How to unlock a gas meter
(785) Power Company Meter Locks - How to Pick Them Open!
well guys we have a fellow subscriber
with a problem and that's Andrew with
amp city electric up in New Jersey
he's an electrical contractor and when
he goes to a job he finds that these are
being used by New Jersey the New Jersey
power company to hold their power meters
in place so if he's got to change out
power service to a house he either calls
up New Jersey powers has come on out and
they get there like you know two weeks
later he can't afford to pay his crew to
wait around or they tell them to cut it
off which is kind of dangerous because
this is right next to a big electrical
power meter so chances of damaging that
which is are quite expensive or even a
lot of electricity flowing through there
as well so how does this thing work well
it's a simple barrel lock there's the
front there's a special key Andrew tells
me a cost between three and five hundred
dollars there's several versions of it
so apparently you can't just buy one but
all the locks work the same barrel lock
there there's a powerful spring locator
the shaft and it's pushing a metal block
up that holds these two ball bearings
which sit in a little recess and you
just can't pull this out we need to get
those ball bearings to retract so in
other words we need to overcome that
steel block but you can imagine there's
a little bit of a trick to it now there
are several videos that I took a look at
and I've got to be honest they show you
how to use the key which is not entirely
helpful to us we want the cheap fast way
and the ones that show us you know they
take coat hangers and jam them up in
they're not so reliable I don't want to
carry around a coat hanger and then they
show wood screws being shoved up in
there that somehow retract and they're a
little bit deceptive they don't show us
all of the secrets and so that's what
I'm going to do we are going to use the
wood screw technique and we're going to
take this wood screw and the idea if you
follow the videos that are already mount
as they take this wood screw they drive
it in there it threads into that block
and then you can pull back overcoming
the spring tension and these little D
temps fall I'm here to tell you if you
follow those instructions they don't
work so good because these threads on
the screw sides that they recommend get
actually thread themselves into the head
of this ball of
of this lock and it gets seized up when
you get the tip of that threaded into
the head and then try to retract it you
can't because this is all threaded up
inside of there so it's not going
anywhere no this will work but I'm going
to show you all of the secrets so the
first thing we got to do is prevent we
want the threads on the tip to engage in
that ball or in that locking block to
retract the balls we don't want the
threads here to be engaged in the head
easy solution all right if you've done
it right that's what it looked like all
the threads ground off just leave the
ones on the very end intact now this is
the other deception in some of the other
videos they lead you to believe that
you're just going to stick it in there
and you may have to thread it a little
bit to get it past a head but then it'll
go freely then they say thread it into
the end block that secures those two
ball bearings but you'll notice I'm
spinning it and nothing happens and
that's because that M block has a
limited depth so if we do it like this
it's not going to work we need to remove
just a little bit of that tip so that it
the threads can reach into that block
and thread into them so let's go ahead
and take the tip when you take the tip
off should look something like that just
try to leave a couple of threads intact
because now when we slide it through the
head you have to turn it just and then
once you get the threads past the
constricted part it should go in freely
you push it all the way to the end there
is a hole on the end and then give it a
couple of good turns with your fingers
you don't have to use a screwdriver and
you'll feel it lock in place and then
when you pull back you'll feel the
spring resistance and you'll also know
that the balls will now retract and you
can slide this out of the lock when you
want to lock the meter back up again
just pull on it the ball to retexe slide
it in release the pressure and then
remove your electrical meter master key
so again there's what it looks like
Andrew from am City Electric you save
you guys a lot of time and money please
remit two hundred and fifty dollars I
saw that you for half price but you can
make as many as you want anyway it
fellas thanks your times stay safe stay
legal Andrew thanks for the barrel lock
alright Andrew I know you're going to
not going to send me that money for that
master key idea so I
ruined your lock there you go actually
did a cutaways to kind of visualize
what's going on inside of this thing the
only thing I ruined was I cut the spring
which is normally located here pushing
that shaft towards the rear there I
think you can see this completely fills
the bore and then there's a reduced
diameter here where the two ball
bearings are when there's a when this is
retracted it's further reduced here but
it also has a little shaft to prevent
those ball bearings from falling into
the the bore there so they will then
retract inside of there and then this
entire barrel lock comes out of the
meter when we want it to when we want to
relock it we slide it in with the
tension still on it and then release it
and the spring will relock those ball
bearings so let's figure out why the
unmodified screw wasn't working well
first let's take a look inside if we
grab a light real quick I think I get a
good angle here I think you can see it's
not very deep inside of that hole so
with an unmodified screw when it fit in
there that tip hit the bottom of it
before the threads have a chance to
engage so by taking the tip off like
this it allows us to slide it in there
then the threads only about two threads
get threaded into it and then we can
retract it unlocking it and then we want
to put it back when we again retract it
push it in the hole and then release the
spring tension the ball bearings pop
back out in the locking position and
then we remove our master key so there
you go thought you'd like to get an idea
of what was inside or one of these
things I know I always like to do it
thanks guys
you
