gun security:wood cabinet vs steel safe

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Can you get real security out of a wood gun cabinet with a glass (or plexi) front
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1" plexiglass (or even .5") is gonna take time to remove. A dude with a crowbar won't simply be smashing it or prying it out of the way. Yes, a gas-powered circular saw or thermal lance can get through, but that's the case for a metal safe too, and you have bigger problems if your thieves have those kinds of resources :eek:

A good safe requires destruction to be opened, and a wood-façaded steel frame with plate-plexi openings will not be readily breached. It is easy to conceive of a design that would be superior to most of the glorified filing cabinets out there, or even more expensive vaults whose walls can be rolled back like a sardine can after cutting some exposed welds.

I don't think it could be done more cheaply as a consumer offering, though (as a homebuild, it could be, though). Always remember, though, "loose lips sink ships" ---not U-boats ;)

TCB
 
I went with the "hidden in plain sight" method when building a gun cabinet. My hope is that if anyone decides to rob me that they will just see it for what it appears to be...a dvd case sitting in the corner. If they happen to figure it out, then that's what insurance is for.

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Change Plexiglass to Lexan and I think you have a real winner.
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Whoops, true dat; Plexi is the brittle stuff, right? Several thinner laminated layers would be even tougher to hack through (like bulletproof glass) ;)

X-JaVeN-X, I forgot about that awesome cabinet you built. You should toss up the construction thread link if the pictures are still visible :cool:

TCB
 
X-JaVeN-X said:
Umm...I think this is the only thread I made...it was more about me trying to get some ideas on how to lock it, as that wasn't thought about in the initial "back of a napkin" plans lol. It does have a few pics from earlier in the build.
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Again, very nice!

When you mentioned ideas for locking it, what sprang to my mind immediately actually turned out to be very much like what you finally settled on.

A sweet deal indeed!
 
I went through the lexan windshield on one of my motorcycles. Thick plexi or lexan would be different. So would the tint like stuff put on windows to keep them in one piece when someone is using a bat, etc trying to break it.
 
A sheet metal safe is levels better than a wood display case. And a heavy grade gun safe is levels better yet. But nothing is 100% safe from professionals. A guy who lives only a few blocks from here returned home to find his $2000 professional gun safe open and empty. Right next to it was the cutting torch they used to get into it. It had been stolen form a welding supply place just up the highway. Like all forms of insurance, you have to balance the cost against the odds of taking a loss, and the potential cost of that loss.
 
So they committed a burglarly specifically to access his safe and discarded the tools, to boot. Sounds like he bragged on his collection/safe to the wrong people...

He should start with who called in sick at work that day;)

TCB
 
Well, I thought people would know what I inferred. 16 years ago when I was 19 and crime in our part of small town usa was nonexistent, my dad left and forgot to turn the alarm on. The guns on "display" in the wood and glass cabinet were stolen during a break in. They were all really nice ones too.
 
Grew up on a farm, we had a wood and glass gun case on either side of the fireplace and were lighted. It was beatiful and warm. Never kept the doors locked on the case or the front door of the house. Times have changed for sure. Mine are in a triple locked safe, bolted to the concrete pad and camo by a shefling unit and door reading ' Dog food storage'.
 
Back when I was in high school a good friends dad had a heck of a Browning Collection, high grade shotguns and rifles and a lot of them were on display in a glass case above his desk in the kitchen.
The folks would leave for the weekends and invariably one of the 4 kids would have a party and nothing ever came up missing in the gun case.
I can't ever recall the doors to that house being locked and the whole gun rack was visible from the sidewalk going to the kitchen door and the place was well out of town.
My dad hung a lot of guns on the wall in the living room and although it was a small town lots of people knew we had a fair amount of guns and we never lost one from in the house. He did loose an A5, 788, and his favorite recurve bow from the truck one night in the driveway.
 
how about a walk-in safe big enough for nice wooden display racks? now we're getting somewhere..... a man cave on steroids.
 
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