Safecracking for Everyone part 1 text

	This is the first and most important episode in the series: Safecracking for Everyone. In this episode I will go over how a group 2 safe lock works. It's really important that you understand this as everything builds off of knowing how these locks function. Thankfully, they're not too complex.
	Safe locks are divided into 2 main categories. The “high” security group 1 and the low security group 2. There's an in-between group, the 2M, which are group 2's with some added manipulation resistance techniques. But not enough to qualify them as group 1's. Group 2's are what i'll be covering since they are by far the most common mechanical safe locks out there. Even if you buy a $5k safe, it will come with a lock that anyone can open with no tools in under 5min. As an additional note, there are some locks which don't fall under these categories. If your dial doesn't spin when applying pressure to the handle of the safe, then it's a direct entry lock and works differently. I won't be covering those in this series.
	Before I start, feel free to pause at any point and rewatch or write down whatever you need to. There's going to be a lot of new terms thrown at you and it can get confusing at times.

	Now heading right into it, there is a metal rod, called the spline, attached to the dial which runs through the door of the safe and through the lock. The spline is attached to this metal disk called the drive cam. When I turn the dial, the drive cam directly moves with the dial.
	You can see that the drive cam has a cutout; this is called the contact area. Resting on the drive cam, you can a protrusion from a lever. This protrusion is called the nose. When I turn the dial so that the contact area is under the nose, the nose drops down a bit into the contact area.
	There are two points at which the nose will come back into contact with the drive cam. You can see it hit the drive cam here and here. These points of contact are called the left and right contact points. The contact point on the more sloped side of the drive came is the right contact point because when in front of the lock, it's on the right. These points can actually be felt when spinning the dial and are what will end up telling us the combination.
	Behind this drive cam, you can see a circular disc, called a wheel. There are 3 of these wheels stacked on each other, 1 for each number in the combination. The one visible here, the furthest back from the user, is the 3rd wheel. The first wheel is closest to the front of the lock with the 2nd wheel sandwiched between them. Each wheel has a cutout, called a gate. Gates correspond to a number in the combination. Dialing the correct combination will align these gates and here's why they need to be aligned..
	Now, you may have noticed that when I spun the dial so that the contact area is under the nose, the nose did not drop all the way down. That's because attached to the lever is a bar, called the fence. When the nose is in the contact area, the fence rests on top of these wheels and prevents the nose from falling further if the incorrect combination is dialed. So when the correct combination is dialed, and the gates are all aligned under the fence, whole entire lever assembly can fall down. Turning the dial                                                          further will retract the bolt and unlock the safe handle. The safe handle just retracts the big bolts coming out of the door that hold it in place. This bolt is what keeps the handle from turning.

	The way moving the dial is able to align the wheels in the gates is due to the design of the wheels and the drive cam. Each wheel has a groove on  top and a protrusion on the bottom. The groove allows the protrusion of the wheel above it to rest in it, or in the case of the 3rd wheel, it allows the protrusion on the bottom of the drive cam to rest in it. If you imagine my lockpick as a wheel, you can see that the protrusion will move smoothly until it hits the metal stopper. At which point it will pick up the next wheel, meaning it will cause the next wheel to spin with it. You can see this when I spin the dial. It moves the drive cam by itself until it hits the stopper. Pause. If I keep spinning the dial, then eventually it will pick up the 2nd wheel, then the 1st wheel.
	It takes, at most, 1 full revolution to pick up a wheel. So if I'm spinning all the wheels one direction, and I reverse directions, it takes a full revolution until the protrusion on the drive cam hits the metal stopper on the 3rd wheel. It can take less than 1 full revolution depending on the state of the lock. If the protrusion is resting halfway for instance, you can pick up the next wheel with only half a rotation.

	The standard opening procedure is spin the dial 4 times to the left to the first number, meaning pass it 3 times and stop on the 4th time, 3 times to the right to the 3rd number, passing it twice and stopping it on the third time, and twice to the left to the 3rd number, passing it once and stopping on the second time. Then turn right until the lock opens, which is when the dial does not want to spin anymore. Maybe you already know the reason for this dialing sequence? Pause for a bit and think about it.
	The reason is because you don't know the state of the wheels when you go to manipulate. Turning the dial to the left 4 times ensures that all the wheels are picked up, meaning that they are all spinning together. It takes up to 1 full revolution for the drive cam to pick up the 3rd wheel, up to 1 more full revolution for the 2nd wheel to pick up, and then up to 1 more full revolution for the 3rd wheel to pick up for a total of 3 revolutions to be 100% sure you have picked up all the wheels. But you still have to go to the first number in the combination. The 3 revolutions you already did mean you passed it 3 times, so now keep turning the dial and stop on the 4th time. Same thing with the other wheels and number in the combination.
	If you haven't figured it out by now, this is why the wheel closest to the drive cam is called the 3rd wheel, because it corresponds to the 3rd number in the combination. Since it gets picked up first, that means you can not set the position of any other wheel without disturbing the position of the 3rd wheel. You have to set it last. The first wheel, being last to be picked up, is capable of being left alone while moving the other wheels to wherever you want. As long as you don't turn too much and pick it up again.

	If you have a lock already, take off the back cover and mess around with it. Look and feel for yourself how it works. Every group 2 lock works this way. There's a few minor differences but that only pertains to the actual manipulation and I'll be covering that in later videos.