Pistol rack for the safe

[Guest motonut]

Picked up one of their 8 pistol racks to use in my safe. Got it from

http://www.gun-racks.com/pistol_racks

While it's not real fancy it is more than adequite for my purposes. They do have a dark stain for it too but I wanted to keep it light for inside the safe (eyes ain't what they used to be...).

(Most of) the family photo. (forgot the SP2022 upstairs).

Edited April 19, 2012 by motonut

[Guest motonut]

I've also been trying to address the mag storage issue for the safe, I now have (3) 18" magnetic tool bars screwed into the inner door panel of the safe, put a layer of electrical tape over the bar to prevent any scratching of the mags and it holds (most of) the mags very well. (the plastic .22 mags and alloy mags not so well). I did need to move one of the mag bars because with mags on it they would hit one of the shelves and prevent the safe door from closing. It is a tight fit from shelf end to inner door panel.

Edited April 19, 2012 by motonut

[Jonnin]

You can make a fine pistol rack for a few $$.

Take 2 boards and glue or screw or whatever them into an L shape. For each gun to be stored, stick a writing implement that will not damage it (a wooden pencil with no metal eraser stuff, for example) in the barrel and mark where the barrel lies on the tall part of the L when the grip is touching the table or whatever behind the short part of the L. Drill a hole there and glue in an appropriate caliber dowel rod, about 1-2 inches long. repeat for all the guns to be stored, and remember to give enough width between pistols!

You can go 2 deep or make 2 and put them 90 degrees to each other to really cram them onto a shelf, however I just made one and put it on the back wall of one shelf, it holds most of my handguns on one shelf this way.

Its a lot like what you bought, but I doubt I put $5 in materials into it, and about an hour of work. And with the custom height of the dowls, it fits every pistol I have from my desert eagle to my sig p238.

For magazines, I found this wonderful invention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardboard_box

Edited April 19, 2012 by Jonnin

[Guest motonut]

Geez guy, do you want to bitch about my choice of pistols too?

[mikegideon]

Nice. I just ordered an 8 gun without the magazine storage. How long did it take to get it?

[Guest motonut]

Nice. I just ordered an 8 gun without the magazine storage. How long did it take to get it?

About 2 1/2 weeks IIRC.

[mikegideon]

I guess they don't chop down the tree until they get the order

[hipower]

Thanks for posting this, Motonut. Looks like a fairly good quality storage unit for a reasonable price. And , Yes, similar products can be made fairly easily with a few tools, stain, polycoat, and felt; but some of us aren't quite good enough to get the "look" we want in the home shop. So it's a great alternative product.

[mikegideon]

I have the tools to make one. Just don't have the time or desire

[Jonnin]

Geez guy, do you want to bitch about my choice of pistols too?

Sorry, I misread it and thought you were looking for ideas. When I wrote that the picture of it in use was not showing up, just a link to it, and it really sounded like you were looking for something along those lines, not that you had bought one.

Edited April 19, 2012 by Jonnin

[Guest motonut]

Sorry, I misread it and thought you were looking for ideas. When I wrote that the picture of it in use was not showing up, just a link to it, and it really sounded like you were looking for something along those lines, not that you had bought one.

For the record it wasn't the description of your gun rack that ticked me off it was the link to the cardboard box that irritated me. I'm all for alternative suggestions as I sure don't have all the answers (if you ask my wife she'll say I think I do though).

All is well on my end.

I don't have the best tools to make this rack but I have enough to allow me to try, however it would take me a hell of a lot of time and effort and most assuridly not look as good as this when I was done. The 2nd one would look much better though.

Edited April 21, 2012 by motonut

[mikegideon]

I have a table saw, band saw, router table, and sanders. I still ordered one. I'm guessing THEIR first one didn't look as good either. I generally don't reinvent stuff that was invented right to begin with.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I have a table saw, band saw, router table, and sanders. I still ordered one. I'm guessing THEIR first one didn't look as good either. I generally don't reinvent stuff that was invented right to begin with.

You are a wise man. Had looked at the racks Motonut bought, and youtube videos on the dowel-type storage Jonnin had mentioned. Looking for ideas. Maybe will buy one, but most likely build one kinda like the gunracks.com design, one of these days. I don't have a big heavy safe, mainly because dunno anybody in chatt that I can impulse buy a huge safe and they will install it in my basement. Because of the house terrain, it would take some big strong folk and special equipment to get it in my basement. I'm not gonna hurt myself trying. If I was in nashville woulda got the safe house guys to do it.

So anyway my gun safe is a sheet metal sentry rifle box with a sentry pistol box bolted on top. Am pretty sure some kind of pistol rack could fit inside that sentry pistol box, but it will be more of a sure-thang if I build one to fit. The sheet metal safes are not ideal, but on the other hand there are the dogs, and I'm home 95 percent of the time and somebody is home almost all the time, so the cheap safe is a secondary "line of defense".

[mikegideon]

I've thought about building one for awhile. This one will fit in my safe. Right now, my pistols are just spread out on the top shelf.

[Guest motonut]

On the issue of mags, dumping them all in one box would be ok if it was easy to distinguish 1 from another. Telling the Walther G22 mag from the Wilson Combat 45 mags is easy but distinguishing the Sig SP2022 from the 229 or the PPQ from the PX4 Storm isn't, especially when I'm in a rush to get to the range.

I'm going to find some tupperware or plastic bins that will fit under the gun rack and segregate the mags by the pistols above them but will continue to look for better solutions.

BTW Lester, on my safe the door slides off (though it is VERY heavy) and is apx. 1/3 the total weight of the safe. I had the teenage kid across the street help me get it into my closet. We first slid the door up off it's hinges (the std way they come off) to seperate them. Then we rolled the safe body inside the house on one of the heavy duty dollies rented from U-Haul. Then we took the door itself in and slid the door back on the safe. While it wasn't a walk in the park we didn't have a lot of problems doing it ourselves. Now I would love to have a bigger one (never thought I would be saying that) I will most likely just get an additional smaller one to stick next to this one.

Some day I hope to have a large built in safe but I'll need to hit the lottery first. Speaking of that......

[Jonnin]

the box was semi serious, I have tried a ton of ways to store the mags and the best thing I have managed was an empty bulk 22 box (typical 500 shots of federal etc). I tried magnets and they work but magnets seem to create rust upon whatever they touch if left for too long. But, when that happened, the magnets I used were that dark brown type, that they sell in sticky strips, and it rusts eventually. That went poorly. I think coated or rare earth or better quality magnets do not have that issue. Just watch out for it if you use the strips, esp if you have used mags like for an AR that have poor finish or whatever. Also, the magnet strips cannot support a loaded mag, if that matters to you.

The rack I made looks like a 4th grade project. I can make stuff that works. It is never, ever a thing of beauty -- I have no skill at that nor the tools.

I see that the rack you bought has a nice area under it, that looks too small to be of much use, but it looks like it is about magazine sized. I think your idea of using that is about as good as it will get.

I think benton's will sell and install you a safe lester, not 100% sure. Ours came from a gun show vendor, and they also installed it, but I forget who--- it was over 20 years gone by.

Edited April 21, 2012 by Jonnin

[BryanP]

Thanks for posting this. I'm not ordering one right now, but I've added it to the "will buy this soon" list.

[Guest motonut]

Jonnin, the magnetic tool strips I bought (Amazon) are fairly stout however I added a strip of 1.5" wide electrical tape for no other reason than to cover up the cheep looking "18" Tool Strip" lable on it. Even with the electrical tape over the top it's still got plenty of holding power.

I would be adding more of those strips if not for the fact the back of the safe door is so close to the safe shelves when the door is closed. (found that out the hard way, had to reposition a couple of the strips).

[TnEngineer]

I simply bought a dish washer rack at Wally World for a couple of bucks. Colored white, it holds I believe 7 handguns turned upside down. Had to saw part of the legs off to make it fit but, works great. Check it at Wally World.

[hipower]

I simply bought a dish washer rack at Wally World for a couple of bucks. Colored white, it holds I believe 7 handguns turned upside down. Had to saw part of the legs off to make it fit but, works great. Check it at Wally World.

Hmmm. Another good idea.

[Guest FIST]

I too have the sentry safe. With the exception of my self defense weapon(s) used for daily carry etc, all magazines are now stored inside some sort of pelican style to tupperware box. They are then placed in a tough box stored in the garage with desiccant and a pad lock. I don't mind it since the two main pistols I use always have 2 magazines available. Also I know not everyone has a garage but you may be able to find some space for one. I suppose if you could find a rifle length pelican case you could put it under a bed and with the foam lining it probably would not be to hard to find a way to divide and organize your mags securely.

[TnTut]

I keep my magazines in plastic worm boxes. With the divideers I keep them seperated and when I go to the range I put them into a range bag.

Terry