In preparation for my license, I've begun assembly of the Dakota Gun Safe I purchased at the Marlboro gun show from Eastern Security Safe.
Having shopped a bit through the various levels of offerings for gun cabinets and safes, I settled on the Dakota for a number of reasons including geometry, design features, capacity, and cost. I settled on the Dakota because in the cost ballpark, more $ did not equal more capacity or necessarily any real increase in security to a determined thief, and less $ almost always meant both a compromise in capacity, lock, and theft resistance, and always meant a compromise in at least two of those qualities. Note: my home has fire sprinklers, so fire resistance is not a priority.
One key issue is the room this is going into is kinda small, and the Dakota is rather deep for its size and cost. Most others I found that were narrower were much smaller in capacity or were in much higher price ranges. Everything else I could find in shopping trips through Dicks and Eastern's display at the gun show that was smaller was too heavy a compromise on capacity and security, and everything else that was in the same size class was much heavier while not actually necessarily more secure.
With the help of a buddy with a pickup, I picked up the Dakota gun safe kit at Eastern on Saturday. Great place. Lots of variety in the showroom. Browsing through the much larger selection in the showroom reaffirmed that any alternatives would have required a compromise in capacity, security, or cost.
The Dakota comes in four freakin heavy boxes. I ride a desk for a living so heaving around three 110lb boxes and their 190lb big brother is not a one weakling job. One of the boxes is labeled open first. It has the instructional DVD in it. The video on the DVD (burned media) is on youtube. Still with the help of my friend we were able to get it out of his pickup and onto a palette in my garage with no problem.
Opening the boxes by myself I found a very nicely packed set of panels. The various interior and exterior panels are packaged together, interior nested within exterior, in packing wrap and buffered with wood spacers to keep the boxes square. Very nice packaging. Outside of their boxes, the panels are quite manageable given that you can grip them. Wear work gloves. While not as sharp as say the inside of a cheap computer, the steel is still a flat edge here and there and with this much weight, a slip in one's grip could hurt.
Because I'm assembling the safe in place and it's in a corner, I'm having to deviate from the instructions a little, but I have the back, two sides, and bottom in place and loosely bolted together. Now I need to find a buddy who can come over and help me haul the 190lb door in from the garage and hold it upright with the door open while I climb inside and set the bolts.
Update tomorrow hopefully.
Having shopped a bit through the various levels of offerings for gun cabinets and safes, I settled on the Dakota for a number of reasons including geometry, design features, capacity, and cost. I settled on the Dakota because in the cost ballpark, more $ did not equal more capacity or necessarily any real increase in security to a determined thief, and less $ almost always meant both a compromise in capacity, lock, and theft resistance, and always meant a compromise in at least two of those qualities. Note: my home has fire sprinklers, so fire resistance is not a priority.
One key issue is the room this is going into is kinda small, and the Dakota is rather deep for its size and cost. Most others I found that were narrower were much smaller in capacity or were in much higher price ranges. Everything else I could find in shopping trips through Dicks and Eastern's display at the gun show that was smaller was too heavy a compromise on capacity and security, and everything else that was in the same size class was much heavier while not actually necessarily more secure.
With the help of a buddy with a pickup, I picked up the Dakota gun safe kit at Eastern on Saturday. Great place. Lots of variety in the showroom. Browsing through the much larger selection in the showroom reaffirmed that any alternatives would have required a compromise in capacity, security, or cost.
The Dakota comes in four freakin heavy boxes. I ride a desk for a living so heaving around three 110lb boxes and their 190lb big brother is not a one weakling job. One of the boxes is labeled open first. It has the instructional DVD in it. The video on the DVD (burned media) is on youtube. Still with the help of my friend we were able to get it out of his pickup and onto a palette in my garage with no problem.
Opening the boxes by myself I found a very nicely packed set of panels. The various interior and exterior panels are packaged together, interior nested within exterior, in packing wrap and buffered with wood spacers to keep the boxes square. Very nice packaging. Outside of their boxes, the panels are quite manageable given that you can grip them. Wear work gloves. While not as sharp as say the inside of a cheap computer, the steel is still a flat edge here and there and with this much weight, a slip in one's grip could hurt.
Because I'm assembling the safe in place and it's in a corner, I'm having to deviate from the instructions a little, but I have the back, two sides, and bottom in place and loosely bolted together. Now I need to find a buddy who can come over and help me haul the 190lb door in from the garage and hold it upright with the door open while I climb inside and set the bolts.
Update tomorrow hopefully.
![[angry]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/008.gif "Angry [angry]")
![[crying]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/006.gif "Crying [crying]")
![[smile]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/001.gif "Smile [smile]")
![[horse]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/026.gif "Beat a dead horse [horse]")
So I took off the interior door drywall panel to look at the inside of the door.
![[grin]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/041.gif "Grin [grin]")
![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
