I bought a safe at a farm auction that had been a dial, then converted to an E-lock. When it eventually failed, I paid "Houdini the Locksmith" to drill it out and put a dial back on it. Since it was an aftermarket lock, it could have been mounted any one of four ways, so he just had to drill at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock and hope he hit the right place.
The third hole worked. He broke like 3 $50 drill bits and spent over 2 hours. $400.00 later I had a safe again.
A Houdini locksmith such as myself could look down the spindle hole and figure out the direction the bolt faces and drill one hole with a $10 drill bit
Dials here, on multiple Liberty and National Security safes, never had a problem. Anyone that has had gun safes with dials for a long enough time, can spin the dials back and forth, and barely look at the numbers to open them...... I’m talking decades.
I hope we’re not talking Dicks/F&S or Costco “safes”, because they are not safes, they’re beer cans with sheet rock lining. A good rule of thumb is if you rap on the side of a safe, and it’s rattles like a gym locker, it’s a glorified gun cabinet. If you rap on it and hurt your knuckle, it’s a safe :-). Only PARTLY kidding.
Flip side, I have a S&G dial lock on a Browning safe that has been giving me trouble for years. When the dial is turned back to 0 there is no 'wall' as the lock falls into place, and the safe won't open. I have to seriously WIGGLE the dial back and forth about 5 numbers in each direction several times to get the 'wall' as I turn to 0. The door will then open.
It hasn't gotten any worse for a while so I'm tempting fate.
Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense. Robert Frost
I’ve had one safe, cheap Walmart, with electronic for 12? Years or so. I’ve replaced batteries one time. No issues. Just bought another safe with electronic. No test time on it yet.
I bought a plain-Jane "Sportsmans" safe outta 'Shotgun News' 20 years ago and it came with a conventional S&G dial lock. It proved to be so finicky and laborious (to say nothing of the fact that I could barely see the little tick marks on the dial) that I finally paid a locksmith to install an electronic lock. It was the right decision as, aside from periodically replacing the 9-volt battery, the replacement electronic lock has been completely trouble free for many years. I still have the original S&G lock if anyone's interested.
