1890s (?) Diebold

[Doug MacQueen]

Excellent layout pictures and not some little 2 bolt door. Can you show the door completed? Are you in the trade or just a hard working collector?

[Shieldr]

I'm a safe and vault specialist in southwest Idaho. This particular Diebold Bankers was in rough shape--unknown combo, several missing or broken parts (casters, timelock, inner door, etc), and wasn't working very well at all. I opened it with a 1/8" hole and serviced the lock. The customer listed it for sale, but after many months with zero interest, I ended up trading for it just to save it from the scrapyard. After removing the lock, the safe sat in my garage for several years until a collector made me an offer on it. He wanted a bronze lock body and chrome dial, so I retrofitted it with a S&G M6730 and convertible spyproof dial. When all was said and done, I lost a little money on the safe but ended up with a Diebold Anti-Dynamite in my collection. I have plenty more pics if you're interested.

Lance

[Huw Eastwood]

Great photos Shieldr, always enjoy seeing the gritty details like that. Always impresses me the lengths they went to on those oldies.
Imagine the effect on the combination lock of just the tiniest amount of backlash in that gear train, and yet they achieved it and made it to last with just basic spur gears. Very impressive, cheers for posting.

[Mordy]

Here are some Pics with most of the hardware removed.
Was hoping to find a hidden weep hole or similar passage to get lubrication to the inner mechanism but no such thing so far.
Just lubing what I could from the outside seemed to have solved the dial sticking problem but I would like do more as its apart now.
One thought was to remove the door, lay it flat, and try to oil by letting it seep in from both sides.
Delaminating the door sounds very difficult and maybe above the availability of my tools and knowledge so I hope it does not come to that.
I am a newer collector and try to not do anything above my skills that would cause damage (thats my story and I am sticking to it)