Epic gun safe challenge: How would YOU do it?

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Fossil4Life

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Challenge: How would you secure the pictured gun safe to the floor? Two rules:

1) The gun safe cannot be secured/bolted to the wall
2) The four black gun safe "feet" must stay on

imagejpg1_zps02910e4d.jpg
 
Not sure what kind of floor it is but just get some LONG lag bolts or concrete anchors and run them down through each of the feet. That way the feet and safe are secured to the floor.
 
Put 2,000 pounds of lead ingots in it for the guns to set on?

Why so many restrictions?

rc
 
Assuming there are holes already in the floor of the safe.

Get some heavywall steel square stock that just fits between floor and bottom of safe. Mark location of safe mounting holes on square stock. Have heavy nut plates welded to the inside of the square stock. Make clearance holes through the upper surface of the square stock and mount square stock to floor. Align safe with installed nut plates and bolt to square stock.

That's all I got.
 
GarySTL said:
Make clearance holes through the upper surface of the square stock and mount square stock to floor. Align safe with installed nut plates and bolt to square stock.
Click to expand...
What would the advantages and/or disadvantages be, from a security point of view, of drilling a hole straight through the square steel stock and using long lag bolts through it and into the floor instead?

In order to defeat safe breakers, which option would be more advantageous and why?
 
Well, I was kind of thinking you might be able to pickup more mounting locations to the floor and structure with the steel rather than the normal four mounting points on the safe. Hey, I forgot to mention that didn't I? I also believe that shorter bolts snugged tight would give anyone with a prybar less wiggle room with the mounts.
 
Or a hydraulic car jack under the safe.

I don't believe there is a way to mount a safe on legs that high, and not bolting it to the wall studs behind it in several places, that a $20 buck car jack won't tear out of any floor.

If you leave room to get a good jack or six foot pry bar under it?
Your safe is going to be portable if someone wants it.

rc
 
Weld on bulldozer tracks across the top and draped back over the side. Weld each pin that holds the tracks together. Go through the floor with the tracks into a 6 ft cube pit, fill said pit with concrete.

Realistically I would put bricks under it to fill the void (and spread that weight out before it buckles the floor if the floor is wooden) and depending on what the floor is under that carpet I would put either 8" lag bolts into a 6x6 under the safe assuming a crawlspace floor, or if concrete I would drop in some 6" or longer tapcons and call it good. If in a bad neighborhood or a home without an alarm system I would also drill the floor and anchor through the voids in the bricks to make it even harder to get a jack or pry bar under.
 
I'm a rule breaker.

Loose the feet. Those feet are a problem. You are putting four narrow points of weight on the presumably wooden floor. A normal safe disperses 2000 pounds of steel and guns equally over say 7 or 9 square feet. Yours puts 2000 pounds on 4 small points. Not a good idea on a hollow floor unless perfectly centered over floor beams.

It also creates a leverage point to pry it or access to simply cut the bolts with a saw/bolt cutter. Both defeat the point of bolting it down.
 
I'm with leadcounsel. I don't care whose rules they are. Either break the rules, or get rid of the safe and buy a gun rack for your wall. It's that simple.

Keep those feet, and you've got a big waste of money and space that can't do what you bought it to do.
 
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Is that a hole in the leg closest to the camera, on the left side? It looks like one, and if it is, then I'm guessing those "feet" are hollow tubes about the diameter of a roll of toilet paper, or maybe twice that at best. Not only is that super flimsy (some mildly aggressive pushing on the safe might cause those welds to snap pretty quickly), but even if you place rods inside the safe and go down through the feet, it wouldn't take a brain surgeon to realize they're hollow and cut through them with a hacksaw, exposing the bolts. Wouldn't take long either. I mean, yeah, it's an extra bit of work, but certainly not a game changer.

Just more of a reason to get rid of the feet.

If those rules aren't your arbitrary creation, help us understand why they're there, and someone might be able to offer you a superior alternative, or alleviate a potentially unnecessary concern on your part.
 
If the feet must stay -

set the safe on something that distributes the weight across the entire safe, AND conceals the bolts.
 
Use hole saw and cut out holes in the floor for all four legs to let it sit down in them. Then use carriage bolts from the bottom up to tighten from the inside of the safe.

Unless they are setting on a joice, it's only a matter of time before they punch through that floor anyway.
 
I guess I don't understand why the feet have to stay. They are easy to remove, and the safe is on a carpeted area. Spend the 2 minutes and set the safe flat on the floor.
 
I was also going to say drill thru the floor and add additional floor support.

It sounds like the op is in a rental and can't "damage walls" my guess drilling thru floor isn't an option as well.
 
Feet are a bad idea. If the area is damp put it on small wood slats that will keep it up off the carpet some but also spread the weight out better.

With feet that high it is too easy for it to be knocked over and then pried open.

If it is a rental 1 or 2 holes going to a stud in the wall will likely suffice while not damaging the wall too much.

It's trade offs.
 
Thanks to all for the responses thus far. Couple of points to clarify:

1) The floor is concrete
2) The location that the safe is in receives water during torrential downpours, making the carpet wet in that area. The safe must be off the ground for two reasons: a) to allow airflow so the area can dry out, and b) prevent mold/mildew from occurring.
3) The current placement of the safe is the only option
4) The four black feet can be removed; however, the safe must still be off the ground to allow sufficient airflow
5) There are mounting holes in the bottom of the safe, but they are not located above the four black feet
6) The four black feet are rated to support over 1k pounds
 
Weld a picture frame of angle iron to fit the safe in. Through drill holes from inside the safe thru the legs and into the floor. Secure with lag bolts. Angle iron can be furnished in 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, etc . Added security weld the angle to the safe.
 
Didn't read previous comment before replying. Put a small computer fan inside angle iron. Drill small holes on all four sides for air circulation.
 
Building a frame around the legs of the container would just make it so when water gets there it wont be able to dry out.

The only way, and it is a terrible compromise, would be to bolt it though the legs. Either the existing ones or fabricate new ones.

Then maybe, make a heavy gauge skirt around the legs which is ventilated with say 1"-1 1/2" holes. This is so no one can use a floor jack and so the area underneath can still dry out adequately.

IDK, your in a tough spot. In the end I am not sure your end result will be any more secure than a locked closet.
 
Those feet are a real problem because they are attached with just regular bolts. It would be trivially easy to just unbolt the safe from the feet and drag it away.

I would replace the feet with a deck made of pressure treated 4x4 lumber. Set the safe on the 4x4s then drill thru them and into the concrete to install your threaded anchors. Use long bolts or all thread through the deck to secure it to the floor.

If you are really good at measuring you could install the anchors and drill the boards before you put the safe on them.
 
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