Gun Room Door

[Finney]

When our house was built the water lines had not extended to our area. We had a fresh water cistern poured. In later years when we got city water we cut a hole in the cistern and made it into a gun room / tornado shelter.
With all the stealing going on I decided to build a steel door for the room.
The door frame is 2"x1/4" angle ancored into the concrete. The door is 10ga framed with 2"x1/8" sq tube. (Left over from the rig bed we are building) I built the latching mec. like some of the powder magazines we used to have. The hinges are 1" sch40 pipe with 3/4" sch40 inside. The lock is from ACE Hardware. It is supposed to be bolt cutter proof.

[metalmeltr]

That lock may be resistant to bolt cutters but it can be easily opened without a key. In the body shop indsusty there is a tool called a slide hammer that is used for rough shaping metal and it come with a screw atachment that is screwed into holes in sheetmetal to pull a dent. If the screw is threaded into the key hole of any lock that acepts a key and yanked on the cylinder comes out and the lock can be opened. I have opened a spare tire lock on a blazer that we had but did'ht have the key for and if you pay atention to CSI they sometimes use them to open car trunks. If you go to www.autobodytoolmart.com and search "slide hammer" or "morgan knocker" you will find the tool I am refering to.

[Jim-TX]

I didn't know about pulling the cylinder in a lock, but I've built a couple of smaller size gun safes and I designed them where a person can't get a drill (or slide hammer) to the keyway. It doesn't make them 100% burgular proof, but it adds a little more security.

[Finney]

metalmeltr,
You are probley right. It was the best lock I could find at the time. I do not think the crack heads around here know what a slide hammer is or maybe it will slow them down enough for me to catch them.

[vin-man welding]

locks only keep honest men out.

[kcstott]

For one CSI is TV and TV is seldom correct.
They plagiarize things to make then believable.
That said the lock mentioned can be opened with a pick and if the person picking the lock knows what they are doing it can be opened in about a minute or two.
The BS of ten second lock picks is all Hollywood. Yes you get lucky from time to time but any good home lock will take some time to pick.
On top of the fact that auto lock are just about the worst quality lock on the market. A standard schlege or kwickset is by far higher quality then almost any auto lock.
Yes Auto lock can be popped with a dent puller but try that with a good pad lock and all you will do is destroy the key slot. The lock will be locked but you will never get a key in it ever again.
The simple answer is a criminal is not going to waste his time bringing special tools with then to rob your house. They can't afford to be caught with burglary tools. So if some one was to break into your home and wanted to get into that gun room a large hammer and chisel is all thats needed smack that lock a couple of time and it will open. The shackle can only take so much it will fail eventually.

So build a shield around the lock that prevents bolt cutters and hammers from getting a good bite on the lock that will deter most thieves.
Kerry

[CrazyHorse!]

locks only keep honest men out.

I think vin-man said it best!

But if you really want to keep your valuables safe it would be best to devise some way to hinder the lock it's self from being easily accessed to by thieves and their commonly used tools mentioned then you would have even more time to catch the thief who tries to get in.
It is sad when you have to lock your self out in tempting to keep things from walking off

By the way nice job on the door!

Regards
CrazyHorse!

[redintn]

locks only keep honest men out.

You dont have to lock up your stuff from an honest man. He will defend it for you.
A lock slows a dishonest man down.

Cool job on that door, Can you get out if something was to jam the door in a storm?

[metalmeltr]

CrazyHorse: in regards to your comment about locking yourself out I think all guns should have locks on them so that unauthorized people don't use them.
Finnney great job on the door.

[diamondback]

your door looks good.