Frugal Joe

If you lost your Master Lock combination, there’s no need to worry. In this three-part guide, you’ll learn how to open a Master Lock, how to retrieve your combination, and how to remember your combination.

Part 1 - How to Open a Master Lock

If you haven’t used a Master Lock in a long time, chances are you won’t really remember how to even open it. However, you will need to know this process when you try to retrieve the combination.

Here’s a tutorial on how to open a Master Lock when you know the combination.

1.       Turn the dial clockwise at least twice before stopping at the first number.

2.       Turn the dial counter-clockwise a full turn past the first number before you stop at the second number.

3.       Turn the dial clockwise again directly to the third number and stop.

4.       Pull the shackle open.

If that still wasn’t clear enough and you’re one of those visual learners, here’s a video tutorial I found online:

Part 2 - How to Retrieve a Lost Master Lock Combination

Option 1:  Contact the Master Lock Company

The first option that comes to mind is to simply contact the Master Lock Company. You would think a simple phone call, fax or email should suffice. However, it turns out they don’t make things quite that easy - at least not anymore.

“Due to increased security concerns nationwide, Master Lock recognizes the heightened need for additional safety measures. We no longer provide lock combinations in response to phone, fax, or email requests. Please follow the procedure outlined below to obtain the combination to your lock and submit your request to:” (Source: http://www.masterlock.com/faq/lostcombo.shtml)

The procedure involves making a photocopy of the serial number on the back of the lock, printing out a Lost Combination Form, having the form notarized by a Notary Public and then mailing both the form and the photocopy of the serial to the company in order to prove that you are the rightful owner of the lock. Note that the photocopy of the lock must show that it is not attached to anything, or otherwise your request will not be approved. Once you have mailed out everything, you will just have to sit back and wait for 4-6 weeks because that’s how long it takes the company to process your request.

I am not sure how all this actually proves you are the owner, but I am certain it makes the whole process more expensive and time-consuming than it ought to be. Having a form notarized costs you around $10. You could probably buy a replacement lock for the same price or less.

If you don’t mind going through all this, here’s the address where you will need to send your request:

Master Lock Warehouse

1600 W. La Quinta Rd

Suite/WHSE # 2B

Nogales, AZ 85621

You can print out the Lost Combination Form from this printer friendly page, or download it as a PDF file.

Option 2: Retrieve the combination on your own

If you think you can just guess a few times until you get the right combination, you’re in for a big surprise. There are over 64,000 possible combinations. How do I know that? It’s simple high school math. There are 40 numbers in a dial and every combination has three numbers, so the number of combinations is 40³, which comes out to 64,000. That said all is not lost. As it turns out, you can reduce the number of combinations you need to try out to a more manageable number, i.e. approximately 100. This may sound like a large number, but it actually isn’t. It can be done in 10 to 30 minutes, depending on how skilled you are with the lock.

METHOD 1

Step 1: Find the Third Number

• Turn the dial two turns to the right and stop at zero.
• Pull up on the shackle as far as you can.
• Gently turn the dial around while maintaining tension on the shackle.
• The dial should get stuck between two numbers. For example, you may be able to move it only between 0 and 1. This is the “sticking range” and you should make a note of this range as well as the number in the middle of that range. For example, the number between 0 and 1 would be 0.5.
• Loosen your grip on the shackle and turn the dial just past the first sticking range. Now pull up the shackle again and maintain tension as you turn the dial further to find the next sticking range. Do this for all the numbers on the dial.
• You should get 12 sticking ranges and each sticking range comes with a midpoint value. One of these 12 midpoint values will be the third number in your combination. You will have to determine which one.
• Let’s assume these are the midpoint values that you found: 3, 5.5, 7, 9.5, 12.5, 13, 14.5, 17.5, 20.5, 23, 25.5, and 33.  Seven of these end in .5 and can be dismissed right away. The third number of your combination is going to be a whole number for sure. That leaves us with just five remaining numbers:  3, 7, 13, 23, and 33. The four decoys will be different from the right number and share a common digit. Note that 7 is the only number that doesn’t end in 3. So 7 is our last number.
• Note: You can skip steps 2 and 3 by using these tables I prepared: third number between 0 and 9, third number between 10 and 19, third number between 20 and 29, and third number between 30 and 39. The tables give you all possible combinations given any third number.

Step 2: Find All Possible First Numbers

• Find the remainder that you get when you divide the third number by 4. For example, when the third number is 4, the remainder will be 3. That’s because 7 divided by 4 is 1 with a remainder of 3, i.e. 1 x 4 = 4 and 7 - 4 = 3.
• List the remainder and the next nine numbers that you get by adding 4 to each preceding number. In our example, that would be 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, 27, 31, 35, and 39. One of these ten is the first number of the combination.

Step 3: Find All Possible Second Numbers

• Simply add two to the possible first numbers. In our example, 3+2, 7+2, 11+2, 15+2, 19+2, 23+2, 27+2, 31+2, 35+2, and 39+2. (Note that there is no 41. You would start at zero in this case.)

Step 4: Try Out Possible Combinations

• Try out all the possible combinations of the first number, the second number, and the third number. There will be 100 such combinations since 1 x 10 x 10 = 100.

METHOD 2

If the first method does not work, try this one instead. This method works on locks on which you’re still left with eight possible third numbers after step one of the first method.

For this method, you will need to estimate the sticking ranges more accurately, i.e. to the nearest quarter.

Step 1: Find the 1^st Group

• Turn the dial two turns to the right and stop at zero.
• Pull up on the shackle as far as you can.
• Gently turn the dial around while maintaining tension on the shackle.
• The dial should get stuck between two numbers. For example, you may be able to move it only between 0 and 1. This is the first “sticking range” and you should make a note of this range to the nearest quarter.
• Loosen your grip on the shackle and turn the dial 10 higher than the midpoint of this sticking range. Now pull up the shackle all the way again and maintain tension as you turn the dial further to find the next sticking range.
• Repeat this process two more times.
• The four sticking ranges that you find constitute the 1^st Group.
• Here’s an example of a 1^st Group:
  o   0.00 - 1.00
  o   10.0 0- 11.00
  o   20.00 - 21.00
  o   30.0 0- 31.00

Step 2: Find the 2^nd Group

• Turn the dial two turns to the right and stop at zero.
• Turn the dial just past the first sticking range you found earlier.  Then pull up on the shackle as far as you can and turn the dial to find the second sticking range. Make note of the second sticking range.
• Loosen your grip on the shackle and turn the dial 10 higher than the midpoint of this sticking range. Now pull up the shackle all the way again and maintain tension as you turn the dial further to find the next sticking range.
• Repeat this process two more times.
• The four sticking ranges that you find constitute the 2^nd Group.
• Here’s an example of a 2^nd Group:
  o   5.25 - 6.00
  o   15.75 - 16.75
  o   25.50 - 26.50
  o   35.15 - 35.50

Step 3: Find the 3^rd Group

• Turn the dial two turns to the right and stop at zero.
• Turn the dial past the first sticking range as well as the second sticking range you found earlier.  Then pull up on the shackle as far as you can and turn the dial to find the third sticking range. Make note of the third sticking range.
• Loosen your grip on the shackle and turn the dial 10 higher than the midpoint of this sticking range. Now pull up the shackle all the way again and maintain tension as you turn the dial further to find the next sticking range.
• Repeat this process two more times.
• The four sticking ranges that you find constitute the 3^rd Group.
• Here’s an example of a 3^rd Group:
  o   3.75 - 4.50
  o   13.75 - 14.50
  o   23.75 - 24.50
  o   33.75 - 34.50

Step 4: Compare the three groups to find the third number of the combination

• Compare the three groups. For two of the groups, the bottom of the range will have the same decimal and the top of the range will have the same decimal. You can eliminate these two groups. In our example, this is true for the 1^st Group as well as the 3^rd Group.
• The third number will be in the remaining group. In our example, that’s the 2^nd Group.
• There will be four ranges. The correct range will be the sticking range which has the greatest decimal for both the bottom of the range as well as the top of the range in that group. The third number of the combination will be the whole number in this range. In our example, the correct sticking range is 15.75-16.75. The whole number between these two values is 16. So our third number would be 16.

Step 5: Try Out Possible Combinations

• Use these tables I prepared to find possible combinations when the third number is given: third number between 0 and 9, third number between 10 and 19, third number between 20 and 29, and third number between 30 and 39.
• Try out all the possible combinations of the first number, the second number, and the third number.

Part 3: How to Remember Your Master Lock Combination

Once you have your Master Lock combination back, you have to make sure you never lose it again. Don’t just jot it down on a notepad. Keep it in more than one place.

The Master Lock Company actually offers a free service at combolocker.com where you can safely file your combination electronically. You will need to create a login and password, but if you forget this information (like you forgot your lock combination), you can easily retrieve it by entering the email address that you used when you registered for the service.

Photo Credit: Semeka

No related posts.