Bolt Down your safe!

[a1abdj]

on TV they had an add for a skill saw cutting thru a small steel box??maybe a small safe in couple minutes.

I had to open a few GSA filing cabinets for a local government office a few weeks ago. They were scrapping the units, and only needed them open to ensure there were no documents remaining inside.

At the suggestion of my welder, I used a special blade on my circular saw. These cabinets were built heavier than most gun safes, and I was able to cut a 2' line in about 30 seconds. I bet I could cut a gun safe completely in half with this same set up in less than 3 minutes.

 

[jakemccoy]

I really don't know why someone would go through the trouble of getting a big, ugly, heavy safe and fail to bolt it down. It's all about over-engineering people! Bolting down, that's an easy way to over-engineer your safe.

 

[RudeMood]

My father had an interesting solution to his safe problem. He lived out in the boonies where it took 27 minutes for anyone but the paramedics to get to. Still, he had a lot of young family visit, so he needed a place to store the ammo and guns, separate from each other or otherwise. Conveniently enough, there was a weird coat closet right outside the master bedroom. Being the poor boy construction worker he is, it just took one phone call to a friend, a trip to a scrap yard, some beer, and a couple hours of not so tender ministrations and ... One wall gets knocked out to expand the closet, then it gets lined with a double layer of cinder blocks with 2 in steel plates from floor to ceiling on the other side, formed into a box and welded tight. Normal door opens to a 4 in thick safe door. It still had enough room for me and him to sit inside and play chess when empty, and it sure as hell had room for all our firearms and our humble hunting/defense ammo stock.

On a related note, some one did break into his house years later, there were all sorts of interesting scars on that door and a hole in the wall AND the concrete. It looked like he gave up about the time he hit steel again on the sides.

 

[lebowski]

I don't care how heavy your guys' safes are. A couple of guys with moving experience and an appliance dolly will have it out of there in a minute if it's not bolted down.

+100.

I never understand it when people say "I don't need to bolt down my safe because it weighs x, it's not going anywhere". Uh, were you worried that the safe would get up and "go somewhere" on it's own, or did you fork over a few grand on a safe to deter potential criminals? How did the safe get into your house in the first place? If 2-3 guys, a truck, and some moving equipment got it in, then 2-3 guys with a truck and moving equipment can get it out.

Why would you NOT bolt down your safe? It makes zero sense to me that anyone would fork over thousands for a quality gun safe and not take the (minimal) effort required to bolt it down.

 

[RP88]

I can't bolt mine down. But it is comforting knowing that my safe is at least heavy enough to keep the smash-n-grabbers (i.e. the non-professionals without any means of transporting the safe should they get it outside) from getting to my stuff.

I plan on making up for the lack of bolting by re-arranging my room to where the only means of accessing the safe is a very narrow space between every piece of combined furniture in my room, and a small door that can't open up all the way, inside a really shallow closet. But even then, I still agree that bolting it down is the only way to go.

 

[mage2]

bolting down a safe in a apartment

for those that can not bolt down the safe due to living in a rental, a friend of mine came up with the idea to make what is basicly a steel box 6"-12" tall and 4' wide 4' deep fill with concrete and put safe on top of it, then bolt the safe to the steel ,concrete filled box. this would be too wide to fit through doors while its bolted together and would weigh (at 12"X48"48") about a ton (might not be good for upstairs) when you move you just unbolt it and use any of the tricks you would like to move it to the new place.

its not theft proof, but it would slow things down.

 

[dullh]

"Not needed here---have the best watchdog of all--a retired OPD detective living right next door. Home all day."

That's just stupid. So what you are saying is you've contracted him to watch your house 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? He has a vested interest in keeping YOUR stuff safe? He never leaves his house? Ever? Grocery store, doctor visits, vacation out west to see Chimney Rock? Never ever?

You're either lucky or delusional. Relying on someone else in lieu of a REAL security plan = future victim.

 

[ChaoSS]

That's just stupid. So what you are saying is you've contracted him to watch your house 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? He has a vested interest in keeping YOUR stuff safe? He never leaves his house? Ever? Grocery store, doctor visits, vacation out west to see Chimney Rock? Never ever?

You're either lucky or delusional. Relying on someone else in lieu of a REAL security plan = future victim.

Well, obviously. Retired detectives don't eat, sleep, leave home, or watch tv. They watch their neighbors houses to ensure that they don't get broken into.

 

[makarovnik]

Safes just scream "Look inside there's something good in here".

 

[subierex]

mbt2001

I have my safe sitting on a TM-46 Russian Anti-Tank mine...

Can you please provide a link where I can find one of these TM-46's?




All I have is a Stack-On security cabinet. I also don't have much in total $$$ wrapped up in my meager collection. I figure if they want it, pretty much any safe I could afford could be defeated relatively easily. So, keep the collection kind of low and don't advertise the fact I have them. They're just tools to me anyway.

/wishes he could afford an arsenal