If you've ever had a chest in the attic locked for years or even a shed at a rent house unopened for years, chances are you might have used a combination lock to keep prying eyes and thieves away from whatever is valuable enough to keep locked up. I know I use them instead of key-based locks just because I can't stand keeping track of zillions of keys.

Okay, the next big question: ever forget the combination to a lock? If it's a Master-brand lock (most of them are), did you know that you can harmlessly crack it pretty easily and get that darn thing unlocked with a minimum of fuss? Just don't tell any nearby, part-time thieves about this.

With most Master locks, there are 64,000 possible combinations with that 40-space dial. But, with this quick hack, you can burrow that down to only 100 combinations, which should not take too long to figure out. Try it and see if it works (hint: I just did, and it does. Sweet!).

[via Lifehacker]