Thread: DIY Gun Safe

Had looked into these but they are only 2mm steel on the sides, read it was supposed to be 3mm? Anyone got one of these?

Originally Posted by steven

I'd suggest you look at the time, effort and cost when you can get a good enough gun safe on trademe for $200 ish.

This one went for $180,

Gun Safe Cabinet W/Keypad Lock 5 Rifle Storage | Trade Me

Im planning on going to look at them Sat.

regards

I've built three safes now.

All to B & E Cat specs

The 6 lever locks are the expensive part at around $70 - 80 a piece

The steel was all donated free of charge.
My employer was throwing out some old welding tables and a couple of decent bits of RHS (400mm square). So I grabbed them, ground the dags off the welding table tops, cut them to size with the gas cutting torch, welded them up, fitted the locks and gave them a paint job.
Total cost to me for all three was a day pissing around in the workshop, four 6 lever locks, two heavy duty hinges, 6 12mm dyna bolts and two 12mm coach bolts all of which came in under $300.

I ended up with one very large E cat gun safe made from a mix if 12mm and 25mm steel. It weighs in at 370kgs and holds about 20 rifles and two B cat pistol safes that hold a dozen guns each.

All passed inspection without a hitch although the Firearms inspector did ask to see an Engineers certicicate for them.

I showed him my trade cert hanging on the wall and my welding tickets and he was happy with that.

Would I do it for myself again ... Yes but only if I got the steel for nothing again and because I can.
Otherwise it would be cheaper to buy at you local store or online.

If you only need an A cat spec safe then these are perfectly acceptible and IMO would provide a good level of security.
Gun Safe Cabinet W/Keypad Lock 5 Rifle Storage | Trade Me

Cheers
Pete

The Arms Act / Regs just specifies to keep out of reach of small children and casual thieves for Cat A, so a strong box seems OK, I suppose it depends on the AO. All the Cat A's I have looked at are 2~2.5mm sides with 3mm front, this includes ones in shops for $350 v the Trademe ones for <$200. Gunshitty for instance does a real cheap and nasty looking one and they want $299.

A Category Gun Safes - Gun City

They also list a box there under cat A with 2mm...

The other thing by the same ppl is a personal safe for about $150 thinking I might use it for bolts etc in a different part of the house.

Cat E seems to be a whole new ball game, if I was doing that I'd see my AO and ask what would satisy him, but 6mm seems the minimum steel, some on trademe have an engineers report to go with it.

regards