Material in Safe Door?

I believe safe insulation is still usually a form of plaster/cement. The supply houses that cater to safemen can supply it. I have no experience working with the stuff so I can't advise beyond that.

it's a material designed to soak up as much heat as possible during a fire. composition varies of course, but that's the objective.

too bad you don't have an old safe, those puppies came equipped with tear gas glass vials.

big bucks on ebay i hear.

depending on the safe it CAN be a form of concrete.. or other things..

like was said, you need a safe man, and either they can get repair insulation from a couple of places, depending on what it is. --Shiva--

I ran into one where the glass vial contained nitroglycerin. That was a long, exciting day. :(

its insulation for fire protection. contact your locksmith supply house. maybe they can help you.

g'day

Lockmaster's sells it as a (chunky) powder. you mix as much as you need with water put it in place and let it set up.

Or......

Go to Home depot and get a few tubes of the stuff they use to seal furnace and water heater vents. Works fine.

They were only and "aftermarket" item - installed by other companies after the sale. Not all that common.

P.T. Barnum was right.

long, exciting day. :(

Are you sure you're not confusing that with the urban legend about tear gas supposedly turning into nitro-glycerin after many years? (Not true, BTW)

Seems putting nitro in a safe on purpose wouldn't be a good idea. Slam the door and end up across the street.

Would also make them pretty easy to open. Just tip it over. :)

Nitroglycerin, and it had turned a greasy yellow and started to crystalize. It was in an old, abandoned RR office under a flight of steps. The door had been locked in the open position and there was a notice printed on the outer door that it would not be wise to use force on the safe. When I removed the door's cover plate, that's when I saw the vial. I called the police, who called in the Army. They put the entire door in an explosive container and transported it to a range where they detonated it with a blasting cap. The sign on the door was valid... The door was severely mangled. The glass vial was about the same size as a non-filtered cigarette. It looked like it was made from some lab glassware. Definitely not factory, and definitely designed to injure or maim anyone tampering with the safe.

The worst part was it shot the whole day and I didn't earn a dime.

Hi, if it looked like

regards Thorsten

It was not asbestos. I have seen enough of that to recognize it.

believe asbestos has been used in the past though.

I think it is a concrete made with vermiculite as the aggregate. and gypsum rather than the sand. It retains moisture until heated, where in it releases steam to prevent the internal temperature of the safe to get hot enough to burn paper.

Over time the moisture is slowly lost and the amount of time it can be effective declines.

If you really want to do it yourself, try making a test batch with standard portland cement and the vermiculite (available in the garden department) in the ordinary proportion of rock, and the gypsum (Also available in the garden department) instead of the sand. It might need a little extra water as the substitute ingredients will soak up a lot.

When wet it should be pourable but not soupy nor stiff.

When dry this should be hard, but not so hard that you can't chip it with a screwdriver.

Good luck.

concrete foam i think they call what you describe.

Probably could use castable kaolin based insulation. Insulation specialists have it for building laboratory ovens and furnaces. Have a talk to someone who caters to the pottery and enamelling fraternity.

No. That is just high temp insulation. The stuff in fire safes holds in moisture until heated and then lets off steam.