Greetings,
Many years ago I was given a payphone. I recently stumbled across it in my collecion of stuff. Is there anyway to identify it and maybe get a set of keys?
TIA
Every Payphone has is own keys. You would have to drill through the locks.
Rather than drilling, which will get you no where, slowly, try this:
Take a hammer drill, set to "hammer only" and put a 1/2" drill bit in backwards, press the drill bit against the lock. The vibration will spin the nuts off the studs holding the lock. The lock will fall into the phone.
Wow, Arthur. You never fail to amaze, and now to scare me a little.
:-)
Jim
Bwa-ha-ha-ha...
You are no match for my evil talents, 007.
I have a couple Medeco upper housing locks in my collection. I've been heavy into lockpicking, collecting, and refurbishing for 5-6 years now.
I've seen a wide variety of high security locks for payphones - the WE 30C lever locks are particularly evil!
https://www.crypto.com/photos/misc/wecolock/
Don't forget, you need the T Handle key as well.
Rcaman
Every Payphone has is own keys. You would have to drill through the locks.
That depends. Might be true of COCOTs (I don't know.) Telco owned payphones have individually keyed coin boxes but the upper housings are all the same by region. For example a N. CA and a S. CA upper key for Pacific Bell. There are sources for the upper keys. If the phone was a telco phone and location where it was installed is known it's quite possible a key can be obtained for the upper.
Take a hammer drill, set to "hammer only" and put a 1/2" drill bit in backwards, press the drill bit against the lock. The vibration will spin the nuts off the studs holding the lock. The lock will fall into the phone.
Great idea...the next time I am downtown and don't have enough coins to plug the parking meter, I'll just grab my Dewalt cordless roto hammer from my rig.
Might even have enough for a cup of coffee too.
Arthur that is a great trick. I used to have a rout e of about 100 payphones I wish I knew that trick woudl of saved my lots of time and trouble.
This brings back memories, my 1st son was nicknamed "the bag man" as we went around coleceting coin boxes from my payphones. And yes, when a location wanted to change providers of service or better put, a higher percentage of the take, the new vendor would drill our locks to remove the payphones. Thank god I got out of that business when cellular phones came on the scene...But a hammer drill, well dang it all to hell, if I only knew!