I just purchased yesterday by far the best value I could find
I've spent quite a bit of time reading about what makes a good gun safe as I've been searching for my own, and I found that there are a lot of major safe manufacturers using cheap materials and using over dramatized fire ratings to have at least something to claim for their safes. They don't spend much time discussing their thin walled safes, but just how thick all the junk they could put together in combination and stacked up. I just got my Sturdy Safe (Fresno Ca.) delivered yesterday and all I can say is I am impressed. After you read the following you may be as well, it left me with virtually no alternative but to buy the Sturdy Safe. The safe which actually came in second place was the Zykan safe which offered 10 gauge side wall and 1/4" door thicknesses and has graced these threads for some time.
Many major safe builders use 12-16 gauge steel which offers virtually no protection against a common axe attack. Sometimes they use a thin outer layer, some kind of gypsum filling with an even thinner inside ling usually adding a bit more door thickness , these slightly built sidewall safes don't offer much, attack resistance to say the least, but well disguised fire ratings are used as a ruse. They talk about beautiful glossy finishes, lovely shelving systems and they talk about how long your safe will last in a fire, they just tell you there probably won't be anything left in it to burn. So, a safe with an outer thickness of of just .0589 inches (16 gauge) to .1046 inches (12 gauge) this covers the majority of gun safe outer walls including safes up to $1800-$2000 safes with plaster board, gypsum sheathing or a foamed concrete inner layer, providing not much protection. Kudos to Zykan for putting up a good fight but in the end there is no comparison between 10 gauge and 7 gauge steel.
So the reason I'm writing this is I've read so much crap recently describing these woefully inadequate safe constructs I felt I had to speak up. I just purchased a Sturdy safe with outer walls of .1793 thick walls (7 gauge ) with a front door of 5/16" thick. The safe is also made of one sheet with 12 -90 degree bends with a recessed door . The recessed door bends actually creates a mini I beam. It is actually a thing of beauty in the simplicity of it's construction. The locking system is equally beautiful in its simplicity for aligning all the bolts with no complicated cam systems like browning touts just to place the handle in the middle of the safe door. There is serious hardplate surrounding the lock area and I guess I shouldn't go on, but I have really learned a lot about safe construction.For the price of this safe, I paid less than $1000 before tax and shipping( unlucky for me they are made in my state so I paid taxes. One of the reasons I am writing this is I wanted to share my good fortune upon discovering this totally made in America company. The only body welds on this safe is for the top and bottom.(besides hard plates surrounding all the door bolts.It safe also uses far fewer locking components as they have placed the handle on the side in direct line with the locking bolts, so no elaborate cam locking structures. I've never written a safe review but felt this was a substantial enough find to share it with people also interested in the best protection for their firearms that they can. I just bolted mine down today, I must admit that I didn't get the fire protection ( high temperature ceramic glass wool , actually two types compressed to 2" thickness) because I live just a couple of blocks from a fire station. There is a lot more I could have written but just check it our for yourselves, and see if you find it as cool as I did. I think it is unbelievable quality for the money , and granted some have complained of its industrial look on other forums, but I just put on some decals that came with it and it actually looks kind of cool. After reading how they build their safes I kept reading all the major player specs and kept coming back to this manufacturer, and I hope this helps someone else looking for a safe. A lot of junk has been written describing everything but how these safes are made. The more I look at this safe , and because of the construction, the more beautiful it becomes, form following function, check it out. So, in the end do you want .10 or .18 thickness steel protecting your gun collection, when you go over item per item there is only one conclusion left, even Amsec skimps on the outer layers of their $2000 plus safes and uses .12 gauge steel, of course it is part of a sandwhich section which I think is crap and I own one of their commercial burglary fire safes as well.
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