DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME – ADVENTURES WITH A LOCK BOX

The story begins like this:

“In the beginning (lol) I found the numbers/letters hard to read especially when in low light. Decided they needed to be black so painted them with tiny brush using exterior enamel. Highly successful – see attached pic.
Cleaned abit of excess paint round one number using acetone, some of which must have seeped inside thru the button. Assumed black plastic was polypropylene which isn’t soluble in acetone so shouldn’t be a problem. The buttons were unaffected, but something on the interior was and the mechanism seized.
Tried your supplier’s WD40 suggestion but didn’t help. Unfortunately didn’t notice he’d specified “to displace moisture” which was *not* the cause of the sticking.
Unscrewed mechanism as a challenge since, as you pointed out, I’m screwed anyway. (Professionally I’m a museum collections conservator familiar with chemical interactions, stabilizing & repairing stuff, preserving stuff for posterity…) Turns out the acetone had partially dissolved some of the black plastic on the interior (so not polypropylene; might be ABS plastic) adhering it to the steel tongue connecting the unlock and reset buttons. When detached from the lock housing it was easy to separate the two. However not so easy to reassemble as it required getting a bunch of oily wee springs to align with all those wee yellow code setting bits.
Decided to continue disassembling and separate the two halves of black plastic mechanism thinking it might be easier to reassemble from the start. Spent quite some time understanding how it all worked and how it fit back together. Slippery WD40 coating made it way harder but I was so in the moment I didn’t stop to clean it off. I persevered and got it all back together hooray! but sadly it did not work consistently. The wee button catches and reset button were slipping.
Soooo I partially loosened the ensemble (but could not bare to take it to bits again) and soaked the whole thing in dish detergent to remove the WD40. Then thoroughly rinsed it and let dry for a week in hot sun with good airflow. Tightened it all up again and it works! consistently! tested enumerable times! ,
Still, after this hard won success, I’m hesitant to trust it will not fail, since the lock safe is critical to my bnb business. Thinking of replacing it after all…
Hope you found this as riveting as I have!”

Surelock’s Comment: “WOW what dedication and persistence and to help you cope with future customers and avoid waking up in the middle of the nite wondering if the lock box is going to work I’m sending you (at no charge) a brand new SurelockHomes Genuine SH007 wall mounted key safe featuring a hinged door, heaps of interior space and last but not least 10,000 possible combinations. And thanks for sharing your experience with us”