About a month ago, I asked for suggestions on how to get a huge safe out
of my basement without the need for a full body cast. I'm now dutifully
reporting my progress.

I called a couple of local safe companies to come and take a look. Each of
them looked the safes over, looked at the access, turned and fled. This
tipped me off to a few things:

1) Getting the big safe out in one piece was gonna be a mother.
2) The safes themselves had little worth.
3) I was on my own.

But Mr. Larry Caldwell had clued me in on how safes are constructed.
Namely an outside layer of fairly thick metal, gypsum filler, and a thin
inside layer of metal. This was confirmed by one of the safe guys before
he left skid marks in front of the house.

I don't own a cutting torch, but I do have an angle grinder and a recp
saw. Off to the blue borg for implements of destruction. A few metal
cutting blades, a few metal cutting disks and down to the basement.

At this point I should mention that I have a 4-year-old boy who (for now)
thinks that everything I do is the coolest thing ever. He is almost always
at my side during hardware store runs and while I'm doing projects. He has
his own safety glasses and ear muffs. And so it was on this day as well.

I figure I'll start small, so I bolt a cutting disk into the angle grinder
and go to work on the top of the small safe. The grinder unleashes a 6
foot long gout of sparks from the safe. It makes quick work of the first
cut and the disk is only about half chewed through. So far so good. I turn
to look at my son who is sitting cross-legged on the floor on the other
side of the basement. He looks at me, pauses, then says "That was the
coolest thing ever!" with wide-eyed astonishment. Yes, it's good to be the
daddy.

So I make the next two cuts and now I can pull the sheet metal back to
expose the gypsum filler. I try beating on it with a hammer, but it's too
soft to do much good. I manage to dig out some by driving a cold chisel
into it. Once I have some room to work, it comes out in big chunks. My son
gets in on the fun by giving it a few whacks and helping me pull out the
big pieces.

Now the inside is exposed. Back to grinding. This time it goes even
easier. In no time, I'm inside the safe. And there's something there. An
old shoebox. So I pull it out and it's heavy. It's full of rolled change.
Even a few bills. There's a bank bag with more change, a few pieces of
silver flatware, and another shoebox full of rolled pennies. About $200
total. More than I was expecting, but I can't retire on it. Darn.

Now that I'm inside, there's a plate screwed to the inside of the door. I
take it off and the combo is written on the inside. *Now* I can get the
door off.

After a break, I tackle the beast. I go to work on one of the sides. I
burn up a whole cutting disk just making the short cut across. I grab the
recip and see if that works any better. Actually, it does if I start a
hole with the grinder first. And so it goes, alternating between grinder
and recip. I takes more work to get through this, but it's not too bad.
After I peel off the metal, I'm left with a wall of gypsum. But this stuff
is much harder and solid than what I encountered with the small safe.
Good. I grab a small sledge and start wailing away on it. It breaks apart
like soft concrete. Quickly, I'm to the interior. The recip makes short
work of it and I'm inside.

Now you know that if I found something in the small one, that the big one
*must* contain even more wealth. Jewels, cash, land titles, stock
certificates, who knows! It was, of course, empty.

But at least I now know how to get the damned things out of the basement.
We'll be getting a dumpster to get rid of some garbage that was left in
the yard, the bits 'o safe will get thrown in there as well.

Many thanks for all of your suggestions. I appreciate your help.

--
Joe Wells

"Joe Wells" wrote in message
s.com...
About a month ago, I asked for suggestions on how to get a huge safe out
of my basement without the need for a full body cast. I'm now dutifully
reporting my progress.

I called a couple of local safe companies to come and take a look. Each of
them looked the safes over, looked at the access, turned and fled. This
tipped me off to a few things:

1) Getting the big safe out in one piece was gonna be a mother.
2) The safes themselves had little worth.
3) I was on my own.

But Mr. Larry Caldwell had clued me in on how safes are constructed.
Namely an outside layer of fairly thick metal, gypsum filler, and a thin
inside layer of metal. This was confirmed by one of the safe guys before
he left skid marks in front of the house.

I don't own a cutting torch, but I do have an angle grinder and a recp
saw. Off to the blue borg for implements of destruction. A few metal
cutting blades, a few metal cutting disks and down to the basement.

At this point I should mention that I have a 4-year-old boy who (for now)
thinks that everything I do is the coolest thing ever. He is almost always
at my side during hardware store runs and while I'm doing projects. He has
his own safety glasses and ear muffs. And so it was on this day as well.

I figure I'll start small, so I bolt a cutting disk into the angle grinder
and go to work on the top of the small safe. The grinder unleashes a 6
foot long gout of sparks from the safe. It makes quick work of the first
cut and the disk is only about half chewed through. So far so good. I turn
to look at my son who is sitting cross-legged on the floor on the other
side of the basement. He looks at me, pauses, then says "That was the
coolest thing ever!" with wide-eyed astonishment. Yes, it's good to be the
daddy.

So I make the next two cuts and now I can pull the sheet metal back to
expose the gypsum filler. I try beating on it with a hammer, but it's too
soft to do much good. I manage to dig out some by driving a cold chisel
into it. Once I have some room to work, it comes out in big chunks. My son
gets in on the fun by giving it a few whacks and helping me pull out the
big pieces.

Joe Wells

Just out of curiosity - isn't gypsum made with asbestos? Hope you took the
necessary precautions beyond goggles and earmuffs!

PhotoMan wrote:

"Joe Wells" wrote in message
s.com...


Namely an outside layer of fairly thick metal, gypsum filler, and a thin
inside layer of metal. This was confirmed by one of the safe guys before
he left skid marks in front of the house.




Just out of curiosity - isn't gypsum made with asbestos? Hope you took the
necessary precautions beyond goggles and earmuffs!




Some. Through the late 70's
http://www.motleyrice.com/asbestos_m..._asbestos.html

In article , "PhotoMan" wrote:

Just out of curiosity - isn't gypsum made with asbestos? Hope you took the
necessary precautions beyond goggles and earmuffs!

Not even close. Gypsum is a naturally occurring mineral; it isn't "made with"
anything.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Save the baby humans - stop partial-birth abortion NOW

On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 10:13:51 -0500, PhotoMan wrote:

Just out of curiosity - isn't gypsum made with asbestos? Hope you took the
necessary precautions beyond goggles and earmuffs!

Gee, I hope not. Gypsum is what's in sheetrock. We'd all be screwed.

--
Joe Wells

I guess you're ready for Geraldo Rivera the next time he goes looking into
hidden treasures. LOL!

Congrats on the progress (and for being a kids hero.)

Jim

"Joe Wells" wrote in message
s.com...
About a month ago, I asked for suggestions on how to get a huge safe out
of my basement without the need for a full body cast. I'm now dutifully
reporting my progress.

I called a couple of local safe companies to come and take a look. Each of
them looked the safes over, looked at the access, turned and fled. This
tipped me off to a few things:

1) Getting the big safe out in one piece was gonna be a mother.
2) The safes themselves had little worth.
3) I was on my own.

But Mr. Larry Caldwell had clued me in on how safes are constructed.
Namely an outside layer of fairly thick metal, gypsum filler, and a thin
inside layer of metal. This was confirmed by one of the safe guys before
he left skid marks in front of the house.

I don't own a cutting torch, but I do have an angle grinder and a recp
saw. Off to the blue borg for implements of destruction. A few metal
cutting blades, a few metal cutting disks and down to the basement.

At this point I should mention that I have a 4-year-old boy who (for now)
thinks that everything I do is the coolest thing ever. He is almost always
at my side during hardware store runs and while I'm doing projects. He has
his own safety glasses and ear muffs. And so it was on this day as well.

I figure I'll start small, so I bolt a cutting disk into the angle grinder
and go to work on the top of the small safe. The grinder unleashes a 6
foot long gout of sparks from the safe. It makes quick work of the first
cut and the disk is only about half chewed through. So far so good. I turn
to look at my son who is sitting cross-legged on the floor on the other
side of the basement. He looks at me, pauses, then says "That was the
coolest thing ever!" with wide-eyed astonishment. Yes, it's good to be the
daddy.

So I make the next two cuts and now I can pull the sheet metal back to
expose the gypsum filler. I try beating on it with a hammer, but it's too
soft to do much good. I manage to dig out some by driving a cold chisel
into it. Once I have some room to work, it comes out in big chunks. My son
gets in on the fun by giving it a few whacks and helping me pull out the
big pieces.

Now the inside is exposed. Back to grinding. This time it goes even
easier. In no time, I'm inside the safe. And there's something there. An
old shoebox. So I pull it out and it's heavy. It's full of rolled change.
Even a few bills. There's a bank bag with more change, a few pieces of
silver flatware, and another shoebox full of rolled pennies. About $200
total. More than I was expecting, but I can't retire on it. Darn.

Now that I'm inside, there's a plate screwed to the inside of the door. I
take it off and the combo is written on the inside. *Now* I can get the
door off.

After a break, I tackle the beast. I go to work on one of the sides. I
burn up a whole cutting disk just making the short cut across. I grab the
recip and see if that works any better. Actually, it does if I start a
hole with the grinder first. And so it goes, alternating between grinder
and recip. I takes more work to get through this, but it's not too bad.
After I peel off the metal, I'm left with a wall of gypsum. But this stuff
is much harder and solid than what I encountered with the small safe.
Good. I grab a small sledge and start wailing away on it. It breaks apart
like soft concrete. Quickly, I'm to the interior. The recip makes short
work of it and I'm inside.

Now you know that if I found something in the small one, that the big one
*must* contain even more wealth. Jewels, cash, land titles, stock
certificates, who knows! It was, of course, empty.

But at least I now know how to get the damned things out of the basement.
We'll be getting a dumpster to get rid of some garbage that was left in
the yard, the bits 'o safe will get thrown in there as well.

Many thanks for all of your suggestions. I appreciate your help.

--
Joe Wells

It goes to show a couple things. First, a fellow with common sense and some
energy can do a lot of interesting things.

Second, a man with enough tools and time can open just about any safe --
just need enough tools and time.

Third -- please take that bag of coins and bills to a coinshop, they may be
worth more than you think.

To my knowledge gypsum is fairly nontoxic, and should not contain asbestos.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.org
..
..

"Joe Wells" wrote in message
s.com...
About a month ago, I asked for suggestions on how to get a huge safe out
of my basement without the need for a full body cast. I'm now dutifully
reporting my progress.

I called a couple of local safe companies to come and take a look. Each of
them looked the safes over, looked at the access, turned and fled. This
tipped me off to a few things:

1) Getting the big safe out in one piece was gonna be a mother.
2) The safes themselves had little worth.
3) I was on my own.

But Mr. Larry Caldwell had clued me in on how safes are constructed.
Namely an outside layer of fairly thick metal, gypsum filler, and a thin
inside layer of metal. This was confirmed by one of the safe guys before
he left skid marks in front of the house.

I don't own a cutting torch, but I do have an angle grinder and a recp
saw. Off to the blue borg for implements of destruction. A few metal
cutting blades, a few metal cutting disks and down to the basement.

At this point I should mention that I have a 4-year-old boy who (for now)
thinks that everything I do is the coolest thing ever. He is almost always
at my side during hardware store runs and while I'm doing projects. He has
his own safety glasses and ear muffs. And so it was on this day as well.

I figure I'll start small, so I bolt a cutting disk into the angle grinder
and go to work on the top of the small safe. The grinder unleashes a 6
foot long gout of sparks from the safe. It makes quick work of the first
cut and the disk is only about half chewed through. So far so good. I turn
to look at my son who is sitting cross-legged on the floor on the other
side of the basement. He looks at me, pauses, then says "That was the
coolest thing ever!" with wide-eyed astonishment. Yes, it's good to be the
daddy.

So I make the next two cuts and now I can pull the sheet metal back to
expose the gypsum filler. I try beating on it with a hammer, but it's too
soft to do much good. I manage to dig out some by driving a cold chisel
into it. Once I have some room to work, it comes out in big chunks. My son
gets in on the fun by giving it a few whacks and helping me pull out the
big pieces.

Now the inside is exposed. Back to grinding. This time it goes even
easier. In no time, I'm inside the safe. And there's something there. An
old shoebox. So I pull it out and it's heavy. It's full of rolled change.
Even a few bills. There's a bank bag with more change, a few pieces of
silver flatware, and another shoebox full of rolled pennies. About $200
total. More than I was expecting, but I can't retire on it. Darn.

Now that I'm inside, there's a plate screwed to the inside of the door. I
take it off and the combo is written on the inside. *Now* I can get the
door off.

After a break, I tackle the beast. I go to work on one of the sides. I
burn up a whole cutting disk just making the short cut across. I grab the
recip and see if that works any better. Actually, it does if I start a
hole with the grinder first. And so it goes, alternating between grinder
and recip. I takes more work to get through this, but it's not too bad.
After I peel off the metal, I'm left with a wall of gypsum. But this stuff
is much harder and solid than what I encountered with the small safe.
Good. I grab a small sledge and start wailing away on it. It breaks apart
like soft concrete. Quickly, I'm to the interior. The recip makes short
work of it and I'm inside.

Now you know that if I found something in the small one, that the big one
*must* contain even more wealth. Jewels, cash, land titles, stock
certificates, who knows! It was, of course, empty.

But at least I now know how to get the damned things out of the basement.
We'll be getting a dumpster to get rid of some garbage that was left in
the yard, the bits 'o safe will get thrown in there as well.

Many thanks for all of your suggestions. I appreciate your help.

--
Joe Wells

"Joe Wells" wrote in message
s.com...

.. It's full of rolled change.
Even a few bills. There's a bank bag with more change, a few pieces of
silver flatware, and another shoebox full of rolled pennies. About $200
total. More than I was expecting, but I can't retire on it. Darn.


Joe, I don't remember you ever saying how long those safes have been there,
but before you spend the change, check the dates on the coins to see if they
are of any collector value. Pre 1964 (I think) they would be silver and
worth more these days than face value.

Good luck (and share with the four year old assistant)

Charlie

"Jim Mc Namara" wrote in message
.com...
I guess you're ready for Geraldo Rivera the next time he goes looking into
hidden treasures. LOL!

And he found a lot more than Geraldo did, too.

---JRE---

"Charlie Bress" wrote in message
...

Joe, I don't remember you ever saying how long those safes have been
there,
but before you spend the change, check the dates on the coins to see if
they
are of any collector value. Pre 1964 (I think) they would be silver and
worth more these days than face value.

Plus, they make a much more pleasant "ting" sound when they clank together!

Seriously,

If you ever find two or more real silver coins, shake them around in your
hand
together and listen.

Then take a couple of those zinc/copper sandwiches they call quarters, and
try
the same thing, and see how dead they sound.

Just another bygone pleasure future generations will never know about.

(In fact, some people reading this might not think this is true. All I can
say is, try it.
You may have to borrow a couple silver coins (or buy) from a coin store)


Rufus





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On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 14:42:05 -0400, Charlie Bress wrote:


Joe, I don't remember you ever saying how long those safes have been there,
but before you spend the change, check the dates on the coins to see if they
are of any collector value. Pre 1964 (I think) they would be silver and
worth more these days than face value.

I haven't taken a good look at the coins yet, but the most recent ones
I've seen are from the late '70s. There are a bunch of Bicentenial
half-dollars and quarters as well as wheat pennies. Not sure if any of
it is worth more than face value, though.

--
Joe Wells

Joe Wells Spilled my beer when they jumped on the table and
proclaimed in m:

Story snipped

Cool story! Thanks!

NOI

Does this mean that all those safe-cracker movies
with drills, acetylene torches, and dynamite were just "fiction" ?

Sounds like all you need is an electric outlet ( grounded or not )
a hand-grinder, and several cutting discs......



On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 06:10:05 -0400, Thund3rstruck
wrote:

Joe Wells Spilled my beer when they jumped on the table and
proclaimed in m:

Story snipped

Cool story! Thanks!

NOI

rj

The safe cracker stories I've read are part truth and part fiction. I'm
guessing there is a LOT of truth.

The fellow was working on a fire safe. Had he been working on a burglar
resistant safe, it woulda took longer.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.org
..
..

"RJ" wrote in message
news
Does this mean that all those safe-cracker movies
with drills, acetylene torches, and dynamite were just "fiction" ?

Sounds like all you need is an electric outlet ( grounded or not )
a hand-grinder, and several cutting discs......



On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 06:10:05 -0400, Thund3rstruck
wrote:

Joe Wells Spilled my beer when they jumped on the table and
proclaimed in m:

Story snipped

Cool story! Thanks!

NOI

rj

"RJ" wrote in
news
Does this mean that all those safe-cracker movies
with drills, acetylene torches, and dynamite were just "fiction" ?

Sounds like all you need is an electric outlet ( grounded or not )
a hand-grinder, and several cutting discs......

I would think that all is needed is an oxygen lance. I worked at a
rockwool plant, and if the furnace ever failed, you ended up with a large
steel vessel packed full of solid rock. A small oxygen lance would cut
through the steel and rock like butter -- don't see why it wouldn't work
very nicely on a safe as well. Mind you, I wouldn't bet too much on the
contents of the safe being useable after you had cut into it :-)

You're dealing with steel. Safes often have layers of highly conductive
metals such as copper to draw heat away.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.org
..
..

"Murray Peterson" wrote in message
...
"RJ" wrote in
news
Does this mean that all those safe-cracker movies
with drills, acetylene torches, and dynamite were just "fiction" ?

Sounds like all you need is an electric outlet ( grounded or not )
a hand-grinder, and several cutting discs......

I would think that all is needed is an oxygen lance. I worked at a
rockwool plant, and if the furnace ever failed, you ended up with a large
steel vessel packed full of solid rock. A small oxygen lance would cut
through the steel and rock like butter -- don't see why it wouldn't work
very nicely on a safe as well. Mind you, I wouldn't bet too much on the
contents of the safe being useable after you had cut into it :-)

On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 16:00:18 GMT, (Doug Miller)
wrote:


Not even close. Gypsum is a naturally occurring mineral;

So is asbestos. It is a by-product of vermiculite mining.

In article , Tim wrote:
On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 16:00:18 GMT, (Doug Miller)
wrote:


Not even close. Gypsum is a naturally occurring mineral;

So is asbestos. It is a by-product of vermiculite mining.

And your point would be....?

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Save the baby humans - stop partial-birth abortion NOW