You just bought the 3 slot pay phone on E-bay or found one locally, You always wanted one.

 Now you found out that it is next to impossible to open up with out keys to the upper housing  or lower vault door. 

Old Phone Shop gets calls like this each week.  No need to worry. We can supply you with a key for your upper housing lock.

 If your payphone that has not been tampered with then this is what you need to do. First off . you need to determine the make of your old 3 slot payphone. It will be either Automatic Electric, Western Electric, Northern Electric or Gray 

 Automatic Electric  Payphones usually have a 29S lock  which take the 29s key. 

 Western Electric 3 slot Pay Phones use a 10H or 10G key.

  Northern Electric pay phones use a 21B key. 

You can go to www.oldphoneshop.com   and easily order your key. We always carry them in stock.

                                 GETTING   INTO THE VAULT WITH OUT A KEY

The very first thing you need to know is that there is no replacement key for your vault door lock.

 Nobody has them for sale because they do not exist. Do not try to drill out the vault door lock.

  Im telling you this because many people get this idea and have done this. Its a big mistake. If you try this, you will regret it. You will ruin your vault door and not accomplish a thing 

     First turn your payphone over. On the backside of your backboard  you will see some large screw heads and 2 or 3 small screw heads. You will remove these. 

You will also see that there will be 2 large screws going through your back board from the inside. Those 2 screw need to be removed also. Here is what you do.

Center punch the center of the screw. Now using a small sharp drill bit drill  start drilling on the center punch mark. Once you have drilled thru 3/8" of an inch stop. Now use a larger sharp drill bit. That it should catch in the screw and turn the screw out. Ive done this and have alwas been sucessfull. If it doesnt work then you can drill the screw completely out.

Some recommend to just use a very sharp drill bit after center punching the screw shaft. I am a believer of using a pilot hole and I always use 2 drill bits no matter what the project. But if you use sharp drill bits, the drill bit will eventually grab the metal in the screw shaft and turn the screw out. Only twice have I had to drill the entire screw out because it just wouldn't come out and Ive done this  hundreds  of times

Sometimes the screws are a little longer .If they stick thru the back board, then I usually cut a slot in the end of the screw and just turn them out with a screw driver. I have done this also many times with out damaging your back board. I have never damaged a back board. Hopefully you will not do damage either. 

Once the lower housing is removed off of the back board the vault door  lock can be easily removed. This is accomplished by removing the 4 four  vault door lock screws with a screw driver. Once done the lock will fall out and door will come out.

    Old Phone Shop has all your vault door locks for sale. We carry the 10L locks for Automatic Electric payphones.

     We have # 30 locks and  # 14 locks for Western Electric payphones. We have NE#22 locks for Northern Electric Payphones. 

                                  NOW FOR YOUR NEXT PROBLEM  

            What to do if there is a coin box inside the vault?

       The coin box will need to be removed in order to remove the lock  To accomplish this you have to take a metal drift and chisel to the inside coin box by using a hammer . You keep striking the bar or drift with the hammer against the coin  box  until the coin box is small enough to remove. The object is to crumple the coin box into a ball by hammering on it until you can pull it out.

     If you dont wish to go through with this project, we can do all the work for you. You can send the entire payphone to Old Phone Shop. We get payphones in each week  sometimes for complete restorations and sometimes they are sent to us to make into working phones.

  We sell payphone parts and payphones. While there look at our other Antique telephones.

These old phones can be restored to look new again. Once they are restored they are a thing of beauty and reminder of times gone by.  A great piece of history that never should be discarded. There is something wonderful about hearing these brass bells ring. 

Any antique telephone can be made to work and fully function with today systems. 

Imagine fully using  the vintage telephone that was given to you years ago. We at Old  Phone Shop are seeing more old wooden wall phones coming into us for complete restorations  which include making them fully usable. Another old telephone that interest has now peaked on is Candlestick telephones. 

There is nothing as awesome as having a fully working antique telephone. Its no wonder they are gaining in popularity and the value of these vintage telephones is increasing.  

Old Phone Shop is a business located in Franklin Wisconsin that has performed many telephone restorations for people on all sides of the globe. Antique telephone restoration is becoming more and more popular with people. People from ages 30 to 78 have a high level of interest and are catching the vintage telephone bug.

The Old Phone Shop also has  all the original and reproduction telephone parts needed for any telephone restoration 

Some people who are inclined enjoy restoring these old telephones themselves. Anything possible thats needed can be found at www.oldphoneshop.com

 At Old Phone Shop  we are involved with all aspects of the antique telephone business. We can offer great advice on all aspects of telephone restoration. 

Old Phone Shop also sells a large selection of completely restored Antique telephones for sale. One look at their beautiful restorations and you will be hooked. 

Pay phones have many things going for them . One reason is they are very nostalgic . Some wish to display them with vintage cars, vintage motorcycles and other thing .

A second reason is that they are coin operated and there are many enthusiasts that love coin operated things.

A quarter, dime and a nickle all make different sounds hitting the gong when dropped thru the coin guage.  Many also like the rotary dial besides and that makes them all the better.  

These 3 slot payphone can be made to work and you can use it in your home like a regular phone . 

Old Phone Shop  carries a good selection of 3 slot payphone parts, original and reproduction.

We offer advice to help you with all your 3 slot payphone needs . We also carry a selection of  fully restored payphone phones

 Restoring old 3 slot payphones is one of our specialties , Instead of going through the headache of telephone restoration, Old Phone Shop will get that old payphone working for you  so you can use it in your home or business . 

We have made a kit to help you to make your Northern Electric and Western Electric payphone to work . Many customers have sucessfully  used our kits and have enjoyed doing the work themselves . Many times with some of our help .  We also manufacture hard to find  3 slot pay phone parts .One recent item we reproduced  is a bronze Gray / Automatic Electric switch hook for 2 piece payphones.  

Old Phone Shop carries payphone locks and keys for all 3 slot pay phone . We also carry books on payphones and we have one of the largest selections of pay phone signs . You can also contact us on the internet by going to www.oldphoneshop.com and using our Contact Us page . We are glad to help you with every aspect of the 3 slot payphone