Solid wood safe?

[neviander]

As I was drifting off into nap land the other day, I lay in my bed looking at my nightstand thinking "I need a mini safe for my pistol". Then I got to thinking, I'll have a shotgun as soon as I get my taxes back, so that pretty much negates any safety the mini safe provides (I plan on keeping the shottie handy).

Then I thought about a gun cabinet, nothing super duper secure, just a nice gun cabinet with a glass door and simple lock to keep the kids out of it, especially if they have friends over. Then I got to thinking about an all out safe, big, steel, heavy, secure...expensive. Then it hit me, what about wood? Wood is typically cheaper and easier to manipulate than heavy steel.

If it's 3 or 4 inch thick hardwood with a decent lock...that would make a secure container. I figure, solid oak doors are often trusted to keep out crooks, even if they had an ax, they'd be chopping for a while, and from what I read on other 'safe' threads, no safe is COMPLETELY safe anyway; if they have the time and will, they're getting in. I would think a 3 or 4 inch thick solid wood safe would provide just as much, if not more, deterrent to a thief, as a wal-mart bought RSC would.

The fire ax test on the cheaper mass produced safes are rather eye opening.
The only thing that might be an issue is fireproofing.

Has anyone seen, or made anything like this?

[spwenger]

Gun safes and gun cabinets may be of the same genus but not of the same species.

I know of a case where thieves broke into an unoccupied home and spent an estimated one or two hours pounding on a gun safe with a sledge hammer. They eventually broke it open and made off with something on the order of two dozen firearms. A wooden gun cabinet would have yielded much sooner.

In the case I have cited, the burglars apparently knew of the safe and its contents and came prepared. Even a true safe, absent a dog and/or alarm system, yielded, in the expanded time window that the lack of other "layers' provided them.

If the intent of the wooden cabinet is to keep out children in the home and keep casual visitors from realizing that firearms are stored there, it may suffice. A better approach, to my view, would be to build the cabinet around a decent safe and get the best of both worlds - a more resistant container and a less obvious one.

From my experience with a few household moves, you have to get up around 600 pounds before a single person with a dolly will have trouble simply carting off your safe, to open elsewhere. Anything lighter and you really need to bolt it to the floor or some wall studs.

[rondog]

To build a safe out of 3 or 4 inch thick hardwood wouldn't exactly be cheap, either. I'll stick with a steel one, thank you.

[OAKVILLE SHOOTER]

To build a safe out of 3 or 4 inch thick hardwood wouldn't exactly be cheap, either. I'll stick with a steel one, thank you.

Or light either. A cabinet/safe made from 3-4" oak would be extremely heavy. Not all bad, actually.

[musher]

Had a buddy who was burgled. His "visitors" grabbed his chainsaw from the garage and had a go at his 1/4" safe. He had to buy a new bar and chain and a couple of cans of krylon.

I wouldn't put any bets on the box in a "hardwood box" vs chainsaw match.

[neviander]

I wouldn't put any bets on the box in a "hardwood box" vs chainsaw match.

True that. What about cris crossing re-bar through the entire length of the walls and top? The chainsaw could likely still make holes in it, but you wouldn't be able to pull much out of it.

You can put explosives on a steel safe to get it open, but you'll destroy most everything inside too.

[21H40]

It all comes down to what you want to accomplish. Wood is not effective for fire resistance, and it is easier to break into with a big hammer and wrecking bar than steel.

If you want something to stop thieves, I recommend 6" concrete walls, floor and ceiling reinforced with #5 rebar (or larger) in a 6" x 6" grid.

If you're just looking for somewhere to keep the pistol and shotgun out of sight and moderately secure, several layers of wood should be fine. Don't use O.S.B. Go with at least 2 layers of wood, because the multiple layers slows down cutting and smashing through.

[iiibdsiil]

Sounds fine for what you want to do with it.

[ROAshooter]

In other discussions about the RSC vs high dollar safe....some have mentioned the steel worksite chests...Rigid-Greenlee-Knaack etc etc....which offer somewhat better protection than the cheap box store RSCs. With my budget not able to handle a true safe..I am going the Greenlee box route...with the addition of bolting on a wooden "skin" of 2x6...stained...to give a little better wooden chest apperance...and to cover the carry handles of the box...a film of bearing grease along under the bottom edge for a bad grip..and lots of lead (ammo) inside to make it difficult to move..what ya think?

p.s. could add some sheetrock in the laminate for some fireprotection as well

[un_lucky]

Even though wood burns it offers good fire protection when over an inch thick. 3 to 4 inches of good dry hardwood would eat the chain right off a chainsaw in short order.

[Harley Quinn]

My gun safe is in a closet with heavy doors, they on the outside and fairly well fire proofed! The type that are an hour long burn rating

The idea of wood is ok, in some parts of the country, hardwood is for burning

Regards

[brickeyee]

Wood is not effective for fire resistance

Not correct.
Thick lumber only looses strength as the wood is charred away.

There is a famous set of pictures of a lumberyard fire with the sagged steel beams laying across the wooden ridge beam.

[musher]

3 to 4 inches of good dry hardwood would eat the chain right off a chainsaw in short order

[yooper_sjd]

wanna make a safe outa wood, Tamarack!!!!!! slow burning if fire should be involved! Dulls chainsaws quick. This i know for a fact, strong wood, used as shoring in mines and for rail ties! want to deter the use of chainsaw to open. Randomly drive nails from inside into wood on various angles. Already got hard wood, and some steel to it and walla, saw proof!!!! Loggers and Sawyers get injured and killed every year from people driving nails into trees and it enters the milling process.

[1 old 0311]

I may be in error, but I don't remember reading about many burglers carrying chain saws. I keep all the cutting/smashing things I have locked up IN my safe. Don't need the entire chainsaw locked up, just the bar.

I like the idea!

[Dragon43]

I don't have any weapons worth stealing. We are home all the time now. When we leave, the weapons go with us. We have attack cats. We are good.

[TCB in TN]

Wood is far easier to build with yourself, and it is not that hard to HIDE if you want to get creative. (The best I ever saw was hidden between the floor joists.) You can also laminate using layers of wood and light metal which will be pretty cheap and still hard to break into.

[C96]

I think TCB nailed an important part of firearms security: HIDE THEM

A small secured box someplace not in the master bedroom. Perhaps in the end of closet in your "junk room". Don't give them a target. A big safe could be something they might want to back after.

[musher]

Tamarack!!!!!! slow burning if fire should be involved! Dulls chainsaws quick

Well I agree about tamarak being a good long lasting fuel. It's what I burn exclusively in my wood stove.

But...I can cut 2+ cords of standing dead Tamarack before busting out my file, as long as I keep my saw out of the dirt.

I really don't think there's a wood out there that will slow a chainsaw down enough to make a difference in getting into a wooden box. The only wood I've every cut that destroyed a blade in short order was a drift log from a glacial river. The wood was saturated with glacial silt and ground the edges off the teeth before I had 3 rounds cut. Of course I did cut 3 rounds from a 14" log before I stopped...

Laminating with rebar, wire mesh, stainless steel sheet metal, ... All of that seems like it would be easy to build in, and very nasty to saw through.

If you didn't ever plan on moving it, you could build a double wall shell with a 4" gap between the shells. Use something nice like oak veneer 3/4 ply for the outer shell and 3/4 cd for the inner shell. Place 6" mesh between the wooden walls and fill the space with concrete. That would be a small enough job, you could mix and pour by hand.

It would be nasty to get into and pretty fire resistant.

[Harley Quinn]

Good luck trying to get my safe out of the house...LOL That baby is 1/4 inch all over and the door is 3/8... It is 5' tall, 30'' wide and 25 1/2'' deep +

Stuck inside a closet It was empty when put in there, now it has a few things in it

Regards

[Steve48]

I have a friend that used motar and concrete and put a safe door at the door. It's great and lots of room. He put re-bar everywhere.

[Apple a Day]

I built my own wooden "safe"s for both handguns and long guns. I built them for the space I have and the guns I needed stored. They're both bulky and heavy as crap. They're not meant to stop Ocean's Eleven but they're secure enough to discourage unwanted meddling.