Hi all, I need to build a gun locker with lots of room and the only place I have to put it might be in the garage. I don't want everything in there to rust. My Dad thinks that if I put a couple of light bulbs inside that it might be enough to drive off any moisture and keep things safe.
I have a safe, but it's way too full.
I was supposed to be building a new house and put a vault in the basement, but life happened and that plan is on hold for now.
Any ideas? It's winter and the temp is bounceing around 0-15 F and goes up to 95+ in the summer.

BTT

Would a couple of light bulbs on all the time keep the moisture out if guns are in metal cabinet in garage?
thanks.

i think that the metal cabinet would make it worse, depending on the size and your humidity during the summer.

The lightbulbs are one method, the golden rod another. I put a goldenrod in my safe with two decascents from midway or somewhere. they are the ones that you can throw in the oven later to dry out, I just check the little indicators on them from time to time.

I don't know where you can get them but there are also machines that will suck the moisture out if you are going to build a real large vault. I have always been curious what the exact right humidity is for storing firearms, since too dry would also be bad.

My uncle lives a lot of the year in the philippines, they had an office there, the size of a standard bedroom, maybe 12x12. they had a machine that pulled the moisture out, they were getting a gallon a day!!!!!!!!

Red

It might be called a dehumidifier. Read more here:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question76.htm

quote:

Originally posted by Lar45:
Hi all, I need to build a gun locker with lots of room and the only place I have to put it might be in the garage.
It's winter and the temp is bounceing around 0-15 F and goes up to 95+ in the summer.

I'd hesitate to do this......find someplace else.

I stored many guns at a friends house for several years while I went to college.....don't subject them to these temp extremes.....light bulbs and dehumidifiers might help and work totally.....I'd not plan on it!

If they are in the garage how hard can it be to check them periodically, wipe them down, and repeat?

I have about twenty firerms in a safe, located in a barn. The area is hot and humid, rainy. I oil the guns, keep a large can of dissecant in the safe, and most of the firearms are in storage bags I got from Brownells. I also drop 3-4 anti-corrosion chips, also from Brownells, into each storage bag. I only get to these guns 6-7 times a year, for a total time of maybe a month.

I have had no problems with rust whatsoever; maybe two times a year I re-bake the dissecant can to renew it.

Its pretty dry in Pocatello depending on where you live.

Also most of the local smiths work out of a converted garage. You should talk to them and see if they have had any problems with moisture and rust on there tools and firearms.

Cheap source for color indicating dessicant (turns pink when it needs to be baked) is flower drying suppliers - on ebay.

I got my dissecant at Wal-Mart, it's about the size of a coffee can. when the granules turn purplish, it's time to put the can in the oven.

Thanks, that'll give me some ideas to think on. I pulled out my prize Huskavarna 350 rem mag and it had dings on the butt of the stock from too much stuff being stacked next to it.
I'm going to try the wet rag and iron thing to see if I can raise them up.
I work out of the garage, but don't have it heated.(just space heater when I'm out there) I've got my lathe, mill and cast bullet lube operation in there. Being cold actually helps the lube to let go of the molds.
I had a couple of old shotgun barrels in a box and they started to get a couple of small rust spots.
All of the nice stuff, I'll keep in the safe in the house, I'll just put the second string out in the cold

Be careful about the garage....many homeowners insurance policies exclude the contents of the garage. I guess they figure that should be your car on their auto policy or something. A friend of mine found that out the hard way when a flood took out his riding mower and all the tools and the insurance company didn't want to pay....

Fireproof safes are best put on the slab or in the basement....in a housefire they will end up there anyway.

Keep the humidity down with a dessicant and you should be fine.

Cheers,

Dan

Light bulbs, heat, will not help with moisture. It will only increase the amount of moisture the air will hold not remove moisture though it will raise the dew point.

As has been mentioned the dissecent pellets are the way to go. Once they are at capacity simply put them in the oven and dry them out.

I have never heard of a homeowners policy excluding coverage because of where the contents are located. However just because its in the house doesn't mean its covered. Autos, atv's, boats, etc. are not covered on your typical homeowners policy. Also your outbuildings and contents coverage amounts are based on percentages of the insured value of your home. Firearms, jewelery and other high value items are also subject to very low dollar limits of coverage unless they are spelled out in a separate rider. I think a typical policy has 2500 limit for firearms. If you have lots of valuables or expensive outbuildings you should review your coverage with your agent.

We did get extra firearms coverage. I think being NRA life member comes with some coverage also? It's been several years since I read that so I don't remember all the details.

We built a shop at a different location and were supposed to be building a house there also. We had some equipment for windmill generators, inverter with grid tie interface... stored in the shop. The shop got broken into and the expensive stuff taken. We called the ins co. to ask if it would be covered. We did not have power to the shop yet, so it was covered under our regular home owners policy. If we had run electricity to the shop, then it would have needed it's own policy.

As far as a gun collection, pictures of each one or a video and then a list with model, serial #... would be helpful, but a big pain to keep it all straight. I did find some stuff that I'd forgotten I had when I was makeing a detailed list. I took pictures of all, then made a list in Word and burned it onto a CD to store at the parents place. It wouldn't do much good to have a CD with all the info stored here if we had a house fire.