Shop Door Security

[Franko]

One good thing about machine tools. It takes a well-prepared and industrious thief to steal them.

 

[tomh]

John
Try one of these, better yet try breaching it. Don't ask me how i know ROLMAO
Tomh

 

[sgisler]

Love the air horn Gator!


Stan,
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Grumpy Gator]

Do the doors open in or out ?
*G*

 

[Grumpy Gator]

Sgisler,
That came about from one of those "Oh Yea" moments in my old shop.It was hooked up to the 80 gallon air tank behind the shop. So it will blow a long time.
***G***

 

[sgisler]

Hehe, if it doesn't stop them at least they'll have to pay with bleeding ears!


Stan,
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[brino]

As insurance I hooked a big air horn to the shop compressor on a trip line that can't be turned off from inside of the shop.

If I did that I'd have to start wearing diapers out to my shop, because sure as anything I'd be the guy accidentally tripping it

 

[Eddyde]

As mentioned above, a cordless angle grinder with a cutoff disc will open just about anything short of a vault.

 

[brav65]

When I was a kid and worked at a golf course we had kids stealing golf carts to joy ride. The old greens keeper fabricated a bolt for the shed with 3/4" steel tube then put a 1/2" hardened steel rod inside the tube. He welded the ends closed and bolted it to the shed doors with some brackets. If the kids tried to cut through they would hit the hardened steel rod which would just rotate inside the pipe. It stopped the golf cart theft.

 

[Keith Foor]

I tried to talk to a safe manufacture about a tool proof safe one time. They loved my ideas but said it would be too heavy and expensive. Anyway. Think like a crook, with tools. Think of the tools reasonably available. A magnesium oxygen lance WILL cut about anything. So NOTHING is cut proof. But as you back away from the extreme there are ways of dealing with about anything else. First thing to deal with is force. If the door AND the jam are built to repel forced attack pry pulling and prying. This is done with proper fitment and a lack of something to pry or pull against. If you have a gate that you can get behind and put a chain around, you might as well put a hook ring on it for convenience. Poor fitment with large gaps at the edges allowing a pry bar to enter the gap is a sure way of getting a door forced. This is typical way of breaching a steel door. The door simply folds at the latch point and pops open. Standard door latching and locking mechanisms are poor for real security. Thing about a vault door. Now I am not saying you need 24 2 inch pins to secure a door, but it would be secure and the forces required to breach it are far greater than a bar will generate. As far as cutting, an abrasive wheel will make quick work of ALL metals except carbide. But have you ever tried to cut ceramic with one? That needs a diamond wheel. If you sandwich mild steel and ceramic, neither a torch or an abrasive wheel will cut the composite material. Even a plasma cutter will have a rough time. Remember that you are not going to make a 100% inaccessable structure. It's all about time and noise. Unless you are in the middle of no where and explosives could be used to open the door you can build an 8 hour door (time to force entry) without a huge effort. Remember that the door is only as strong as the wall it's connected to. If you are willing to get what some would call crazy, or you are building the structure from scratch you can put in a 24 X 24 inch reinforced concrete door way to hold the door. Now bear in mind that doing this to a wooden barn that someone could buzz a hole in the wall with a chain saw 6 foot away is sort of counter productive.
I have looked at the designs of numerous vaults and studied the way that they are built. Even a bank vault can be breached. Of course it requires a 48 inch concrete diamond coring saw and about 2 days of work, but that's how you open one when the door has a failure and can't be opened the normal way.