Locking closet question

[Shipwreck]

I have a closet I keep my gun stuff in, and it has a lock on it. I have a kid on the way now.

Instead of buying a gunsafe, I could use the entire closet as my gun safe (it pretty much only has guns stuff and ammo in it now anyway). I might even buy a combination doorknob so I need not worry about a key.

But there is one problem - the hinges are on the outside of the door. In future years, as the kid gets older - hypothetically, one could knock out the hinge pins and take the door off the hook to get into it (with the doorknob still locked).

Any ideas? I'd rather not screw in any time of locking hinge into the doorframe and door - and, this could just be unscrewed anyway.

If there was such a thing as a locking hinge - I'd be set - something like a longer than normal hinge pin, and I could put a tiny padlock thru it to keep anyone from taking the pin out. I did a google search, but had no luck for such an item.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Bruce333]

Take one of the screws out of the hinges on the frame side, and insert a solid steel 1/4" dia. pin in it's place that sticks out about 1/2"-3/4" or so. Drill a matching hole in the door side of the hinge for the pin to enter when the door is closed. Do this on the top and bottom hinges. Even if the hinge pins on the outside are removed (with the door closed and locked) the internal pins prevent the door from being removed from the frame.

 

[dstorm1911]

ITS A CLOSET DOOR!! All anyone has to do is spring it open regardless what ya do with the hinges or the door handle, if anyone wants in without ya knowing they been in then they just pop the door open by pressing it towards the hing side the lock will pop outa the socket, if they don;t care if ya know they simply tear the flimsy interior door outa the frame or simply split it in half, cut through the veneer with a kitchen knife etc... a closet does not make any form of secure gun "safe" unless ya are ready to do some major reworking and then its only marginal, ya'd start by building a STEEL door frame (wood frames are useless ya simply slip a flat bar in between door and jam and pop door open in half a second, if your good nobody will be able to tell the door was opened and then popped back closed again) next a STEEL door with at the very least multiple dead bolts on at least 3 per side, bottom, middle and top now even if the hinges are removed the deadbolts on opposite side prevents popping the door open etc... next WELD the hing pins at each end now they cannot be removed period, now how are ya gonna keep a theif from just punching his fist through your wall into the closet.......... see where this is going? to now secure the walls ya gotta go with steel....... by the time your done that $520 Wally world safe woulda been a bargain......... I've had to secure several hundred guns from kids of all ages as well as plain old theives I finally have went Underground with everything, ie; 8x40' sea transport containers buried under cement with only one way in no cutting through walls etc... totally fire proof......... but that project has gotten into a tad over the average gun owners budget with just 4 units built so far ;-)

 

[WESTTX357]

Closet doors are usually hollow doors and the frame work around them is week. I would have new frame work installed and a new solid core door put in place .

 

[Squidward]

There are many options; it depends on how many guns and other stuff you need to put inside..

FWIW, if you do get a gun safe consider one larger than what the dealer says it will hold. I've found that an eight rifle-sized safe doesn't hold eight guns unless they are crammed together. I like my stuff with adequate space between each rifle for better accessability, less chance of dings and increased air circulation.

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Replace the door with a steel door and hidden hinges along with the door jam. Eventually line the interior of the room with steel because drywall is extremely easy to punch through.
For now, if you have access to a welder can't you just tack weld the hinge pins in? You should definitely upgrade your setup because it would be just as easy to kick through a hollow interior door as to punch out hinge pins. You might also want to visit a piano store and get a piano hinge to replace the hinges with an interior one.

 

[real_name]

To answer the OPs query, in the absence of funds for a real safe and solely to thwart a young child by modifying the hinges I would;
1. apply superglue to the pin and the first hinge plate. Not the whole hinge obviously as that will 'lock' the door. Just apply a drop of glue to the top of the pin and push it into place. Don't do this if you don't follow these instructions.
2. sell a gun, buy a safe.

 

[moewadle]

Use this as your life motto LIVE ONE DAY AT A TIME

and I am serious. Do not get too involved in the future. In this case my suggestion is that you are working on a problem that is too far in the future. Your child is only on the way so you have more than a year to secure this door more than a simple lock. In that time you might move or win the lottery or whatever. Do what needs to be now and do not spend a bunch of money, quite yet on preventing a future 3-4 year old from getting in. I am not advocating any lack of proper precaution. Just LIVE ONE DAY AT A TIME.

 

[javacodeman]

Since you've gone this long with them in an open closet, burglary doesn't seem to be a concern to you. It will be a long while before you'll need be concerned about your child taking a hinge pin out. In the meantime, keep your closet locked and save for a safe. Once you child is old enough to take a pin out, he is old enough to do a lot of other stuff previously mentioned if he wanted that gun bad enough.

But you also need to look at the other side of it. Once your child is old enough, you should begin to teach him proper respect, care, and maintence of firearms. I bet those Columbine kids (I'm totally speaking out of ignorance and could be dead wrong) never had a dad spend time with them doing anything. Spend time with your kids with guns, sports, at dinner, singing, and whatever you two want to do and you will greatly minimize the chance that your kid will ever mishandle a gun or want it for more that SD/plinking.

java

 

[meinbruder]

Re-Locking closet question.

I have a similar closet door closing over my loading bench. Do you mean the hinge pins are exposed and the door swings out into the room? If so, there is a very simple solution to make the hinge pins difficult or impossible to remove. Drill a hole through one of the hinge tabs on one side of the hinge and tap it for a setscrew. Re-hang the door, insert the pin and drill the pin just enough to form a dimple. Thread in the setscrew to full contact with the pin, the pin should now be difficult or impossible to remove. Several companies manufacture hinges pre made to this specification. They call them HFP, hold fast pin, or NRP, non-removable pin, hinges; the screw pattern and corner radius may not match the existing hinges.

You could also buy a simple flip lock and install it at the top of the door, it might hold the junior member at bay until about the age of six or seven depending on height. As bru333 pointed out, security pins in the frame will prevent the door from being removed if the pins are removed, those can also be found in hardware stores if you look hard enough. Another member mentioned the hollow door being a liability; I suspect by the time your little-one can defeat a hollow door; you’ll be able to afford a safe.

Sheet steel over the studs will prevent a simple punch through, fire-X drywall will give some protection from a house fire, and a fire rated steel door and frame set will add considerable security to the closet. All that will not replace a safe. I need one too!
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[kd7nqb]

TWO THOUGHTS

First it seems like the purpose for this is to keep the guns away from a newborn, I agree this is good. I dont know many newborns who regularly punch through sheetrock or kick in doors. So a good lock should be MORE than enough. Secondly if at age 10 or so your kid is punk and you fear he or she might do something stupid then you can worry about a safe or other measures. As far as the suggestions about covering your walls in steel or things like that I think they are all much too paranoid.

 

[mindwip]

If your kid is old enough to take off a door, then he should be old enough to learn about firearm safty and to go shooting with his father. He will not have a need to go in the door by force as all he has to do is ask if he can go shooting with you. Problem solved. Worked for me when i was a kid. But the gun was not in a locked place. Just in my parents room unloaded. Ammo was kept hidden in the house but i knew were it was and some how i made it to 21 with out blowing my self up. Maybe it was good parenting maybe it was luck.

 

[TX1911fan]

There are hinges you can buy that when the door is closed the bottom of the hinge covers the pin, so you can't get it out. I learned this the hard way when someone locked a closet at my church and no one had the key. We thought we'd just remove the hinges . . . nope. We ended up having to spring the locks from the top of the door.

 

[DogBonz]

what I did

I got a solid door and put a dead bolt in each corner, about a foot from the top/ bottom. The way that I see it, it's kinka like a crappy safe door. Oh well, it will keep the honest people out anyway.

 

[Shipwreck]

Thanks for some of the ideas. I got a few on Glocktalk too. I plan to go to the hardware store and see if I can get some similarly sized hinges with a non removal pin. I just needa swop out 1 hinge.

I am not doing it for burglars. Heck, even if I buy a safe and attach it to the wall in the closet, a burglar could knock out the sheet rock and then pry the screws from the beams. Then, take the entire safe and open it at their place.

I want to get into the habit of keeping the guns picked up now - for years, I've just had them around the house loaded. If I buy a combination doorknob now and install it, I may as well solve the hinge issue, and then be done with it. I plan to teach gun safety, but I want to still make it difficult so I don't leave myself open to criminal charges should my kid one day decide to try and get the gun.

One could pull the door off the hinges, get a gun and put it back, and I may not know for a while. If I solve the hinge issue, then it would take someone knocking holes in the door to get in.

I don't wanna rehang the door from the inside of the closet, because then I will have holes in the door-frame. So, a longer pin (that I can either drill or beat the bottom with a hammer to permanently splinter it) or a new hinge w/ a non removable pin is the way to go

 

[Shipwreck]

Well, I found a place locally that will order me hinges with a non removable pin. So, all worked out

 

[Squidward]

another thought

I once saw a locking steel roll down door that mounts on the inside of the closet door frame. It was on the internet somewhere.

 

[SwampFox]

I would think that by the time your kid was old enough to pull and replace your hinge pins he should have a gun or two in his own closet.