Home Made Gun Safes???

My Dad and I built a gun safe in the early '80s in the basement if their house. He wanted something out of sight and fireproof . We removed the stairs from the bottom to 5 feet. Drilled into both concrete walls for the rebar. Formed up where the top step would be. Poured the step making 5 sides of concrete 6 inches thick. Hung a 2 inch solid wood door with 3/8'' steel plate, sheetrocked on the inside. Drilled 18
3/4'' holes and bolted. Bondo on the threads on the inside to prevent bolt removal. Concreted around the hinges so the pins cannot be removed. Deadbolt lock set. We then rebuilt the bottom stair case, with wheels for easy removal and a lock pin threw the 2x12 into the wall to lock into place. The staircase has to be unpinned and slid out about 2' and rotated onto the wheels on the 2x12's by the bottom step ( handle is the tread the rised is hinged ). There have been a lot of people up and down those stairs without ever knowing that there is something behind them. The inside is 4 ' wide 5' deep and 5' high with a goldenrod and light. Total cost of was very minimal as Dad was a carpenter who "packrat" from the jobs. The only downfall of this is it is a part of the house. Hidden in plain sight works good!!
I realize that you must be a homeowner with a basement ( concrete ) and a corned wall staircase to make this work, but I think the old man had a very good plan for this one.
I cant ( and wont ) post pics of this out of respect for my parents not wanting this to be common knowledge about thier house.
JohnnyPop
 
I new a guy that made a big footlocker,put racks on each end of it to hold the rifles and in the bottom he lined it with bags of lead shot and put a big pad lock on it.Let me tell ya,it could'nt be moved at all!
 
I have heard there are several companies that will sell just the safe door. They will provide plans for the door frame. You build your own room behind it.
 
I personally like the idea of homemade gun lockers. I'm cheap and broke. Job boxes make great gun lockers, far better than the el'cheapos you buy a walmart etc. And as stated, the locks are great and they are almost breakin proof.

For locks on other homebuilts use dead bolts for houses. Either weld a strike plate (or 2) on the inside or mount some wood for it to slide into.
 
A uncle of mine built a locker under the floor of his closet between the floor joist. The carpet covered the door. Could not tell it was even there.
 
Another one I heard about was an old furnace, gutted out, with just the exterior sheet metal to cover a safe, and then hook enuf pipes and wires to the body to make it look operational....... Hidden in plain sight.
 
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