Gun safe as a faraday cage
- Thread starter battlecry
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armabill
Member
Line your safe with 1" thick sheets of lead and coat the outside with 1/2" of tin foil.
This will protect the inside from all EMP's and from Superman.
This will protect the inside from all EMP's and from Superman.
Chipperman
Member
Invalid test. They always sleep in on Saturday morning.
Snagglepuss
Member
Thanks for clearing up my question about on or off electronics being damaged. Obviously we have some very, very intelligent folks in our midst.
XD Fan
Member
Isn't the whole thread? Interesting discussion, but is this gun related? (sincere question, not being a smart aleck)
FieroCDSP
Member
An EMP is a different form of "electricity" from line voltage.. When it hits something, it has to have somewhere to go. Now, since it's free-floating electrons that are disorganized, they will naturally attach themselves to anything metal in an attempt to sort themselves out and to flow to the nearest ground. The issue with frying electronics is that the circuits cannot dissipate the energy fast enough, it builds up in the weaker portions, and cooks silicon.
To protect against that kind of power, you need a surface to "recieve" the energy, and a massive ground to send the now-organized energy somewhere at a rate faster than it can build up to a damaging level.
Copper fabric is the ideal affordable conductor. A wide surface area with a high conductivity collects a large amount of energy in a short amount of time. Copper conducts better than steel, especially painted or coated steel.
TO remove the energy at a high rate of speed, you need a large ground wire and a large ground. THe copper pipe array is a nice idea. To work effectively, though, you'll have to split the ground wire into equal lengths to each ground rod to provide equal "pull" and distribution.
At least, this is what makes sense to me. YMMV
sacp81170a
Member
Actually, to get it kinda sorta back OT, I was thinking of getting one of those fancy Nikon Laser IRT scopes. If I hadn't chanced on this thread I would probably have stored it in the old gun safe and assumed it was safe from lighting strikes and whatnot (even though a lighting strike is a low probability event and an EMP is even lower). Knowing that I'd be spending that much money on an electronic device and assuming it would be good to go in the safe, I think I'm gonna be adding a ground in the near future.
ok if you are close enough to get effects of an emp from a nuke your not gonna last long enough to try your protected electronics out. Oh your cell phone only works if the towers work which are not protected.
Would some one call a moderator please?
Would some one call a moderator please?
Acera
Member
As I was reading through this thread, I was wondering if anyone was going to post like Eric F did. Who cares if your cell phone is undamaged if all the equipment in the country is fried, lol. It still would not work. You probably would not feel the blast from a space based detionation, your stuff just quits working. Suposedly that will be the first bomb to go off in WWIII.
bogie
Member
Be awful damn nice if some of y'all put as much effort into contacting opinion makers, such as congresscritters, civic leaders, school administrators, etc., etc., as you do into the tinfoil hat conspiracy crap.
Awful damn nice.
As it is, next to damn useless. 60,000 users, and they wanna pway widda wenolds wrap... awww... isn't that precious...
Awful damn nice.
As it is, next to damn useless. 60,000 users, and they wanna pway widda wenolds wrap... awww... isn't that precious...
Snagglepuss
Member
Thank God my guns will still work. Opps, my laser cannon will be in operable however.
Cesiumsponge
Member
That thin rubber layer doesn't protect against lightning strikes. High voltage arcs right through most materials, not to mention rubber is usually doped with carbon to make it black. This becomes conductive at very high voltages. The dielectric strength of rubber isn't that great compared to other materials out there.
bogie, the invention and development of Faraday cages (Michael Faraday) dates back almost 200 years and well established electrical principle. This isn't some tinfoil conspiracy. That, and people that gave more technical responses in this thread are likely engineers and science majors. Be awfully damn nice that people like that come in and correct misconceptions people have about the physical world. Maybe we'd be better off with people running around believing everything they read on the errornet instead?
Dumpster Baby
Member
100% correct. Take the batteries out of any SHTF electronics you want to preserve, and wrap in a couple of layers of aluminum foil, with no holes or gaps anywhere.
EAdams
Member
This thread is definitely not gun related, but it did teach me that I can check the radiation shielding in my microwave by placing my cell phone inside and trying to call it!
Remember fellas, EMP is also made by random occurrences like lightening strikes, or that step-down transformer on the telephone pole outside your house overheating and exploding (Seen this happen a few times, actually). Be a real shame if the EMP from a transformer exploding damaged that nice $2,000 NVG Gen2+ scope or EOTech that is attached to your AR-15, now wouldn't it?
Uhmm guys you might want to do a little reading prior to posting.
I'll post a few links for you
http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/rp/factsheets/factsheets-htm/fs41elecpuls.htm
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/hane.html
http://glasstone.blogspot.com/2006/03/emp-radiation-from-nuclear-space.html
NukemJim
ok great so you light a 1.4 megaton nuke 250 miles in the air What else do you think will happen? if you say nothing I think you to be wrong. Much like every other prediction one person launches every one launches. Which leaves ground devices much shorter range. And from what I see any thing short of a nuke is for now fiction.
And this is all still very ungun related.
And this is all still very ungun related.
but this is not.........I think home owners would cover this. and if that were really the case there would be problems at my house all the time. The light infront of my house has blown out about 3 times a year for 5 years noe and I have yet to have any problems....must be low tech lighting around my block.
nainc
Member
Ummm...
What about the stuff outside the safe? Like cell towers, satellites, and everyone else's cell phone. Wouldn't that make the point of shielding your stuff kind of moot?
What about the stuff outside the safe? Like cell towers, satellites, and everyone else's cell phone. Wouldn't that make the point of shielding your stuff kind of moot?
Im283
Member
If I remember correctly Mythbusters did an episode on EMP's . They drove a car through a EMP burst. It killed the motor and major electronics on the car. But some of the smaller stuff still worked, can't remember exactly what but the wipers, windows, maybe the dome light still worked. The ignition was done.
What I want to know is will the keypad on my RSC still work if one of these happens?
What I want to know is will the keypad on my RSC still work if one of these happens?
Not really, nainc. I want to use the safe to store 2 meter and other mobile ham radio equipment. The kind of stuff to use in RACES to restore communications and assist in emergency situations. The cell and wireless phones were used to test the RF isolation inside the safe. I was surprised to discover they still work inside the safe, microwave oven, and ammocan.
To those who want to use aluminum foil, I recommend that you first wrap the gear in bubblewrap or another convenient insulator before wrapping the mass in aluminum foil. Some case materials may be conductors and I believe you want whatever is inside the faraday cage to be insulated from the shield.
I still would like to make the safe an affective protection device. Will try some emi tape around the door gap. My safe is not grounded. Not so sure about the grounding strap; it also works as an antenna. I'll read your references.
Thanks for the advice, guys. Sorry if the post annoyed some.
To those who want to use aluminum foil, I recommend that you first wrap the gear in bubblewrap or another convenient insulator before wrapping the mass in aluminum foil. Some case materials may be conductors and I believe you want whatever is inside the faraday cage to be insulated from the shield.
I still would like to make the safe an affective protection device. Will try some emi tape around the door gap. My safe is not grounded. Not so sure about the grounding strap; it also works as an antenna. I'll read your references.
Thanks for the advice, guys. Sorry if the post annoyed some.
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