Gun safe... electronic or mechanical lock?

[0007]

Kaba Mas used to be Mas-Hamilton. And I've installed and drilled X-07's, X-08's, S&G 8400's, and 8500's as well. Haven't had to drill any X-09's yet but I suspect it's just a matter of time before I do. I just lean toward the mechanical locks for reliability.

 

[The Freeholder]

If you're really worried about EMP, then get a mechanical lock. Completely unaffected by EMP.

I worry about such things too, and my Ft. Knox has an electronic lock. I'd hate to lose access to what's in that safe, but I expect EMP is one of the less likely scenarios.

If you're worried about survival, you won't have every gun you own in that safe. There will be others, stored in different places, where you can get to them if needed.

 

[Flinter]

I bought one from Granite awhile back that has an electronic lock. They told me that in the event of a fire (the pads going to melt) or failure that they would send me a new keypad. Also said that the combo will be ok even if the battery is removed and left idle for years.

It was weird getting used to it. I'm kind of old fashioned and would have been happier with a dial lock, then I started reading about the combo on dial locks changing as (I assume) the gears inside wear? I'm not sure about that, but I do know that my manual had a whole chapter on what to do if your dial lock fails.

Of course, I guess with a dial lock you at least have options. It didn't have a trouble shooting section for the electronic lock.

My plan was always to have one large safe in the basement for the guns I don't shoot very often and a smaller safe in the bedroom for guns that I use the most. The one in the bedroom will have a dial lock.

 

[Linux&Gun Guy]

As an engineer, I am willing to bet that if I knew you had a safe, and if I wanted in on it, I could probably defeat any typical home safe in about 10 minutes. I would just bring the right tools for the job. You can't defend against someone who knows about the safe and is intent on getting access to it.

How would you try to defeat a safe built like so?

It would be made of steel and weigh about 10 tons and be build into a wall on all sides exept the door. It would have copper plates to prevent drilling in the door and use a keypad - however the main electronics of the keypad are inside the safe and only the keys are outside - even if you have access to the wires you would have to run through billions of combos and if you got five wrong in 10min it would shut down for 24hours. It would use defaut extended soiliniods(sp) with carbon steel cores as the bolts in the door that connects it to the rest of the safe.

 

[dav]

Linux&GunGuy wrote:
How would you try to defeat a safe built like so?

Not fair, he specifically said 'typical home safe'. That means 12 gauge steel, which is pretty darned easy to saw through with power tools. Don't attack the door, just cut away a side or the back.

Very noisy, very messy, very close to 10 minutes to empty the contents.

 

[CB900F]

Linux&Gunguy;

I gotta ask, how does copper prevent the drill from working?

900F

 

[Linux&Gun Guy]

Its a copper berillum(sp) alloy and it sucks the heat from the drill bit so it can't drill.

These safes must be made of bad steel if you can cut through them so easily.

 

[Brett Bellmore]

Machinist is one of my hats, (I'm primarilly a mechanical engineer.) and I'll tell you flat out: If you can't drill through berylium copper, you're using the wrong drills. And conducting the heat away has nothing to do with it, you don't WANT heat buildup when you're drilling.

Some varieties of copper are hard to drill through, simply because they tend to gum up the drill bit if you don't use the right lube. But you can cut ANYTHING if you have the right tool.

 

[brian roberts]

safe.....

just keep some detcord handy(safely locked up, where only you know its there)then, if the EMP comes down, you can throw it over one side, tamp it down, & voila!!! instant access. it'll even open the windows for ya!

 

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

How to pick Simplex locks.

- pdmoderator