My sister was traveling when the hurricane hit. She hasn't been able to get home yet. There's been 4 or more feet of floodwater in her house for the past couple of days, and it's still too deep for anyone to get into the house. Her safe has probably been submerged and I suppose there is a good chance the dial-type combination lock is wet. Is there any likelihood that the safe can be unlocked when she finally gets home? Would it be advisable to try and open it quickly after the lock is exposed to air? I seem to remember that corrosion develops more rapidly in the presence of air than it does underwater. What do you recommend? It isn't a particularly good or expensive safe.

I figure any firearms in it are toast but there may be documents and other items which could have survived in some degree of usefulness.

I will be curious to see the response of our local expert, but based on my own knowledge of dial-type combination locks, I would be surprised if one would be affected all that much just by immersion in water in the short term. It should of course be serviced by a locksmith to ensure it’s dry and properly lubricated after it’s opened.

Although my locks are unlikely to ever be exposed to significant amounts of water unless it’s to put out a fire, that’s just one more reason why I don’t like the idea of electronic locks.

As for the firearms, I would spray the ever-lovin' out of them with WD-40 at the first opportunity before having them serviced.

I would think the firearms would be fine,just requiring a detail strip or better yet, complete disassembly, cleaning, lube, and reassembly. Clearly any wood is going to be junk. I don't know about the safe though, but I would get to it all sooner than later, naturally. Soak it all with WD-40.

I would open it as soon as possible but more to check and preserve the contents then worries of the lock.

WD-40 is good at removing water from things. I might spray the lock after I got it open.

I don't know if getting wet once even for a few days and then drying again once will do much damage if it's fresh water. Salt water and all bets are off.

The things we've recovered from Lake Washington- If they aren't addressed / cleaned immediately we leave them submerged until they can be worked on.

Try to open it as soon as it's accessible.

What makes you think firearms are toast? A few days completely submerged in water should be fine. I'd be more worried if the safe was 50/50 water and air. Can of compressed air and can of WD40 should be able to dry/drive out water until they can be fully stripped and cleaned/lubed.

Safe should open fine, but corrosion will be an issue once exposed to air. This will be true for the lock, boltwork, and all metal items stored within the safe.

I'd get it opened and emptied as soon as feasible. The safe itself will be toast if insulated.

I would open the safe and then imerse all the weapons in 2/3 deisel and 1/3 kerosene mix.
(We used JP-4 which is 50/50 kerosene/gasoline for some "big" aircraft guns that became water saturated)

Make sure she understands the fire risk, but it will be a cheap method of displacing most of the water and help prevent rapid onset of oxidation.
Then strip them down and clean them as soon and as practical.

The other thing is to be mindful of raw sewage and other corrosive (as well as biohazard) issues.

Thanks, all. Of course I am not concerned with the survival of the lock. Just whatever the contents of the safe may be. It's just that it will be much better if the lock can be operated instead of us trying to force the safe open in 8" of mud and shit. And, I purchased a gallon can of WD-40 and a sprayer for the stuff that might be salvageable.

I live a bit over 600 miles from there or I would be there now trying to open the safe.

Metals corrode very little when they're submerged. BUT, once the air hits them (water recedes) they will corrode VERY quickly. If you can get to it before the air gets to the lock mechanism,or at least within a day of the water getting below the lock mechanism, there's a good chance it will open. Have some good spray available, or just get a 5 gallon bucket or two of kerosene and put all of the guns in it till you get a chance to properly disassemble and clean them.

If the safe happens to be a Cannon they cover flood damage.

Good info. Gracias.

Trying to spray WD-40 or anything else will miss some areas.

Submersion and good agitation, is the best method.

Good luck with the recovery, and having been through a bunch of hurricanes and the aftermath, my heart and soul go out to all affected.

I know that this is a long post just to say do not use WD-40, use CLP, but unless I explained in detail, it would have been hard to understand what I said re CLP.

We had 3" to 4" of water inside for about five hours when our home flooded last March. It took 30 days to get everything boxed and stored before we could move to a leased home and start remediation on our home.

Since most of my firearms were going into storage, the last items I packed for storage were my guns. I decided to combine most of the handguns into two large Pelican cases. I had a three Pelican cases in my safe and two were set on edge. Pelican = waterproof....wrong! When I opened a small 1520 Pelican case, I found that water had soaked the interior of the case because of a faulty casting of the area surrounding the gasket. And this was the side that I had on the safe floor.

Twelve high value, collectable and family guns were stored in Bore Stores within the case, placed alternating upper edge down. The water leached up through the Bore Stores of eight guns. The Bore Stores were actually attached to the first two guns by rust - 30 days in water soaked Bore Stores! Had the artwork and my wife's office not been the first priority, the day after the flood, I could have simply dried and oiled the guns. Instead, I had a large hole in the pit of my stomach.

Pelican will warranty the case - but not the $20,000+ of rusted guns (I did not bother contacting them about the case - too pissed.)

I took each gun, and removed the stocks. Then placed each gun into a gallon Zip-lock freezer bag and freely soaked each gun with several ounces of CLP. The guns were in a soup of CLP. I know that WD-40 will gunk up a gun so I used the CLP.

We returned to our home six months later, but I was not ready to face the rusted guns until about two months ago - after approximately 14 months of soaking in CLP!

Three of the guns were severely rusted: the bluing was intact, but areas had been rusted into the metal during the 30 days even though they had been sprayed with Remoil before placing in the B.S.'s.

With more CLP, pure, solid brass wool and brushes and mostly regular plastic gun brushes, the other five guns were in remarkable condition, because the CLP stopped and lifted rust from the surface before it could penetrate and cause severe damage. About 90% of the surface rust was simply brushed and wiped away. Because of the soaking, I was able to clean the guns in less than twice the time of a good detail cleaning.

I know that this is a long post just to say do not use WD-40, use CLP, but unless I explained in detail, it would have been hard to understand what I said re CLP. Guess I might as well at this sentence above the first line.

PS: I now have a beautifully aged set of SAA one piece grips that the CLP patina to a degree that you find on a pair from the 1880's - without the open layers.

PPS: I have a large Pro-Steel safe from the late 1970's. The moisture almost froze the combination lock. The adjuster said that moisture would destroy the combination locks. I contacted a certified lock smith for the type of lock I have, and was able to service the lock. The lock is now more precise in the combination than when it was new.

PPPS: We do have federal flood insurance for building and contents. USAA (which also has all of our insurance) was the federal flood insurance provider and they were magnificent!

.

I've heard reports that guns stored in those silicon socks survive much better once the waters recede. Would love to know if that is so.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
I would open the safe and then imerse all the weapons in 2/3 deisel and 1/3 kerosene mix.
(We used JP-4 which is 50/50 kerosene/gasoline for some "big" aircraft guns that became water saturated)

Make sure she understands the fire risk, but it will be a cheap method of displacing most of the water and help prevent rapid onset of oxidation.
Then strip them down and clean them as soon and as practical.

The other thing is to be mindful of raw sewage and other corrosive (as well as biohazard) issues.

Sir

I agree with you, your diesel/kerosene mixture is also a great long term firearm preservative.

A plastic barrel filled with that combo and sealed, would keep rirearms indefinitely. The solvent qualities of kerosene would inhibit any newly formed rust.

We used to use LPS to displace moisture in electric motors and such. Suposedly an airliner that went into the Hudson River was put back into service after being practically baptized in LPS.

Thanks, again. The guns in the safe are a S&W SW9VD (for venereal disease) and a late model S&W 642. She isn't exactly an aficionado of fine weaponry but it would be good to have them in working order to repel pirates.

The gallon of WD40 is just to displace moisture. My plan was to spray them off then put them in a plastic freezer bag with the remaining WD40 covering them until I could detail strip them and thoroughly clean and properly lube them. I know it isn't a satisfactory long term storage product or lubricant. I've had to clean guns glued up with dried WD40 before. I will try to find kerosene to take over there with me. Stores here in west Texas don't sell much kerosene and only seem to stock it during winter months. Maybe I can buy five gallons of jet fuel from the airfield.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
Thanks, again. The guns in the safe are a S&W SW9VD (for venereal disease) and a late model S&W 642. She isn't exactly an aficionado of fine weaponry but it would be good to have them in working order to repel pirates.

The gallon of WD40 is just to displace moisture. My plan was to spray them off then put them in a plastic freezer bag with the remaining WD40 covering them until I could detail strip them and thoroughly clean and properly lube them. I know it isn't a satisfactory long term storage product or lubricant. I've had to clean guns glued up with dried WD40 before. I will try to find kerosene to take over there with me. Stores here in west Texas don't sell much kerosene and only seem to stock it during winter months. Maybe I can buy five gallons of jet fuel from the airfield.

A gallon of diesel fuel will work fine too..
Get a flat plastic container big enough for both pistols, fill it with diesel fuel and close lid tightly.

You could also add a bottle of Hoppes 9 to that diesel fuel .

Last August , as the flood waters were rising in my home , I opened my Cannon safe and put everything up in my attic . It was the only option I had as we were trapped and eventually had to be rescued by Airboat . All of my firearms survived with no problems . I lost a buttload of ammo that was not in GI ammo cans though . BTW , everything in a GI can that got submerged came out bone dry . Anyway , the safe was ruined , but Cannon sent me a brand new upgraded model free of charge . Long story short , open the safe as soon as you can , do what you need to do with the contents and give the safe to a " scrapper " .