Thoughts on safes

[GH85Carrera]

I for sure am not a collector of guns, and anything I own gets used as designed. My 911 is no garage queen sitting in the garage, and getting waxed, I drive the wheels off of it, even in the rain!

My guns get shot for fun, hopefully never at a threat.

I certainly understand a pristine new "spoon" can be a good inflation hedge. It will always have value, and not go dropping in price with inflation.

[sc_rufctr]

This is not a traditional welded safe but Jerry outlines some of the advantages of going this way.

Maybe I'm paranoid but I like the idea of installing this yourself so there's no need for strangers to be in your house.



https://www.snapsafe.com/modular-safes/

SPECIAL FEATURES
SnapSafe modular safes are easy to assemble and move anywhere. Simply unpack them piece by piece and assemble them close to your desired location. The SnapSafe modular assembly system locks the walls together from the inside, making them as solid and impenetrable as conventional, welded safes. Their 2300°F fire protection offers peace of mind knowing firearms, jewelry, currency and valuable documents are protected from fire and theft.

[aigel]

The best bang for the buck will be a high quality used safe that runs 3+k new. You will find it used for half price or less because it will be 500+ pounds and require professional moving. The market for something like that (price and bulky to transport) is very small. If you buy one with an electronic lock, you can change the combo easily, and even a mechanical lock can be changed by a locksmith or DIY if you are half way handy, i.e. capable of adjusting valves on a flat six.

G

[JavaBrewer]

A traditional safe just screams "here is what you want"... IMO. I'm more inclined to keep things in places not so obvious. You're going to have to invest time to find it. Sure I'm taking a risk, but anyone determined with time will figure it out. That is where homeowners insurance kicks in.

[notmytarga]

The wildfires here in Northern CA last year resulted in most safes and their contents tuned to friable melted piles. Paper, cash, ammunition and firearms - poof. Below grade safes had the best survival - but those are limited in capacity. Ceramics, though broken, were the most consistently recognizable remnants.

[Evans, Marv]

An old friend of mine's home burned down in a wildfire several years back. He has a sort of history of making poor decisions. He's retired and his safe was burned down to nothing in the fire. He told me "fire safes" weren't any good since his savings were burned up along with his safe. I always thought I'd like to make a hidden storage area between two studs in a wall disguised with a mirror or something.

[Jim Bremner]

If you place the safe in a corner so that the door is harder to pry open will slow down thieves. BOLT THE DAMN THING down!

I would rather have 5 decent safes than one large one. More work for the metheads!

I fell out of my van moving my 900# safe. 3 plates, 19 screws 2 surgeries on my right wrist and arthritis in both now. Pay pros to move them.

[mjohnson]

Originally Posted by Jim Bremner

I fell out of my van moving my 900# safe. 3 plates, 19 screws 2 surgeries on my right wrist and arthritis in both now. Pay pros to move them.

Oooof...

I put my "engineer" hat on and figgered a way to get such a thing down the stairs on my own. It was glorious. There were pulleys and rigging everywhere.

Then I put my "not a dumba$$" hat on and reached for my checkbook. Let the pros do their job.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

An old friend of mine's home burned down in a wildfire several years back. He has a sort of history of making poor decisions. He's retired and his safe was burned down to nothing in the fire. He told me "fire safes" weren't any good since his savings were burned up along with his safe.

Fire safes don't make things "fire proof". They just mean that if your stuff catches fire, and the fire dept gets there and puts the fire out within XX amount of time, that the contents should still be intact. If the fire burns until the whole house is gone, and that takes a few/several hours, then you're screwed because your fire-safe likely isn't designed to protect from that much heat for that long.

The Fire Endurance test measures the degree of resistance which the safe has to temperatures determined by standardized fire exposure conditions.

In preparation for the fire endurance test, the safe is placed in a cold furnace so that all exterior surfaces will be exposed except the bottom. Heat measuring apparatus is installed in the interior of the safe and papers are loosely distrubted so that they are in contact with all interior surfaces. The doors of the safe are closed and locked, the furnace is closed and the fire is started.

The heat of the furnace is gradually increased according to set standards of time and temperature. The gas and air supply is adjusted carefully so that the fire is well distributed over the sample, and thermocouples symmetrically distributed in the furnace accurately record temperatures so that the test standards are maintained.

The test sample remains in the furnace for the period required for the desired classification. At the end of the time, the fire is extinguished and the sample is allowed to cool without opening the furnace. Here is the test times and temperatures for the various classifications:




TIME IN FURNACE


TEMPERATURE REACHING

Class A
4 hours
2000 degrees Fahrenheit

Class B
2 hours
1850 degrees F

Class C
1 hour
1700 degrees F

Class D
1 hour
1700 degrees F

Class E
30 minutes
1550 degrees F



After the test sample has cooled, it is opened and the contents and interior surfaces are examined. The records must still be usable and the interior must show no signs of undue heat transmission. At no time during the test must the temperature inside the safe exceed 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The general security of the safe is also examined. The records are considered "usable" if they can be handled without breaking and if the are decipherable by ordinary means.

I always thought I'd like to make a hidden storage area between two studs in a wall disguised with a mirror or something.

That's called a "wall safe." You can get them in various sizes from only a few inches tall up to about 20" tall and I think I've even seen one before that was sized to hold rifles.

[DavidI]

I bought a SPORTS AFIELD safe from Costco for about $1,000. It has a fire rating and is very secure. Nothing stops the pro, but in my experience that is very rare and is usually an inside job. The safe is very very heavy, but it can be easily moved. To move it into place, I bought about 20 golfs balls, tilted the safe a little, and put some golfs balls under it. It took me a little while, but I was able to get all the golfs balls under the safe and it rolled like it was on ice. I just had to remain vigilant about keeping the golf balls under it as it rolled across the tile. My goal was to put it into a closet that was slightly too small for it to be removed from. I tore down one of the closet walls so I could move the safe in place.

I anchored steel bolts into my slab (this is a must-do!) glided it into place and now had to figure out how to get the balls out. I put the safe on a floor jack and went to a local ice company and bought for large blocks. I then wheeled the safe in place over the anchored bolts and lowered it onto the blocks to remove my jack. I waited for the ice blocks to melt and guided it onto the bolts and secured it to the floor. I rebuilt my closet wall and ensured everything is good-to-to.

Some of this, like moving the safe with golf balls, I learned from criminals. A retired friend had an unanchored safe in his garage. It was very very heavy and he thought it was safe. Inside the safe he had his guns and paperwork. Guess how they moved the safe...golf balls! One item of that paperwork was a list of all of the cops he worked with and our home addresses. He kept it so he could send out Christmas cards. About 3 weeks after the theft, a local cop conducted a traffic stop on a gangster and he had our list! We were pissed at the retired guy, but I understood that he truly believed it was safe.

Live and learn.