Tool box security

[Paul.]

A landscape gardener friend of mine has a new motor and paid to have a storage box fitted to it, the box is superbly made, but fitted with mickey mouse locks,
A flick with a screwdriver a couple of days ago and he's minus £2000's of Stihl chainsaws, hedge trimmers and strimmers, you can see how weak the locks are.


So I've fitted something to hopefully stop it happening again, all made from stainless of course,

 

[Stereophoney]

Shame your good work is to stop scumbags !!

Nice though

 

[brightspark]

nice job but the locks can easily be cut off with bolt croppers

 

[Wedg1e]

nice job but the locks can easily be cut off with bolt croppers

True, but there are far more thieving scrotes walking around with a big screwdriver down their trackie bottoms than there are with bolt-croppers.

One of our pickups was broken into at Ellesmere Port earlier in the year and almost £200,000-worth of pipeline inspection equipment lifted (in daylight, in a hotel carpark, with CCTV!).
We thought it was just gyppo chancers and, not knowing what it was, they'd fling the lot in the Manchester Ship Canal but we had a call last week to say the kit had surfaced... in the USA!

 

[agri-fabs]

stainless and aluminium dont mix, there will be corrosion very soon.........................

 

[Robotstar5]

I had a company car pinched form Basildon in the 80's with all my tools including £2000 worth of oscilloscope, only thing the police recovered was the 'scope, with the 13A plug cut off as it was probably the only the only bit the scrotes understood after they failed to get corrie on the screen!

 

[Uniqueusername]

Those catches are useless, they barely hold panels closed as it is.
But then I could pop those locks using nothing but a small prybar........
Discus locks would've been better for the price.

 

[Country Joe]

stainless and aluminium dont mix, there will be corrosion very soon.........................

Stainless chequerplate, maybe?
CJ

 

[Welderpaul]

We must get 2-3 steel site boxes in a month to bodge up after they have been broken in to. They don't really offer much protection against someone with a 5' crowbar who has the time/cover to break into one inside a building site. The Knaack ones seem to be fairly good.

 

[brightspark]

We must get 2-3 steel site boxes in a month to bodge up after they have been broken in to. They don't really offer much protection against someone with a 5' crowbar who has the time/cover to break into one inside a building site. The Knaack ones seem to be fairly good.

i have one o them got it given the locks are imposible to get at . the weakest things are the hooks under the lid that conect to the locks if theres no one about and u can make noise a cold chisel knocked in at each end would buckle them
and open but if within earshot no chance

 

[Paul.]

There's not much you can do against someone who knows what they are doing, I recommended disk locks, but those locks were supplied by the customer, the weak part really is the aluminium box, a hammer and bolster would open it up like a bean can, as for aluminium and stainless not mixing, there is a .25 difference on the anodic table, admittedly out side the .15 recommended maximum, but its a tool box not a bridge, I have an aluminuim trailer top with stainless hinges that has been outside for over 30 years, and is still fine, so I wont be losing any sleep over that one,
The vehicle is also having a top of the range wireless alarm fitted tomorrow, including sensors in the box,

 

[1969 Vernon]

I think you did a great job. The stainless looks real nice and will not rust in time. It's to bad that your friend had to do all of this to keep out the sorry people that steal. Thanks for posting Vernon

 

[tomsutton529]

if they want it they will have it... I know some people who used to be top thieves, if they wanted a car it could be taken using weakness's or it was put on a truck... shown the pic to a mate and if he thought there was enough value inside that box he would take the lot to his unit and make as much noise as he wanted to get inside it....

however, its a very well made box just dont advertise whats inside it and it will stay looking nice..

 

[Jake]

southco locks one key fits all sadly

 

[Hitch]

Looks like a nice box. Shame to have a big bar round it, but necessary. A couple of disc lock would work a treat.

Van vaults, ours got the key snapped off in it the other day, very easy to open with no damage to the box.

 

[gordon stephenson]

I prefer to use this van type lock if possible, this one is on a hitch lock I made for my daughters horse trailer, quite well protected but still only a deterrent for honest people,

 

[strube1369]

I'm thinkin' that oughta do it. Although a bolt cutter might pop the lock.

 

[malcolm X]

Any lock that fits onto a hasp and staple is easy peasy to get through, all you need is a plumbers pipe freezing kit then tap it with a toffee hammer and the lock falls apart, done it loads of times ( I am a plumber by trade)

 

[Arsonista]

That's a tidy job Paul. Our local gyppos see it as a kind of challenge. The more security you put on something, the more we want to break in to it 'coz we can. Also, that does look rather shiny and 'something expensive lives in here'.

 

[Robotstar5]

Also, that does look rather shiny and 'something expensive lives in here'.

Shame you couldn't put a hungry Rottweiler in there