I didn’t mention it because it’s obvious to me, but my house would flood with salt water. I’m thinking sealing the safe up is back on the table along with the vacuum or VCI bags for individual firearms. The safe wasn’t cheap and I’m sure the bolt works isn’t corrosion resistant.

I’m going to build something like a shoe box cover for the front of the safe deep enough to accommodate the handle, hinges, and locks. It could be held in place by ratchet straps. I’ll use closed cell foam between the front face of the safe and the cover I build.

Then all I have to worry about is the cord hole and bolt holes. I’ll back the bolts out, squeeze some 3M 5200 around them, and tighten them back up. I’ll have to get a better look at the cord hole to figure out what to do there.

If you’re going to try that I’d suggest 4200 rather than 5200. 5200 is very permanent; 4200 leaves some hope of removing the bolts and cord at some point in the future.

We were given a food sealer for our wedding and the rolls were available in several sizes at Walmart. Pretty thick plastic designed to freeze food long term. It has a heat bar so you make a sealed seam where it melts the plastic together on the bag after air is sucked out. I would make this seam twice, a centimetre apart for redundancy so I then only really worried about the plastic puncturing. So I experimented. I found I could seal a pistol and a box of ammo in Vac bag and it would be just fine long term. I left one sealed up for a few months with no Ill effects observed. I’d lube it up internally as after a cleaning and wipe it down externally before sealing but that’s just me. Really long term would be then insert into sealed PVC pipe tubes. Kinda depends how worried you are

I'd use 4200 as mentioned above. 5200 is permanent.

Could you get a big sheet of Visqueen and sack them all up together in the safe and tie something around the top?

Please don't take this as a personal attack , but this is the dumbest idea I have seen in a very long time . I know I'm going to get scolded for saying that but the odds of successfully pulling this off are very slim and there is no way to measure this success unless you have a natural disaster to test it out .

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
Please don't take this as a personal attack , but this is the dumbest idea I have seen in a very long time . I know I'm going to get scolded for saying that but the odds of successfully pulling this off are very slim and there is no way to measure this success unless you have a natural disaster to test it out .

I said the same thing, but it was more diplomatic and much shorter.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
Please don't take this as a personal attack , but this is the dumbest idea I have seen in a very long time . I know I'm going to get scolded for saying that but the odds of successfully pulling this off are very slim and there is no way to measure this success unless you have a natural disaster to test it out .

I said the same thing, but it was more diplomatic and much shorter.

You left out some key points ..

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
Please don't take this as a personal attack , but this is the dumbest idea I have seen in a very long time . I know I'm going to get scolded for saying that but the odds of successfully pulling this off are very slim and there is no way to measure this success unless you have a natural disaster to test it out .

He is not saying he wants to do it permanently. He wants to do it for 2 or 3 days. The natural disaster was coming regardless and it sounds like he did not have a good alternative solution.

I think trying to seal up the safe is basically impossible but keeping the guns dry in some other way while in the safe is not.

If you think your gun safe is going to get water in it then you should empty it out ahead of time . The time you waste trying to seal it up can be better spent preparing for the inevitable flood . BEEN THERE ..

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
Please don't take this as a personal attack , but this is the dumbest idea I have seen in a very long time . I know I'm going to get scolded for saying that but the odds of successfully pulling this off are very slim and there is no way to measure this success unless you have a natural disaster to test it out .

There’s nothing dumb about exploring the options. Based on your last post, I have to guess you haven’t read my current idea for the safe which would take ten minutes to do. I can test the concept on a small safe with 1” thick steel sides, top, bottom and 1 1/2” door. I only paid $150 for it and I’d be willing to sacrifice it for the cause.

What don’t you like about my current idea? You don’t like the VCI bags or vacuum sealing bags? That would be no problem to test as I live on a salt water canal. I could seal up some steel tubing and hang them off my dock.

What would you do starting with the premise that I have no room for me, my wife, three kids, one dog and the guns. Also, I don’t have enough cases to relocate the guns all at once. We can’t take everything with us.

I’ve taken two direct hits from Cat 4s and one from a Cat 5 with a 27’ storm surge.

Your last plan involved duct tape . Right ? I like the idea of vacuum sealing if it's done right .

No duct tape. That was the first idea based on what I had on hand before the storm. If you read my subsequent posts, you’ll find the actually solution I used which turned out worse than I had just left everything where it was.

I’m brainstorming as they say. More than willing to take criticism if it leads to a solution.

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
Don't waste your time trying to waterproof a safe . If you had placed the guns and knives in something like a Rubbermaid container they would not have gotten wet in this situation .

I like this idea. Get some big plastic bins for wrapping paper/decoration on sale after Christmas. When the time comes, fill them up, put some weather stripping on the lid and tape them shut.

You already proved the Murphys Law rule and tried to move them to safety but actually put them in harms way.