Repairing my gun safe
- Thread starter Tex1001
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Well without considering an EMP event (either nuke or a natural Carrington type) it's a simple fact that electronics do fail. Many safes do come with a key backup system and it will still work even of the electronic control dies. A more serious failure can occur if the gearing fails. A lot of cheaper safes use plastic or nylon gears to turn and release the locking bars. These occasionally fail and it requires a locksmith to open (or an experienced safe cracker LOL).
Our store had a safe that we used for vital records and Class 3 items and the gears stripped in it. Was rather expensive to get it opened and a new lock fitted. Funny thing, we also sold safes and had a new one that was defective out of the box............ The manufacturer replaced it but didn't want the old one back. Had it setting in the back for a while, couldn't decide what to do with it. Mentioned it to one of our regulars and he asked if he could have it if he got it open. We said sure. Took him about 20 minutes, flipped it over, took two prybars and had the door popped! Made us wonder where he learned this....... He was once a British Royal Marine before moving to the US, maybe they taught him? Or he learned some "useful" skills from people he knew growing up in England LOL
Our store had a safe that we used for vital records and Class 3 items and the gears stripped in it. Was rather expensive to get it opened and a new lock fitted. Funny thing, we also sold safes and had a new one that was defective out of the box............ The manufacturer replaced it but didn't want the old one back. Had it setting in the back for a while, couldn't decide what to do with it. Mentioned it to one of our regulars and he asked if he could have it if he got it open. We said sure. Took him about 20 minutes, flipped it over, took two prybars and had the door popped! Made us wonder where he learned this....... He was once a British Royal Marine before moving to the US, maybe they taught him? Or he learned some "useful" skills from people he knew growing up in England LOL
I installed one of those for a customer several years ago. When I opened the box there was a made in China sticker on the lock. 
Maybe that's changed I hope.
I work on a military installation. Many of the high security areas use an electronic lock made for the government and available only to the government. Highly expensive of course.
They fail. We replace them with another.
I have a rotary dial lock on my safe. And I will never have an electronic lock.
Maybe that's changed I hope.
I work on a military installation. Many of the high security areas use an electronic lock made for the government and available only to the government. Highly expensive of course.
They fail. We replace them with another.
I have a rotary dial lock on my safe. And I will never have an electronic lock.
That's not a safe . . .
If there is an EMP and you don't have a years supply of food stashed and a way to produce more, nothing else matters.
Of course you also need to be able to protect that food. The average guy holed up in his home probably won't be able to hold out for an extended period of time depending on where you live.
The worst will happen. Your good neighbors will turn against you when their kids are starving.
Of course you also need to be able to protect that food. The average guy holed up in his home probably won't be able to hold out for an extended period of time depending on where you live.
The worst will happen. Your good neighbors will turn against you when their kids are starving.
I think spin and dial locks are a pain in the backside. EMP fears are highly overrated, especially when it come to their effects on simple binary code devices.
Post 25 nails the scenarios very well
Post 25 nails the scenarios very well
Back before I retired from the Yankee Gov't, our agency shared space with an almost sister agency. Our gun vault held our safe, with an SG spin and dial lock, and their safe, with an electronic lock. If you don't anticipate battery failure and change regularly, and even if you do anticipate and experience unexpected battery failure, you get locked out. Guess which agency never had to postpone a training event or actual incident response due to being locked out . . .
MygunisaS&Wrevolver
Member
I have an old Liberty Centurion with the S&G mechanical lock, no issues. But in all reality, EMP from a nuclear attack effecting your electronic lock would probably be the least of your worries.
Uh No You wrap a chain around the safe and place a 10 ton port a power ram between the chain and safe door and push it in until it buckles. I have never used a clamp or bar with a vehicle. You use them to force entry. I have a harden 5' bar that is over 1" in diameter. I I took an axe head and beat it into the jam of a safe door with one of my sledge hammers I would get a spot to stick the tip of the bar in. If I got 1 inch of the bar in I would have 60-1 leverage and my 300# of weight on the end of the bar would give me 18,000# of force on the door at that point. Even 1/4" plate and angle won't withstand that force and very few safes are that heavily constructed.
You could also just punch a hole in the safe by using a big punch in a pair of vise grips and start whacking it with a sledge and then once you have a start hole drive the ax head though the metal at an angle. Would be like using a super sized can opener on a safe made of normal 1/8" or thinner plate. Ever wonder where the expression pealing a safe came from. It is just metal. I cut it all the time.
But, an older car that just used points and a coil might survive a EMP. No real electronics and the coil is by design made to make an electro magnetic pulse in the first place. The alternator might fry, but it will run without one. There are lots of older tractors around here that only use a magneto to run. Pretty simple.
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Sooooo if I have a battery operated lock with a big key for when battery is dead, would the key work or would the electronics seize it up??????
I felt compelled...
Luckily for me the nearest one of those is about 12 miles away as the crow flys with several ridges of terrain between me and them and it is normally down wind. But I expect this area to get quite bright during the initial festivities.
I have seen the earnest looking butter bars and others, we have them, humvees, helicopters, pickups and transport vans playing musical chairs. I could even tell you some hilarious stories about those guarding our nuclear might. Except for the occasional Humvee with the machine gun mounted, the citizens around here are better armed. The classic was a woman full bird at a K Mart whose uniform almost qualified her for on of those people of K Mart deals. Now all the missile sites have a porta potty outside their gate. Last year one of my more interesting buddies went over to one planning to use it but it was locked. I personally never go up their approach road.
They are supposed to be up grading the silos around here over a period of years.
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I can open it in about 30 seconds. That's not a safe.
pistolpete10
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I have 2 safes, one is a key lock(Like it best) the other a dial. I worked at a big box for a while, we sold electronics as well as cile mechanical lock safes. When I bought the second I bought the mechanical dial lock. The key lock like the other safe was more expensive, about double the dial. Batteries, glue, tape are all temps.
Absolutely spot on.
I took a van full of "head shrinks" down to Miami on a relief trip after hurricane Andrew. 3 weeks after trash was 6 feet high on both sides of the streets, rats everywhere. After "dark dark" (when there is no power anywhere) military rolled out along with the FDLE who guarded our operation. Gunfire all night and the animals ruled. Mornings saw 4 hour lines to get in an operating McDonalds. I traded a case of tuna cans for 2 new looted strollers for 2 abandoned kids dropped on us. We turned them over to some .gov types, wasn't nobody coming back for 'em. I got pictures.
Let's get back to safe locking devices. Joe
Frank46
US Veteran
My safes all come withy key locks. Each gets lubed about once a month and tested to make sure they will open with the right keys. A set of the three keys are always on my person at all times.Frank
I changed all of my electronic locks out for mechanical dials quite awhile back after having intermittent problems with a couple of the electronic ones. Installing a mechanical lock is simple and S&G has a great YouTube video on installation and setting up the combination.
My most recent safe, a Fort Knox, has both electric keypad and dial, though in truth, I'd be a bit slow trying to use the dial as I rely on the keypad so much. It uses the same numbers per say, but on the keypad it's a straight 8 digit number which translates to 4, 2 digit numbers on the dial.
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