How To Install A Gun Safe

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Given enough time, even the best gun safe can be cracked. Across simply preventing thieves from removing your gun safe, anchoring will also make your gun condom more resistant to prying, cutting, and hammering. Before you bolt your gun rubber down, locate the anchoring pigsty or improvise your own. And then, use a hammer drill and anchoring kit to bolt down your gun safe.

1. ane

   Locate the anchor pigsty. Well-nigh medium and large gun safes are made with an anchor hole in the bottom. Fireproof gun safes often place holes at the eye; traditional gun safes tend to put anchor holes in the corners.^[1]

   • A lag screw or cement bolt passes through the hole in the gun safe to sturdily connect it to cement underneath.^[2]
   • Smaller gun safes may have anchor holes on the back or sides of the gun condom. Some may not have ballast holes at all.
   • If your gun safe doesn't have an anchor pigsty, you'll take to improvise an anchor by doing things similar chaining downward your gun safe or welding it to a metallic back up.

2. ii

   Choose a cement anchoring location for optimal security. Exposed cement floor is your all-time choice. If there's carpet or flooring in the way of the cement, this can be removed later. Out of sight locations, similar the corners of a basement, furnace room, or cold storage, volition ensure your gun prophylactic doesn't arrive the way or depict attention.^[3]

   • You can likewise bolt your gun condom to a sturdy role of your dwelling, like a wooden support in the wall or flooring. However, if the gun prophylactic is forcibly torn free, this could cause expensive damage to your home.
   • Keep the size and weight of the gun safe in listen. Some might exist too big or heavy to maneuver through stairs, hallways, and so on.

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3. 3

   Remove carpeting or flooring if necessary. Outline the anchor hole and motility the gun prophylactic off to the side then you have access to the anchor pigsty marking. Then, remove the flooring:

   • If in that location'due south carpet, use a utility knife to remove a patch roughly the size of your palm around the mark.
   • If there's wooden overlay, laminate, or some other material, apply a saw, claw hammer, pry bar, and/or drill to remove a palm-sized section flooring around the marker.
   • If your gun safe will become somewhere with blank cement, y'all won't have to worry about removing flooring and can instead motility on to drilling the anchor hole.

4. four

   Outline the anchor pigsty on the floor. Motion the safe back into the anchoring location. Use a marker or pencil to outline the ballast hole on the flooring. Take intendance when marking the anchoring hole position on the floor. Misaligned holes could throw off the placement of the gun safe.

   • Medium to large sized gun safes are usually incredibly heavy. Use tools like dollies, hand trucks, and sliders to make things easier on yourself. Asking some friends for assist is better than straining a muscle.

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1. ane

   Use a hammer drill to drill the anchor hole. A regular drill might struggle with cement, merely a hammer drill should bore through with fiddling problem. Set the drill depth between 3 inches (vii.6 cm) and 4 inches (10 cm), place the bit at the anchor hole mark, and press the trigger to drill the hole.^[4]

   • Some drills may take an adaptable depth setting on the body of the drill. Otherwise, utilise tape to marker the depth on the bit.
   • Cement dust and fragments can be very unsafe. Always wear safety goggles, a respirator, and piece of work gloves when drilling cement.
   • Commencement drilling with slow speed and moderate pressure. Equally the pigsty deepens, slowly increase pressure and speed until you're using firm pressure level and moderate speed.
   • Cement dust and broken pieces of masonry can jam up your anchor pigsty. Pull your drill out of the hole periodically to clear out debris.

2. ii

   Clean remaining dust and droppings from the pigsty. The easiest way to do this is with compressed air. Hold the nozzle of the air upwards to the hole at an angle and spray it to make clean out dust and small debris. After that, thoroughly vacuum the surface area and so dust and debris don't track effectually your home.^[5]

   • Air compressors piece of work just as well equally canned air. If you're in a compression, yous can e'er endeavor to accident abroad droppings with your breath.
   • Blowing away grit usually kicks it up into a cloud in the air. Make sure you're wearing safety goggles and a breathing mask when attempting this.^[six]

3. 3

   Return the gun safe to the anchoring location. Maneuver the gun prophylactic back into the anchoring position. The anchor hole in the bottom of the gun rubber should be lined upwardly precisely with the pigsty you drilled in the cement.

4. iv

   Level the gun prophylactic, if necessary. If your gun condom is bolted down while tilted, it'll remain that way. Utilize a carpenter'south level to check levelness. If you observe that your gun safe isn't level, apply sparse pieces of forest, often chosen shims, to fifty-fifty things out.^[7]

   • Because gun safes are and then heavy, leveling is easiest with two people. Have one person use a pry bar or lever to lift the gun safe a little bit, and so the other can slide shims into place underneath.

5. five

   Sink the lag bolt to ballast the gun safe. Most anchoring kits incorporate a lag screw or cement bolt, a hex nut, a washer, and a cement anchor.^[8] Push button the bolt through the gun safe ballast hole and into the pigsty in the cement. Slide the washer onto the bolt, then use pliers or a socket wrench to spike the hex nut to the threading at the elevation of the bolt.^[9]

   • Make sure the commodities is equally deep in the cement every bit possible earlier fastening the hex nut. You may need to lightly tap the commodities with a hammer before it'southward fully inserted.
   • In some cases, the lag screw or cement bolt may already be encased in the cement anchor. If not, simply push the spiral/commodities into the anchor until the ends are even and the threading emerges from the contrary side.
   • If y'all've lost your safety'due south anchoring kit, these parts can be bought separately at your local hardware store or dwelling house center.

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1. 1

   Weld your gun safe to a sturdy metallic support beam. Position your gun condom alongside an accessible metal back up in your home, then weld the two together. Follow the seam created by your gun prophylactic and the back up with your torch. Aim to seal the gun condom to the support wherever the two impact.

   • Once your gun safe is welded to the back up, it'll be very difficult to remove. Just ballast a gun safe in this manner if you're certain yous won't be moving it.

2. 2

   Commodities your gun safe to a stud in a wall. Apply a stud finder to locate studs in your walls. Mark where yous'll exist anchoring the gun safe on the studs with a pencil. Utilise a normal drill and carpentry bit to drill a screw pigsty at the marks. After that, line upward the gun safe with the drilled anchor holes, and install the anchor as you would commonly.^[x]

   • Wall anchored gun safes sometimes have multiple wall anchoring holes. This allows you to anchor your gun safe even amend by positioning information technology in a corner and attaching information technology to ii walls.

3. three

   Chain your gun safe to furniture. This tin can be a great option if you're renting a habitation and your landlord doesn't want you to drill. In this case, buy a heavy chain and lock. Weave the chain effectually the gun safe and lock it to a heavy piece of article of furniture, like a bed or table.

   • Y'all tin can besides chain your gun condom to other kinds of heavy objects, similar cinder blocks, weights, exercise equipment, and so on.
   • Brand sure you wrap your gun safe thoroughly in the chain. If the chain is loose or tin be slipped off, it probably won't deter a thief.

4. iv

   Weigh downwardly your gun safe with cement. You can put a bag of unmixed cement directly inside big gun safes to make them heavier and harder to move. Some ballast improvisers use forms and mixed cement to create a cement shell on all sides of the gun condom except the one with a door.

   • If yous plan on pouring a cement shell or using a poured cement weight for your gun safe, take intendance that the cement doesn't interfere with the hinges or lock mechanism.
   • Even a little cement will add a considerable amount of weight to your gun safe. Add together cement to the gun prophylactic somewhere shut to where information technology will be kept. Moving information technology afterward the cement is added will be difficult.

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• Nearly gun safes that accept anchor holes besides come up with an anchoring/bolting down kit. Before ownership a new kit, cheque to see if your gun safe came with one.

• Anchoring kits can be bought at most hardware stores and home centers. And then long every bit yous know the size of the gun safe anchoring hole, a store associate should exist able to help yous find a suitable kit.

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• Using tools improperly may consequence in personal harm or property damage. Always utilise tools with caution and follow their directions carefully.

• Heavier isn't ever better when it comes to gun safes. Sure, a heavy gun safe will be difficult for a thief to remove from your domicile, but gun safes that are also heavy can practice damage to your floor.

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Things You'll Need

• Black marker (or pencil)
• Bolt down/anchoring kit
• Breathing mask
• Carpenter'southward level
• Compressed air (optional)
• Dollies (or a hand truck; optional)
• Hammer
• Hammer drill (and cement drill fleck)
• Pliers
• Gun safe
• Safety goggles
• Saw (optional)
• Socket wrench (and sockets; optional)
• Work gloves

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