My girlfriend cleaned the bedroom this weekend and found two combination locks to which the combinations are long forgotten. Since I don’t like throwing anything out, and one is locked around the handles of a tote bag, I’m trying to find a way to figure out the combinations.
One of them, the one on the bag, is at least eight years old, from Master. I actually set the combination on this one, but I don’t remember what it is. It’s a four-digit combination, the lock consists of four rotating things. I’m trying the brute-force approach and so far I know 7777 through 7966 are wrong.
The other one isn’t locked. It’s a standard dial lock with no indication of the manufacturer or any identifying information. I’m unwilling to try brute force on that one, since there are between 59,280 and 64,000 combinations, and trying one is a more involved process.
I’m willing to post a link to a picture of the locks and today’s paper to provide evidence that I have these locks in my possession. I’ll set them to the numbers requested by the first response(s) to respectively provide a number between 0000 and 9999 and between 0 and 39.
If I understand you correctly, the first lock consists of four dials, each with a digit 0 to 9.
I can brute-force a 3 dial lock of this type in about 15 minutes, depending on how bored I get. A 4 dial lock would take 2 to 3 hours. I don’t know of any shortcuts, sorry.
Depending on the model of the first lock (the 4-dial), you can sometimes feel out the combination by pulling on the shackle while turning the dials. If it is a type of lock that can be opened this way, you will be able to feel a difference when it clicks into place on the right number. Many locks will simply refuse to turn when pressure is put on the shackle, however.
I remember (from reading Dr. Richard Feynman’s autobiography) that the dials look more accurate than the locks actually are. I think that only about every 5th number was significant. Thus 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 were all the same for combinations. So he just used 0, 5, 10, 15,… as possible numbers for combinations. That really reduces the trials needed in the brute force method.
This. If you spent the same length of time doing some money-gaining activity, you could more than pay for new locks. Even if you stood at a freeway offramp and begged for spare change, this is likely to be true. If you spent the same time inventing a new social-networking web business model, you could buy a whole bunch of new locks.