[TheForge] fire resistant safe

[terry l. ridder]

hello;

i am researching fire resistant safes.
i need a fire resistant safe roughly the size of a 18 cubic ft
refrigerator. most of the safes i have looked at only offer 30 minutes
in an average residential fire and that is allowing the interior of
the safe to reach 350 degrees fahrenheit.

while at dinner last saturday night with several friends we were
discussing the fire resistant safes on the market and pondered
whether we could build a half dozen for our own use.

there are obvious requirements. there are several not so obvious
requirement.

obviousily the door and shell should be hardened against being simply
drilled or sawn. the shell and door need to ensure that the internal
temparature of the safe does not get about 212 degrees fahrenheit during
the average commericial fire. we all agreed that there is nothing
currently known to man that would withstand an oxygen lance or one of
those other peircing torches on the market. if someone wants to get
inside the safe bad enough they will eventually get inside the safe. it
just takes time and money.

what alloys to use for the safe will require some research on our part.
what should be used for the insulation and for the interior of the safe
shell, is the difficult part. one of my friends joked that the interior
shell should be made of tungsten since it has such a high melting
temperature and is a tough metal. that would put the fire resistant
safes not economically. several said that older safes that they had
seen used concrete for the insulation layer. the old courthouse used
granite slabs for the insulation layer and had armor plate for the
exterior shell.

so basically, what should i be looking for in either an all ready built
fire resistant safe or in building a half dozen for my friends and my
private use?


-- 
terry l. ridder ><>