I did some disassembly on the door today. First, to figure out how to get the dial and spindle out and also, to go through some practice assembly runs so I know what to expect when assembling with new paint. I had assumed that with a hole through the door perhaps this National is less secure. Never assume.
Previously I had removed the insides of the lock but the spindle was held in place inside the door somewhere. I removed the time lock and lock case only to discover a 1/2 inch thick steel plate covering door bolt linkage.
https://www.antique-locks.com/images.../2hye79e-1.jpg
Four slotted bolts and it came off. There are a lot of moving pieces to the door bolt linkage but it is simple enough.
https://www.antique-locks.com/images.../264qsxy-1.jpg
Next, I removed the 12 3/4 inch bots that hold on the door lug ring. All the bolts on this safe are British Whitworth threads and most have an odd number of threads per inch for their diameter. This revealed what was holding the spindle shaft in place. A threaded bung that is locked in place by a flat head screw in the threads.
https://www.antique-locks.com/images...9/64e638-1.jpg
Once this bung is screwed out it reveals a very stout spindle shaft that has a taper on the shaft that matches a taper machined in the door. This along with the thick threaded bung would prevent nitro from being introduced and would make punching the dial a pointless endeavor. To reduce excessive drag on the taper, it was lubricated with a graphite grease.
https://www.antique-locks.com/images.../11c8vmr-1.jpg
https://www.antique-locks.com/images.../2gxrbzs-1.jpg
The dial is just a tight slip on fit. It has a square shaft with one angle corner so it can only go on one way.
https://www.antique-locks.com/images.../2w2hao6-1.jpg
After removing the door lug ring there were thin pieces of card stock stuck between the the ring and the main door. Some were several thick, perhaps to act as shims?
https://www.antique-locks.com/images...9/ivy15d-1.jpg
Upon closer inspection I noticed printing and writing on them. All together there were 31 of them and they turned out to be cut up employee time cards. Some of them matched up and provide a few interesting tidbits. Most of the time cards are from June 1906 and show working hours of 10 - 11 hours. Here are some fit together to show the top of a National Safe and Lock time card.
https://www.antique-locks.com/images...9/5zgyhd-1.jpg
Two pieces that match have writing on the back. It says:
Serial 249
Case 7932
Move 33197-198-1??
Motor 1149
Another piece shows the same case number but has the numbers 33577-578-???
https://www.antique-locks.com/images...9/juelxg-1.jpg
My National is number 32650 which becomes a bit confusing. It is a smaller/earlier number but had to be assembled after these time cards. I can only speculate that perhaps the numbers ran concurrently across all models of safes (Mosler numbers did) and the cannonballs/bank chests took longer to complete than the standard square safes.
This safe has had some surprises and has been a real joy to work on.