulations.
DH
Yes started with short bits and used longer as needed with Mike-O-Cut No.87 heavy duty cutting oil. I had a big advantage on identification on the lock as there is an identical door entrance at the other end of the 16' x 66' vault room that was open. However, lacking that, only the No. 1 and 2 S&G Automatics used a 4-1/4" dial ring. The No. 2, later the C39-1/2, and still later the 651x series. According to the 1927 S&G catalog, top and bottom offset drives were available and York did make wide use of Yale versions of those offsets. But having never seen a big S&G vault lock with anything other than a sideshaft version, I would have gone for that. Knowing the door thickness definitely made the job go faster. The 17" x 3-3/8" crane hinge does give a good indication that the door was on the heavy size. Close inspection of the open door also let me know that my apparent available space in the lock was complicated by a hidden heavy horizontal supporting block that did not cover the entire lock area. Either drill through it or miss it entirely. Hitting it partially was not something I wanted to do, so between that and the pressure bar gear housing limiting hole location, the big area was reduced somewhat. But it appears that there was minimal drill deflection, so it did work out fine. I do know that without a sample the job would have taken quite a bit longer and I would have charged a whole lot more.
Thanks guys, here are a couple shots of the former National City Bank soon to be another fancy restaurant. Sorry for the poor pictures but you get the idea.
A hole shot and drilling helper Matt Dzurko, who got me the job.
David, either you have a photographic memory or Skip is sending you messages from beyond. Can you place this door?
Is that the old Union Trust Bank downtown Providence RI.Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug MacQueen
DH
Very interesting, Doug. Do you know how thick the 5 layer sheets of chrome steel were? It was probably made by the Chrome Steel Works. As you know I have an interest in this burglar plate (Adamantine) since I discovered their trade mark stamping on each piece of my Mosler screw door safe. According to a 1904 document I found recently they had the capability to make sheets of this 5 ply burglar plate 100 inches wide, 2.5 inches thick, in any length.
It is claimed to be drill, cut, and explosion proof, at least back in the day. Guess you have proved them wrong. :(giggle):
http://www.antique-locks.com/images/...4/1so0lz-1.jpg
Yes found it in downtown Providence. Unfortunately only had a little time there, but it's a very impressive double door setup.
The 5 ply was 1-1/4" thick and there were 5 layers of it spread throughout the door. So the total of the chrome steel was 2-1/2", two 1/4" layers in each section of 5 ply.
Doug what a difference in the swarf we can see in those pictures, what's fallen onto the gear housing for the pressure bars in the picture where the dials removed looks positively nasty! Fine and powdery with needle sharp chips has all the hallmarks of the really hard stuff, whereas the long twisted spirals fallen down onto the hinge carriage in the picture where you're holding the drill looks soft/mild in comparison. That's one thick door to be battling hard stuff deep like that, the more I look at the pictures the more impressive it is.
Is the hard stuff in parallel to the face of the door, or is it at an angle?
What size drill did you use BTW?
The burglar plate is a laminated sheet. In this picture you can see the layer joints in the 5 ply burglar plate. These pieces probably started out as 1.25” but were machined to 1” to be bolted together to create the door and door jamb on a Mosler screw door safe.
http://www.antique-locks.com/images/.../11rf4no-1.jpg
At first look I thought Mosler’s machining quality was poor but after learning of the layers of different hardness of the material, I could understand why it would have an uneven finish.
http://www.antique-locks.com/images/.../2cd8nq1-1.jpg
Now you've seen one. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug MacQueen
And do you have that in left hand? Next you'll tell me it came off a Tripp York door. Thanks for the picture.