February 12, 2016

I have been tinkering with my Ely Norris cannonball and would appreciate anyone's comments. Doug MacQueen was a lot of help.

Here is what I have discovered so far. On my Ely Norris, there is no way to remove the jeweled trim plate surrounding the time lock. There was no cut-out in the trim plate to pass over the door-hinge of the time lock. The only way to remove the trim plate was to remove the timelock first because the timelock door hinge blocks it. The timelock came out very easily by removing the four bolts securing it to the time lock body. The time lock clock mechanism is suspended in the brass case by 8 springs. Four short ones and four a little longer.

As an aside, the trip lever that releases the locking bolts is secured by one bolt inserted through it, but to remove it, you have to take the jeweled cover off. If you just loosen or remove the bolt and pull on the trip lever to try to pull it out, you will DESTROY the spring. The end of the spring is secured on the trip lever by several wraps of the steel wire and then twisted like tying a fish hook. It is never coming off. The other end of the spring is simply an eye held by a bolt that is easily loosened. I took the trip lever off and put it in a bag with the spring still attached.

I took two pieces of all-thread and cut them to approximately 10 5/8 inches. I then put two nuts in the middle of each and jammed those together so I could turn the all-thread with a 7/16 wrench. I used the plates off of two small muffler clamps that were already drilled with elongated holes and then put this whole contraption over the locking bolts. Finally, I used four nuts with the plastic insert that prevents them from backing off and tightened it all up so I could close the safe door with the lugs safely retracted and secured. You have to take a small gear off for the all-thread to clear, but it is only held on by one screw. All the materials were a few bucks at Home Depot.

I did all this so I could close the door to sandblast the safe body.

Now I am having second thoughts. What about just taking the door off the cradle to prep the body? I was messing with it and the cradle or yoke pried off pretty easily. My heart sunk when it would not go back on, but with a wood block and small sledge and one fairly light tap, the cradle popped on again. I tapped downward on the bottom of the ring to get it back on.

Make sure and mark where the ring engages the pinion. I did not and it was a hassle to reinstall in the right place.

So I am thinking now to just take the door off the cradle and send the body shell with cradle-swinging yoke still attached out to be sandblasted and primed.

Any thoughts or suggestions on that?

Also the interior of my safe looks like it has never been painted. It has shiny spots like a grinder was used to smooth it down.

Would you paint the inside? I'm not going to sell the safe.

How hard is it to take apart the door cradle? Do you lose all the adjustments?

Thanks,

texaschilli