Apparatus for determining the opening combination of a safe lock includes a servo motor, a molded dial gripper that fits over the hub of the combination lock dial, and a high resolution rotary, encoder, preferably one with a resolution of 1000 PPR. The rotary encoder has a resolution of 0.09 degrees of rotation using quadrature, which permits the dial to be rotated accurately to within 1/10 of a digit. A programmable logic and control circuit can rotate the dial for automatic implementation of a manipulation technique. This permits the safe combination to be found in a rather short period of time, typically less than one hour.