Safe question

[aussieman]

Hello all,

First post, but I've lurked and read so many posts on here it's a surprise I didn't have a membership sooner. Anyway, from all the time spent on here I've picked up quite a few guns and a couple knives as well and now I just need a storage place.

Last week I bought an old Diebold safe made in 1977. It weighs 1400 pounds and has 1/4 plate on the sides and an S&G lock. However, there's no fire material and the door only has bolts on one side. The right side has a piece of angle that fits into the door when closed.

It's a model 5157 if that helps, but I cannot find any info on it. And it's got a govt contract number as this came from a government auction.

Would this be a decent storage for guns? The collection is only worth about 10k and I am insured, but I'd still hate for my guns to get into the wrong hands. Currently, everything except a shotgun is in my dad's safe, but I'd like to store my guns at my house.

I intend on sheetrocking the interior and sealing the gaps with fireblock and the safe will be protected on two sides by concrete. Obviously I'd bolt it down, but I'm concerned that being as old as it is that newer technology would create a much safer storage container.

Any help or insight before I move this to my place would be greatly appreciated as it does weigh 1,400 pounds and is a beast to move.

 

[Cesiumsponge]

If they're insured and replaceable firearms, there isn't much worry if they burn up in a fire. 1/4" thick body is thicker than probably 99% of gun safes today. Not sure what the door thickness is but I'm guessing 1/2" thick plate if it's a B-rate. Steel is still steel so not much has really changed today until you get into composite materials. I don't think you can get reasonable results by installing sheetrock. The paper is just going to burn up and the gypsum board will crumble. I'll let someone more versed in that elaborate.

An angle iron or stationary bolts on the hinge side is fine and nothing to be concerned about. There really isn't a point to active bolts on the hinge side unless they're going into tight tolerance circular pockets on the safe body which is typical of serious burglary safes.

You might have to wait for one of the resident safe guys to look up the model number to see what type of safe it is originally which would give more insight into the specs.

 

[a1abdj]

A photo would help, but my educated guess is that it's a Class 5 GSA safe. They come in several configurations, including one that has a roll out rack for rifles.

If it's good enough for government goodies, it's probably good enough for you. The government does place some requirements on the designs of their safes that make make them slightly different than normal safes on the market, but they are equally (if not more) secure.

 

[aussieman]

Excellent. I have pics of the "build plate" but I'll get some of the actual safe tomorrow. I bought 3 because they were all on a pallet together and one has a slideout rifle rack (I think) and the other a bunch of drawers that look like they'd hold pistols. My cost was only $200, but I'd still hate to put a bunch of time in on something that is junk.

I was going to partition the empty one off and build a small rack for rifles, and two shelves for handguns and other small items.

Thanks for the responses.

 

[aussieman]

It is indeed a class 5 container. The other safe had that build plate tacked onto it. There are even instruction on how to change the combo which is useful.

 

[Cesiumsponge]

Interesting, is there a spec for Class 5 GSA qualification?

 

[a1abdj]

Interesting, is there a spec for Class 5 GSA qualification?

It's the government. Like anything else they do, it's much more complicated than normal. In short, Class 5 requirements are:

10 minutes forced entry
20 hours surreptitious entry
30 minutes covert entry

 

[Cesiumsponge]

That's reasonably painless. I figure it couldn't be worse than the 26-page MIL-C-44072C spec covering COOKIES, OATMEAL; AND BROWNIES; COCOLATE COVERED:

http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/support/specs/mil/44072.pdf