Wooden gun safe?

[OLDNEWBIE]

I know, sounds goofy, defiantly not fireproof!

Was looking at my huge scrap pile of 3/4' plywood and other assorted lumber and the thought struck me.

With enough layers and lots of screws & construction adhesive holding the layers together it could be better than a cheap safe.

If the inside were lined with those adjustable metal shelf strips, and with all the screws and double 3/4" plywood, a saw would be sloooow going.

I know because part of my wood scrap pile came from a MASSIVE homemade overbuilt entertainment center I inherited when I bought the house.

It took me near a full day to cut up/dismantle!

Being wood I could customize the dimensions and maybe disguise it as part of a wall divider as well.

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[Joe13]

Metal blade on a worm drive skill saw will eat thru that stuff I would think. Not sure how it would handle the adhesive though.

I think that the element of hiding it among your other furniture would be it's best quality in my opinion.

The hinges and locks will be the weakest points.

Better to customize it and get what you want in the end

Nice idea I need another safe now...

 

[Kruel J]

With enough time, one could saw through Fort Knox. My dad has a wood gun "safe" but I feel better knowing mine is steel. Regardless, lock those pieces up!

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

The way to open it would be more of a puzzle/ hidden latch kind of deal. It would also have an obvious functional keyed locking device as well.
I know it would work but how much time and money involved? In the end a "good" safe could be bought I guess.

 

[albin25]

"Wooden gun safe?"

I dunno...what caliber is it?

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

"Wooden gun safe?"

I dunno...what caliber is it?

They exist too. Youtube is full of wooden and paper replica guns for some reason!?!?
Also didn't mythbusters do a wooden cannon?

 

[IronMonster]

No safe is really "secure" there is just varying degrees of slowing down determined robbers.

I would say go for it. Its better than not having one by a long shot. What are the chances the crooks are going to show up with a nail eating blade on a worm drive?

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

If you really wanted to mess with them you could put a layer of porcelain tile somewhere in between the layers!

 

[IronMonster]

I just got rid of my big safe, it was 4' square and 8 feet tall, the tops and sides where 3/4" thick plate steel and the door was from an armory vault. It weighed over 6000 lbs

It had an electronic lock that went wacko so I had to break into it to get it open. Took about 10 minutes (All I had to do was cut a 6" round hole in the side so I could reach my hand in to turn the emergency release handle from the inside, Most real vault doors have some sort of fail safe so you cant lock someone inside) After I got in and fixed the lock I welded the chunk back in and cleaned it all up and sold it. More or less I realized my other more standard safes with 1/4" thick doors and 10 ga walls would put up about the same fight. Safes are great for keeping thug kids and smash and grab bad guys from making off with your goods but if someone wants whats in one all you can hope to do is slow them down as much as possible.

I have had a lot of guys tell me that their safe could not be broke into, There is no such safe on the market. Those really nice $10,000 safes with the 1" thick steel walls? I could have one open in around a half an hour and not damage a thing inside and so could just about any other competent metal worker with the right equipment.

The truth is though 99% of the bad guys you need to keep out are inept, clueless jackwagons who have no idea what kind of security measures are in place and wont come with tools capable of breaching a quality safe (I have a National Magnum series and a Fort Knox, both are what I would consider "real" safes"

In all honestly I think most of the time diversion and concealment are better options. Pretty hard to hide a gun safe and its a target as soon as its known about. Sounds like you have the material and skills to build a secure box, I think the thing to do is build something that does not look like a place to look. Its much harder to steal something you cant find than something in a safe in plain sight.

 

[BoonDocks36]

"Wooden gun safe?"

I dunno...what caliber is it?

Well, I am glad more than one of us thought that way...

 

[Bon Sauvage]

I went the strong box route myself a few years ago, and use it for ammunition storage.

 

[BlindedByScience]

If a professional wants in your safe, be it wood or metal or whatever, they'll get in. What you want to do is make it difficult and intimidating enough that the meth affected tweeker simply moves onto an easier score. Do that, and I believe you've solved better than 98% of the problem. A plywood safe would be a deterrant, as long as the bad guys couldn't put it on a hand truck and haul it off. Can't tell you how many times I've seen very nice smaller safe's that guys didn't bother to anchor down. A couple guys could scoot one of them out, if they were determined enough....

 

[Mark W.]

Depending on how you build the door. If you took 3 layers of 3/4" plywood placing a layer of wire mesh fencing like a 2" x 4" inbetween and squirted a bunch of construction adhesive between the layers then screw it all together using construction screws on 6" centers with alternating corners. Cutting through the material would be a serious PITA. But hiding it is the best idea yet.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

Depending on how you build the door. If you took 3 layers of 3/4" plywood placing a layer of wire mesh fencing like a 2" x 4" inbetween and squirted a bunch of construction adhesive between the layers then screw it all together using construction screws on 6" centers with alternating corners. Cutting through the material would be a serious PITA. But hiding it is the best idea yet.

How about all that and more. Leave it out in the open. Stencil GUN LOCKER on it. The fun part would be to leave it empty Keep the guns hidden somewhere else. Would be fun to watch all that effort the robbers went through for nothing.

 

[IronMonster]

I really like the idea of having a "dummy" safe.

And no matter how big your safe is BOLT IT DOWN! Back in about 1996 I had a big 40+ gun safe stolen. It was in a very secure garage (steel doors, steel security bars on the windows and an alarm system) The crooks cut the whole power meter off the back of the garage, cut the phone lines and pried the entire door jam out of the building and then simply backed the truck inside the garage and loaded the entire safe in the truck. It weighed at least 2000 pounds but was not bolted down. I bet it did not take them 20 minutes total, if the safe would have been bolted down it would have doubled or tripled the time required.

That was a true wake-up call for me, That one event transformed my entire view of possessions.

In the safe was my extensive pocket watch collection (about 80 of them, at least half gold) About 200 collectible knives including a couple of rare production prototypes of which there are only 4 in the world. About 20 long guns and 10 or so pistols.

Several months before the robbery I had taken videos of all my possessions for insurance reasons, I had serial numbers on all my tools and guns. I had taken extensive measures to make sure I had good documentation on everything. All my vehicle titles, important paperwork, the kids gold coins given to them by grandpaw....

All in the safe. Every last record I had of everything gone.

Turned out it was a guy who had come to look at a gun I had for sale who was a professional thief. He knew exactly what I had because I took him out there and broke everything out of the safe to play show and tell.

He was caught, did 5 years in the pen for it (among other things) and I got a Ruger 10/22 back and a couple of pretty worthless knives. The rest was gone.

Between when he robbed my place and got caught he tried to rob a local gun store but did not know the owner had an apartment where he lived upstairs. He broke in in the middle of the night and got a few loads of guns outside before the owner showed up with a handgun and chased him down the road. He had one of my handguns with him and fired at the owner several times before dropping the gun. He got away and they where never able to pin that on him but it seems pretty logical to me that it was the same guy, he had my gun after all and was trying to steal more guns.

I figure I had $80 grand in the safe, in 1996 dollars (when a few years earlier I had bought a log home on three acres for $120K) The insurance company paid me $12,000 and that included all the damages to the building.
They paid like $1000 for the watches (no rider, max "jewelery" coverage) $2500 on the guns, same deal and I dont think anything for the knives. The rest was damage to building and a few other tools they stole.
Keep in mind this is in small town Idaho, 5 miles from the nearest town with only a couple neighbors on the same mile section road. We had not even been taking the keys out of the cars for long and my folks who lived right down the road never even locked there front door unless they left town.

Easy to pick apart all of my mistakes 18 years later, but back then really I think I had better security than most. Most houses around the area would have just had the rifles leaned up in the bedroom closet

The whole ordeal was a very, very expensive lesson in OPSEC, trust and security.

It took me years to get over that loss, Pretty much every possession that was important to me and at least half of my net worth was in that safe

 

[erudne]

I knew PPL that built 2X4 gun lockers but as others have said I would put some type of metal on the out/inside to stop a chain saw. I'm sure there are designs on the web:

 

[3MTA3]

...I know because part of my wood scrap pile came from a MASSIVE homemade overbuilt entertainment center I inherited when I bought the house.

It took me near a full day to cut up/dismantle!...

... I think the thing to do is build something that does not look like a place to look. Its much harder to steal something you cant find than something in a safe in plain sight.

How 'bout something designed to look like a massive overbuilt entertainment center.

I think a dummy safe filled with old shoes, 8 track tapes, old pizza boxes, or boxes with biohazard labels would be sick. Maybe a dummy in black clothes with a ski mask. Mount a camera so you can see the look on their faces.

 

[rick benjamin]

Cinder Block filled with rebar and concrete, HomeDepot steel door and frame, couple dead bolts.

 

[Caveman Jim]

I've got 15 Old Growth 5/4"x14"x8' Oak planks I have had for over 15 years & have been looking for a project for them, I think I have found it!!! Thanks Oldnewbie!!!

 

[jbett98]

My neighbor bought a medium sized safe from Costco and bolted it down next to his gas furnace, which is located in his garage.
He then had a three sided sheet metal air duct made that slides over the safe.
If you walked in and looked around, it looks like part of the furnace and would fool anyone breaking in.
You just have to be very careful who you tell.