I will start with a few disclamers for the Arfcom nay-sayers.  Yes, I know this is not as secure as a vault.  Yes, I know a team of Ninja Safe Crackers could cut their way in.  Yes, I know it is not fireproof.  That is why there is a vault inside the safe room.  The class 3 items and the higher dollar stuff go in the vault when dad is away from home.  That being said, it will keep out the local tweekers and the casual thieves.  Now, on with the thread.

This is a steel safe room we are building for my Dad.  I have a concrete safe room that we built as part of our new house.  Dad has wanted one for a long time, but he lives in existing home that does not have a basement.  We came up with the idea of building one out of steel panels in his shop building.  We bought a safe door and frame and had steel panels fabricated out of 12 ga cold rolled steel.  The panels start as 24"x96" steel sheets and have an 1 1/2" flange broke on each edge, making panel much like a standing seem roof panel.  Each panel weighs about 80 pounds.

picture of the panels


The first step was to cut a hole in his office wall and mount the door.  The door is mounted to the wall but will be welded to the steel panels also.


The next step was to start standing up the panels against the outside wall of the office.  The panels were screwed to the wall to hold them in place for welding.  At this point the wall against the office and the end wall against the outside wall of the shed are in place.  There is an 1 1/2" angle iron at the top and bottom of the panels for rigidity and anchoring purposes.


The next step was to start standing up the outside wall panels and welding them in place.  The panels were welded in 4" welds at 4 places in height and 3 places top and bottom.


We then started putting on ceiling panels.  The ceiling panels were welded to the angle iron at the top of the walls.


Detail of the ceiling and top of walls.


The ceiling panels were also welded to each other along the standing seem.


Here is the room approximatly half built.


We then primed that half of the room and set his vault in place.


The next step was to set the rest of the wall panels and weld them.


Then we set the rest of the ceiling panels and discovered the fabricator had shorted us one!


This is outside view of the room from the long side.  We plan on framing it and covering it with drywall.


This is the end wall of the safe.  It will be framed out even with the end wall of the office and will be an ammo closet.


This is the view in the door from the office.


I will update the pictures as the work continues.  This is one weekends work at this point.  Next weekend we will weld in the missing ceiling panel and put in the brackets for the racks and shelves.  We will then finish the painting and mount the lights and de-humidifier.

Hope this gives some of you some ideas!

Edited to add, we will have less than $3500 in this when it is done.

very nice!

Pretty Neat.

very very nice

i can masturbate to this thread nice job!

Now you need a fake book case to cover the door!

Sweet!

Holy cow! That's terrific!

Nice job I like it.

Quoted: Now you need a fake book case to cover the door!

If somebody spent the time to break in they'd only be heartbroken when they found the safe inside.

cool

I have a question.  What material will the shelves be made out of?

I am having a 16x5 walk-in concrete/steel vault built in my new house and I don't know what my interior shelving and racks should be made of.  In a fire, steel gets hot and wood burns.  

Neato

I like that idea.

I really need something to deter a smah and grab into the house.

That would work great!

I'll have to see if some local company can create something similar.

Av.

Cool!

Danny

Cool. Thanks for sharing, and post more if/when you get them.

Thanks for posting, it keeps me thinking.

Quoted: Now you need a fake book case to cover the door!

What he said. Looks nice.

Quoted: I have a question.  What material will the shelves be made out of? I am having a 16x5 walk-in concrete/steel vault built in my new house and I don't know what my interior shelving and racks should be made of.  In a fire, steel gets hot and wood burns.

The shelves will be 3/4" plywood on adjustable metal brackets.  The racks will be wood on metal brackets.  If there is a fire in the building hot enough to set the shelves in the room on fire the guns are already toast.

Quoted: I have a question.  What material will the shelves be made out of? I am having a 16x5 walk-in concrete/steel vault built in my new house and I don't know what my interior shelving and racks should be made of.  In a fire, steel gets hot and wood burns.

It seems to me that if you use enough concrete the shelf material will not matter. Since concrete will insulate you only need enough to keep things cool until the extremely hot flames are done. Most safes I have seen are only rated for 30 minutes so I think 1-2 feet of concrete would cover you. I am sure someone with a degree in thermal-dynamics will be along shortly to tell me how wrong I am.

Omni

Nice job.

hows the ventilation in the room? Are you gonna paint seal the steal to prevent rust or corrosion inside the wall? Interesting room you got there

Quoted: hows the ventilation in the room? Are you gonna paint seal the steal to prevent rust or corrosion inside the wall? Interesting room you got there

The room will have a de-humidifier and a small electric heater. The seams will be sealed with seam sealer where they are not welded. The only true ventilation will be when the door is opened. We are painting with automotive primer and paint.

It's not fireproof.  

Ninja safe crackers could cut through it with a torch.  

You should have just use cardboard instead, or maby styrofoam.  

How about a few hundred egg cartons glued to the wall.  

Waste of time.  

Quoted: Quoted: I have a question.  What material will the shelves be made out of? I am having a 16x5 walk-in concrete/steel vault built in my new house and I don't know what my interior shelving and racks should be made of.  In a fire, steel gets hot and wood burns.   It seems to me that if you use enough concrete the shelf material will not matter. Since concrete will insulate you only need enough to keep things cool until the extremely hot flames are done. Most safes I have seen are only rated for 30 minutes so I think 1-2 feet of concrete would cover you. I am sure someone with a degree in thermal-dynamics will be along shortly to tell me how wrong I am. Omni

That's kinda what I was thinking.  The vault is only 8" of concrete, but that is supposedly good for 1 hour at 1600 degrees (I think that temp is correct).  I just don't know how long a house fire will burn that hot.

Looks great!  Whats the total cost?

wow, very nice.

That safe room sucks.  It isn't as secure as a vault.  Burglars could cut right through it.  And it isn't fireproof.  You should have a real vault.

Quoted: Looks great!  Whats the total cost?

Total cost will be less than $3500.

Quoted: Quoted: Now you need a fake book case to cover the door! If somebody spent the time to break in they'd only be heartbroken when they found the safe inside.

HAHAHA...NO DOUBT!  You'd hear a very loud, "...son of a BITCH!"  when they got inside!

More good ideas for the future

Nice.

Only three problems that jump out at me.

Not as secure as a vault
A team of Ninja Safe Crackers could cut their way in
It is not fireproof

robertl, very nice and  I sure would like to build one like this one day. But  I think I would add ventalation and also put my reloading bench in mine. I dont have 80K rounds like another poster shows in his post, so the room could be used for a reloading bench. But I do like your vault and the safe on top of it like someone else said after breaking into the vault. Damn a safe too!!!

For the nay sayers, dont be jelous, be happy for Robertl or should I say his father. Bet it is better than what you have

Very cool

Very cool!

Not bad!

I know nothing of welding, and watching the Welding Channel (Discovery) hasn't changed that. Are you going to make those welds go the whole length of the seams or leave them as-is?

Have you considered layering drywall between the ends of the panels? It'll provide some fire resistance for not much additional money.

Nice. I could make some panels like that on my lunch break at work and build one myself.

Quoted: Not bad! I know nothing of welding, and watching the Welding Channel (Discovery) hasn't changed that. Are you going to make those welds go the whole length of the seams or leave them as-is? Have you considered layering drywall between the ends of the panels? It'll provide some fire resistance for not much additional money.

The welds will be left as is, our thought was that someone would try to defeat the center of a panel with a torch or a saw rather than physically attacking the joints where there are two thickness of material.  

We talked about going the drywall route, but with the room being built against an existing room and an outside wall it was just to difficult to put in the drywall panels while welding everything together.  If the room had been free standing we definitely would have gone that way.

edited for spelling

Quoted: robertl, very nice and  I sure would like to build one like this one day. But  I think I would add ventalation and also put my reloading bench in mine. I dont have 80K rounds like another poster shows in his post, so the room could be used for a reloading bench. But I do like your vault and the safe on top of it like someone else said after breaking into the vault. Damn a safe too!!! For the nay sayers, dont be jelous, be happy for Robertl or should I say his father. Bet it is better than what you have

I don't think anyone has been negative, they're just having fun with the disclaimers I put in the start of the post.

As far as ventilation, we designed the room primarily for storage and felt that it would be easier to control the humidity without introducing outside air.  When we are in the room, the door will be open, hopefully providing all the fresh air we need.  That is how the vault in my house is set up and it has worked very well.

Love it!  

If you really cared, and it seems you don't, I bet you could add the same fire proof insulation used by most safe mfgs.  

It's sad, but it seems the threat from tweakers is greater than that of fire these days.

ETA: I bet it was fun lifting those 80lbs panels over head.

I like the ammo-carrying golf cart.

Nice job, Im awaiting the update!

For the naysayers, look inside the door of your "vault" or "safe".  If it says RSC, you will be pleased to know the OPs room is every bit as secure as the one you own.  

RSC=residential storage container.  Not a safe.  Not a vault.  No real UL rating.  


It beats the heck out of storing your goods under your bed or in the closet like many around this community really do.  Same deal with the Stack ON tinfoil cabinets.

Thanks for the post.  I really like the modular panels--that is a great idea that I will probably print out and store in my "things to do" file.  It is easy to over think these things, but you have several layers of security.  I hope you have an alarm in your plans too.

If you don't mind, could you itemize the expenses?  I am a cheap S.O.B. and would like to see if I could meet or beat the price.  I really wanted to do this with my office, but ran out of time.  

Thanks again for taking the time to post photos!

Looks great. Good job!

That looks awesome!  I wish I had the space to build one!  Given time, people can get into anything, so you're right, slow them down just enough...

I love it looks great!

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Now you need a fake book case to cover the door! If somebody spent the time to break in they'd only be heartbroken when they found the safe inside. HAHAHA...NO DOUBT!  You'd hear a very loud, "...son of a BITCH!"  when they got inside!

Very nice setup for only twice what I paid for a 58 gun "Safe" marked RSC.

I use to work at a factory that made passenger elevators. The elevator cab walls were built similar to your vault walls. The elevator walls were only 16 gauge. All the time I spent building those elevators I had never thought about using the design for a vault!

Brillant! As soon as I saw your pictures I went DOH!!! why didn't I think of that.


On a side note here is a company in Texas that is making roughly the same type of vault as you are building. The walls are a bit heavier  and it has a 2-3 hours fire rating.

www.rhinovault.com/

The price list shows a 8x10 room with door for $9,000

Way cool!

Nice job,
S.O.

Very cool!

A question though:  That looks like a normal safe door.  Does it have a way to open it from the inside?  Would royally suck to be in there looking at something and you hear 'SLAM' and then the dial spinning....