Sourcing material

[STRENGTH AND POWER]

My company is looking for some material that I am thinking may be hard to find. They are looking for 3.5" thick plates? of aluminum and 1" square copper bar stock. This material would be used in a safe where a considerable portion of the test is performed with a oxy/act. torch to cut a hole through it. I'm sure there is more to it as I have had to drill though some of these safes for alarm wiring and a single 1/4" hole can take 60 minutes to drill using specialty bits and a magnetic pressure rig. Any ideas on who domestically would have such items?
Thanks

Scott

[andyman]

http://www.metalsdepot.com/index.phtml?aident=

they carry 4'x8' sheets of 3.5 Aluminum plates.

Andy

[STRENGTH AND POWER]

Thanks Andy,

about 7k a sheet. Gonna be an expensive safe

[fabricator]

Gonna have more money in the safe then the contents it holds.

[aametalmaster]

http://www.speedymetals.com

[STRENGTH AND POWER]

Gonna have more money in the safe then the contents it holds.

Depending on the insurance company, this rating of safe would be insured for 1.5-2.5 million dollars wholesale of jewelry so we got a ways to go before the safe is worth more than the contents.

[Showdog75]

Southern Tool Steel 1-800 647 5188 . Ask for Arnold Erwin and tell him Chris told you to call. He's the man.

[bretsk2500]

an aluminum safe? it's been a while, but I've built a lot of bank branches and their vaults... they've always been concrete with several layers of reinforcing mesh and steel shot aggregate... it's a part of the job I always HATED...

[davedarragh]

an aluminum safe? it's been a while, but I've built a lot of bank branches and their vaults... they've always been concrete with several layers of reinforcing mesh and steel shot aggregate... it's a part of the job I always HATED...

When I was in the concrete biz, the Banks I was involved in were pretty much "tarpped" off, and pumped. Only a few "select" were allowed when the vault areas were being done.

Dave

[STRENGTH AND POWER]

an aluminum safe? it's been a while, but I've built a lot of bank branches and their vaults... they've always been concrete with several layers of reinforcing mesh and steel shot aggregate... it's a part of the job I always HATED...

You would be surprised at what is inside a safe. I have seen lightweight vault panels designed to be in high-rises that were nothing more than "intricately " nailed 2x6's 3 deep with expanded metal and tar paper between them sandwiched in an 11ga skin. And it passed UL's rating for vault panels as the wood was wet when submitted for testing so the torch could never burn the material up.

Of course the newer lightweight panels use a tempered concrete with plasticizers, stainless and brass fibers that once the panel is cooked for 30 hours has a tensile rating north of 40,000 PSI. A 3" panel is only 35# a square foot.

Plate steel safes are old technology. Most use an inner and outer skin usually 3/16" or less with a high density concrete in the middle.

On the ultra high security safes, aluminum and copper are sued as part of the test is done using a torch so the copper and aluminum dissipate the heat so well, the torch doesnt have much luck. Other stuff inside a safe is ceramic ***** or plates, manganese steel, corundum nuggets ( smae rock species as sapphires, just not pretty but measure just under a diamond in terms of hardness), aluminum, special concrete, even wood.