DIY Stack-On Gun Cabinet Mod

[bradsteen]

With the shenanigans happening in WA legislation I have increased my collection by a big margin. An unintended consequence of that is I am now fresh out of space in the gun cabinet. My wife and I are budgeting to get a walk-in vault next year, but I needed something cheap and easy to secure my collection in the meantime.

Enter the Stack-On cabinet. It's definitely not a replacement for a real safe, but given my specific use case I've decided to make do with one for now. The model I purchased is the 18-gun version. It was on sale for $250, which is more expensive than it probably should be for what you get, but size wise it's in the right ballpark for what I need.

The downside to most safes in my eyes is how inefficient they are for storage of defensive-length firearms. The bulk of my collection is rifles under 36" and large format pistols, meaning I would have a bunch of unused space if I set them on the floor as intended, and I definitely don't want to balance my shorter guns on top of ammo cans - it would take up too much floor space in the safe. And I definitely have more than 18 long guns to store.

The solution I've come up with is to IKEA the $hit out of it - in other words, make better use of vertical space by stacking a second rows of guns on top of the main level. I can't stack a second row of full length ARs, but I can put my PDWs up there. I figure if I can get 24 guns in there it'll be a win. Anyway, will post pics of it when I finish it up.

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[salmon creek gary]

Similar situation here, looking for ideas. Post pics, please, when you get 'er done.

 

[Alexx1401]

Also looking forward to seeing pics. You will no doubt get some saying its the "wrong safe" and such. I have long said ANY safe beats no safe just like any gun beats no gun. As a stop gap the one you bought beats having nothing for now. Tech here has come a LONG way and can help a hell of a lot. Motion detector camera's, simple install yourself alarm systems. There is a lot you can do to greatly help protect your stuff fairly cheap now days.

 

[Nosferatu]

I'm using a 48x24x72 steel cabinet until I finish out my safe room. I removed the bottom 3 rows of shelves, made some racks and put a Harbor Freight tool cabinet inside it for accessory storage. It actually works out better than any safe I've used.

 

[Catfishmoon]

Sounds like a good project...
Another vote for pictures when you get a chance.

 

[bradsteen]

Thanks guys, will definitely get pics up soon. Interior dimensions are 55" tall x 21" wide by 18" deep, so I've mounted the shelf 20" down from the top. That gives me plenty of room for PDWs with collapsed or folded braces and the bottom row will still handle guns up to 34". The shelf is thin, so doesn't take up much vertical space, just mentally trimming 1" to be on the safe side.

Also picked up some magnetic barrel rests on Amazon (https://a.co/d/9w4vrIF) - the magnets are pretty strong, they are 17" long, and will hold up to 9 barrels in a staggered formation. With the safe being just over that in depth (very convenient), I'll probably have the bottom rows on the sides facing inward, and the top row facing outward toward the door. I got 4 of them so I can use 2 on the bottom, and will experiment by cutting one of the remaining 2 to fit the full length of the top.

I also ended up picking up StackOn's matching large pistol cabinet and mounting it on top. Going to do something similar with that for pistol storage, move one of the shelves higher so I can do two rows of pistols, and probably ditch the second shelf. With HySkore 12-pistol racks on each I'll be able to store up to 24 handguns (https://a.co/d/0zVdXHs). Don't have that many at the moment so for now one row will be mag storage for the pistol below it. It just came today so I haven't had the chance to mount the shelf on that one yet.

I'm using a 48x24x72 steel cabinet until I finish out my safe room. I removed the bottom 3 rows of shelves, made some racks and put a Harbor Freight tool cabinet inside it for accessory storage. It actually works out better than any safe I've used.

That sounds like an awesome storage solution! If you are willing to post pics, I'd love to see what that looks like.

 

[Nosferatu]

That sounds like an awesome storage solution! If you are willing to post pics, I'd love to see what that looks like.

It's in WA, I'll get you some pics when I'm out there next month.

It's basically this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-W...W-x-72-in-H-x-24-in-D-KF3F462472-H9/204597567

Plus this: https://www.harborfreight.com/145-in-end-cabinet-black-64448.html

Plus a couple of these: https://www.amazon.com/BenchMaster-...1678895831&sprefix=rifle+rack,aps,228&sr=8-18

And some plywood to create stock rests on the floor and elevated ones for shorter guns.

I just needed something to keep me 1639 legal for now. Once I get everything moved out to MT, the cabinets can be repurposed for other storage needs.

 

[bradsteen]

Ok, here are some pictures. Turns out this will work better than I expected. I bought a cheap rubber placemat (the grey thing in the picture) and was going to cut it to the size of the shelf so the PDWs wouldn't slide around. Then I discovered the pistol cabinet comes with a foam pad for the base of it. The hyscore pistol rests make this unnecessary in the pistol cabinet, but it just happens to be the perfect size to fit the shelf in the rifle cabinet. Score!

 

[Alexx1401]

Ok, here are some pictures. Turns out this will work better than I expected. I bought a cheap rubber placemat (the grey thing in the picture) and was going to cut it to the size of the shelf so the PDWs wouldn't slide around. Then I discovered the pistol cabinet comes with a foam pad for the base of it. The hyscore pistol rests make this unnecessary in the pistol cabinet, but it just happens to be the perfect size to fit the shelf in the rifle cabinet. Score!

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Looks like it will work great.

 

[bellarum]

Take a Brother P Touch (sounds like a horrible name but, work pretty good) and make a label that reads “Rigged to explode if tampered with”
Even the wife would start putting it on all the stuff she doesn’t want me messing with.

 

[Nosferatu]

Take a Brother P Touch (sounds like a horrible name but, work pretty good) and make a label that reads “Rigged to explode if tampered with”
Even the wife would start putting it on all the stuff she doesn’t want me messing with.

Mine reads: Danger: Mutant ninja cat with hemorrhoids enclosed. Open at your own risk.

 

[dmack]

I hung pegboard on one side and the inside of the door when I had one of these. Was able to hang handguns and rifle bolts on it. Didn't take up much space but freed up a lot of storage space.

 

[bradsteen]

Alright, still waiting on the HySkore pistol holders, but the main cabinet is done. See attached pics. Ended up forgoing the magnetic foam rests on the top and instead reusing the two 4-slot rests that came with the cabinet. Had to drill 4 additional holes to mount it, and chose to put it 4.5" down from the top of the cabinet. Will probably chop up one of the foam magnetic rests into individual slots to cover random size differences in some of the guns. Final count is 24 guns in the rifle cabinet (it's tight but it fits and the door closes without issue) and will be 24 pistols in the upper cabinet. Also added some motion-activated rechargeable magnetic LEDs to light up the interior. Will get another for the pistol cabinet soon.

 

[Alexx1401]

Alright, still waiting on the HySkore pistol holders, but the main cabinet is done. See attached pics. Ended up forgoing the magnetic foam rests on the top and instead reusing the two 4-slot rests that came with the cabinet. Had to drill 4 additional holes to mount it, and chose to put it 4.5" down from the top of the cabinet. Will probably chop up one of the foam magnetic rests into individual slots to cover random size differences in some of the guns. Final count is 24 guns in the rifle cabinet (it's tight but it fits and the door closes without issue) and will be 24 pistols in the upper cabinet. Also added some motion-activated rechargeable magnetic LEDs to light up the interior. Will get another for the pistol cabinet soon.

View attachment 1385130 View attachment 1385131 View attachment 1385132 View attachment 1385133 View attachment 1385134 View attachment 1385135 View attachment 1385136 View attachment 1385137

DAMN NICE! Came out great.

 

[bradsteen]

DAMN NICE! Came out great.

Thanks man! It'll definitely get the job done.

 

[bradsteen]

Update: the 12-slot pistol holders would fit the interior but I couldn't get them through the doorway. Ended up having to chop off the last holder on each, so now it fits 22 pistols total instead of 24 as planned. Still a great hack for pistol storage, though.

 

[thebigbaby]

Super awesome thread. Thank you @bradsteen. Got my little , brain storming.

 

[kmk1012]

You must be good at Tetris as well! Do you prioritize the order in which they were loaded? My luck, I’d always be grabbing one from the back and need to stack them all over. Very impressive being able to fit all those in there.

 

[bradsteen]

You must be good at Tetris as well! Do you prioritize the order in which they were loaded? My luck, I’d always be grabbing one from the back and need to stack them all over. Very impressive being able to fit all those in there.

Thanks! My band used to gig a lot so we all got good at making a lot of gear fit in confined spaces. Turns out you can carry an astonishing amount of equipment in a 14 passenger van of you put it in correctly. That and spending way too much time in IKEA.

In this format the PDWs are easily reachable, but the rifles are limited to longest in front, shortest in back. You just have to remove one side worth of guns to reach what you need, so it isn't terrible, but there is a decent amount of restacking involved.

 

[Lazyfaire]

Ok, here are some pictures. Turns out this will work better than I expected. I bought a cheap rubber placemat (the grey thing in the picture) and was going to cut it to the size of the shelf so the PDWs wouldn't slide around. Then I discovered the pistol cabinet comes with a foam pad for the base of it. The hyscore pistol rests make this unnecessary in the pistol cabinet, but it just happens to be the perfect size to fit the shelf in the rifle cabinet. Score!

View attachment 1384522 View attachment 1384523 View attachment 1384524

I have found that Husky's drawer liner makes for a good liner for shelves and drawers. Comes in a roll 18" wide