Safes?

[shmike]

Do you have a safe in your home?

What size and brand are you using?

What do you store in there (guns, jewelry, cash, paperwork, etc.)?

We are shopping for one this weekend and I'm trying to decide what exactly we may need (now & in the future).

[Hydrant]

My parents have a 1000# gun safe at their house and it is pretty much just gun storage. This one is a Liberty

At our office we have a 10,000#, 2 door jewelers safe that we use to keep some guns in, but mostly for paper work between the business and personal. We also store some of our work backup data in there also. It is a Mosler

If you going to keep paperwork or data, make sure you do some checking on the inside temperature rating of the safe in alotted time frame, and know what the temp rating of the media/data can handle.

[Homeslice]

Good thread, been considering one myself. Are there ones you can bolt or chain up to something? Otherwise, why wouldn't a burglar simply carry off with it?

[marko138]

Classified. Shit, I've said too much.

[shmike]

Good thread, been considering one myself. Are there ones you can bolt or chain up to something? Otherwise, why wouldn't a burglar simply carry off with it?

Yes.

Most anything other than a "firebox" should be able to be bolted to the floor.

[LeeNetworX]

At the moment we only have a large gun safe in our house that is bolted to some wall studs - Sentry is the brand. Mainly to keep them out of the hands of those who shouldn't get to them. In the future I plan on buying a large fireproof safe that can be bolted to the concrete floor in the basement - for valuables and important items, etc.

[shmike]

At the moment we only have a large gun safe in our house that is bolted to some wall studs - Sentry is the brand. Mainly to keep them out of the hands of those who shouldn't get to them. In the future I plan on buying a large fireproof safe that can be bolted to the concrete floor in the basement - for valuables and important items, etc.


I'm thinking we will probably go with a gun safe.

The main reason is price.

Realistically we won't be storing more than $20k or so in valuables in there and most of it would be covered by insurance. Paperwork can almost always be replaced and the truly important docs are kept in a sfety deposit box.

I just can't justify spending $3k or more to keep our cameras and some jewelry away from the cleaning lady. :idk:

[CrazyKell]

I do not have a safe.

My parents have a safe and I keep some stuff in there like my will and maybe a couple of other documents.

They have a small document safe/firebox and also a gun safe.

[julie j]

Try craigslists. That is were we got ours. It was a lot cheaper but we did have to figure out how to move it. If you purchase new you can have it delivered. Ours is about 5’ high and 3.5 wide. We store guns, jewelry, passports, etc. Be sure to compare burn temperatures and times.

[nhgunnut]

I have 3 safes in my house 2 are Sentry brand. Frankly they are run of the mill mild steel safes with mediocre locks and mostly they hold guns. The 2 larger Safes are tucked into out of the way places but because of their size are easy enough to find
I have one higher quality quick access safe that has a hand gun some jewelery and on occasion some cash. this one is well hidden.
All are Lag bolted in place from inside the safes
I have then primarily to please the insurance company and to keep out the lazy
A relative of mine once explained to me as he was picking a 4 tumbler lock. "Locks keep out the honest and the lazy"
The issue with any Safe is that i announces that there is something worth stealing, a thief with any ambition will concentrate his efforts on the safe.
I have a brother in-law that came up with what I consider an elegant solution , He bought an inexpensive (Wal Mart I think ) lock box lag bolted it to his basement wall painted is grey mounted a large breaker handle on the side and ran dummy conduit in and out of it. It secures everything away from prying eyes (and his 10 year old twins) and doesn't announce "This is where the good stuff is"

[Amber Lamps]

I have a couple safes, one is bolted down and one is portable which I take with me on trips to carry money and guns. It has a cable lock attached so I can attach it to the vehicle while we are in motion.

[Rangerscott]

If its goig in a basement, id want it water tight.

[Amber Lamps]

If its goig in a basement, id want it water tight.

True. Both of mine are Sentry brand.

[Cutty72]

Good thread, been considering one myself. Are there ones you can bolt or chain up to something? Otherwise, why wouldn't a burglar simply carry off with it?

Guess I'm thinking mostly gun safe size, but shit those fuckers are HEAVY!
If they can drag the bitch up the stairs themselves, have at it.

[Tsunami]

I have a little sentry one that's fireproof for documents and some jewelry.

[Particle Man]

I have a little sentry one that's fireproof for documents and some jewelry.

Same here but just for stuff like birth certificates.

[Rangerscott]

I dont need no piece of paper to tell me who i am.

[Hydrant]

Their gun safe at the house is anchored to the floor and wall. I would be very iffy on putting anything in the garage. Hook it up to some straps and they would be able to pull it out. The 10,000# safe at our office is just free standing, if someone wants to mess with it, they can be my guest. It took a rigging company to get it in.

[Amber Lamps]

Yea...well I've always thought it was kinda nuts to spend more on the safe than the contents...

[nhgunnut]

Like I said in a earlier post the safes I have are primarily for the insurance company. We have riders that cover our guns and Jewelry and get a discount because of the safes. If you do add one you may want to check and see if they will give you a break on your premiums.

[Gas Man]

I have 2. One is sentry standard issue 2'x2' JAM packed! Another is Bulldog electric keypad 4 digit. Slightly bigger. both lag bolted to the floor and tucked out of sight. Both contain nothing much... one is all papers. The other the wife uses as her jewerly box.

My best suggestion... GO BIG. Gun safe! only way to go. That will be my next one.

[racedoll]

Guess I'm thinking mostly gun safe size, but shit those fuckers are HEAVY!
If they can drag the bitch up the stairs themselves, have at it.

This is what I was thinking.

At this point we have a little safe for documents. We would like a nice gun safe but they cost money like everything else in this world. In the mean time we have a cat...(family joke because everyone is more afraid of the the cat than the dogs because the cat HAS attacked my Mom before).

I think this one is sweet looking with all the bolts coming out in the door - http://www.browning.com/products/catalog/gunsafes/detail.asp?value=001F&cat_id=160&type_id=42745&content=gun-safe-rifles-shotguns-vauables-fire-theft-protection-gun-safes#center

[Razor]

I have a Browning by Prosteel gun safe (60"Hx24"Wx22"D). Some things you may want to consider:

-Guage thickness of safe body
-thickness of the door and door bolts
-temperature versus time rating (a good safe runs about 1200 degrees/60 minutes)
- Anti-pry features: Pry-stop end bolts, extended throw locking bolts, reinforced integrated door frame, etc...
-Additional security features: Hardened steel pin lock protection, UL tool attack listed, type of lock (key/manual combo/electonic combo)
-Interior design: fixed versus adjustable shelves/interior fire resistant lining/etc

We keep a private armory in there as well papers, documents, backup hard drives, ammo, etc.

Placement of a floor safe is important as well. You want to always put it on a wall away from the center of the house especially if in a basement as the hottest part of any home fire tends to collaspe into the center of a basement. Also you really want to stay away from placing it upstairs unless it is a closet type safe. All big floor safes (to my knowledge) have anchor holes in the bottow so you can drill lag bolts into any concrete surface and secure them to the floor. most of the safe are pretty easy to move around if they are empty and you have a little help (moving blankets work great on carpets)...

Just my 2 cents...

[caveman]

A co-worker has a pretty cool setup. He has a nice double door safe weighs about 1000#, that he uses mainly for guns. Its a nice one not sure on the brand but is rated for a fire for like 6 hrs or so. then inside he has a smaller 350#er that is rated to withstand more heat for longer time, again not sure on specs. which he uses for documents and data. This pretty much guarantees that his guns will be relatively safe and the data and docs should be completely untouched.

[z06boy]

We have one bolted down. I keep a few guns and other important stuff in there. It's made by Canon Safes.

Here is something confidence inspiring though...it gets interesting about 2:33 in...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBhOjWHbD6M