Moving safes and a bonus find

Gary Stephenson

There were some old safes in a run down part of a new house I am doing up and I have been moving them for the last couple of days to somewhere that I can try to get them back into service, the largest one was a Chubb double door unit that probably weighs 3 tons and I have managed to move it about 70 yards on my own, so chuffed with that. I had freed up one of the doors, but the other one was seized and rusted shut. when I finally got it opened the locks from the old Chatwood, including a Sam lock were hiding inside there.

Gary Stephenson

more pics, that Milner was a nice list 3 unit

Gary Stephenson

A Stratford Concord and a Chubb standard TDR as well as the double door Chubb London?

Huw Eastwood

Always enjoy seeing what others have hidden away in sheds and out buildings, Youve got some good ’uns there Gary, the double door Chubb really does look heck of a weight, thick old doors and body on something that size.
Used to see loads of those Concords and the similar Ratner version (Trustee i think) in the smaller building societies branches, good solid safes with glass and have to admit I quite liked them.

PS good news you found all the Chatwood parts and Chubb stuff, but it might be bad news for some seeing that name on the van!

Huw Eastwood

I missed the Milner’s, was it the list 3s with the interlocking dovetails around the door/body and the big hexagon bolts alternated down the boltcase? Going back we used to see them for the old butchers chain Dewhursts, they had an area office here and storage depot. Every shop always had one set in the wall, can’t ever remember seeing anything else used but milner.
Trip down memory lane, still have the big chrome socket and torque bar for doing those bolts and it’s an odd size so it’s never been any use for anything else.

Gary Stephenson

Yes Huw, that is the beastie, and the ground off bolts you have to tap round with a punch!
Drilled the list 3 today and picked the statford, the main problems with the Milner and double door Chubb was doors and boltwork seized and rusted shut, so needed a lot of work to free them up and get them working smoothly again.
I much preferred the vans with Chubb Safes written on them !

Gary Stephenson

Just to show the bolts that Huw is talking about, I got away with 24mm for fireproof chamber bolts and 32mm for boltwork chamber bolts. Really like this safe, what I call proper old school solid engineering. Not sure how old this is, but the hinges are still superbly tight and you would struggle to get a fag paper between the door edge and frame. Lovely how the bits just fit perfectly like a quality jigsaw puzzle.

emsafeman

Very interesting, I have never seen a safe like this before. I’m a new member here so I’m quite sure I’ll be thinking/saying that a lot. I was surprised to see the dovetail joints on a safe. Thanks for posting.

Doug MacQueen

Gary, it’s not what is written on the van that counts, it’s how it it tracks down the road after being used with a griphoist in moving a 3 ton safe uphill.

Huw Eastwood

Gary Stephenson wrote
Just to show the bolts that Huw is talking about, I got away with 24mm for fireproof chamber bolts and 32mm for boltwork chamber bolts. Really like this safe, what I call proper old school solid engineering. Not sure how old this is, but the hinges are still superbly tight and you would struggle to get a fag paper between the door edge and frame. Lovely how the bits just fit perfectly like a quality jigsaw puzzle.

Theyre cracking safes those Milners, I have a soft spot for them like you say Gary even after all the years of use and even seizing up, its still as tight as new. I’d forgotten about those flush headed bolts they sure knew how to give us a bit of hassle, what with the csk screws they filled over and painted on the fire resistant models.
Are you going to restore it? it’ll make a nice project safe if you are, it would be good to see it all done like original.
Had to dig out that ‘milners’ socket for old times sake..

[unknown]

Chubby

Pardon my ignorance. Is the Chubb “London” a model?

Timothy

That would be the harder thing to do by rolling the safe on dirt road. That how we move safe by rolling in hard surface floor. The problem trying to turn the dang safe left or right…..Timothy…..

Gary Stephenson

Wasn’t pulling the safe uphill, just rolling it downhill in a nice controlled way so it didn’t get away from me.
Don’t think the Chubb London is the model, just what I would call it.
I will put the Milner back in service Huw, but it won’t be a full restoration

Doug MacQueen

Going downhill is easy. Just put a couple stout skis under the safe and push it with the van. Although you may not want pictures of it on the net.

Gary Stephenson

Hiya Doug, the slope was a bit off camber and onto soft verges where if I had lost control of the descent I would have been in trouble, so the way I did it was the most controlled way with the kit I had.

safeman

Gary Stephenson wrote
Just to show the bolts that Huw is talking about, I got away with 24mm for fireproof chamber bolts and 32mm for boltwork chamber bolts. Really like this safe, what I call proper old school solid engineering. Not sure how old this is, but the hinges are still superbly tight and you would struggle to get a fag paper between the door edge and frame. Lovely how the bits just fit perfectly like a quality jigsaw puzzle.

Gary, your Milner dates from between 1890 and 1915 at which time they changed to round boltwork (Improved Patent). The letter prefix of the serial number will confirm the actual year.

The body plate thickness in this size is ¼". Incidentally, the Wedge Guards as fitted to Milner and many other makes was the invention of a Manchester policeman after the Cornhill Robbery in 1865 but the Patent initially taken out by Milner was never pursued.

[unknown]

Chubby

Which model of the old heavy banded Milners was it that had the drop down bolt throwing handle? It looked sort of like a stirrup.

Huw Eastwood

Chubby

That’s the boy. I saw a dual control one many years ago that had been opened with OA. The person opening it had more or less melted his way in. I shudder to think how much gas he must have used. The doors wouldn’t burn properly. I suppose that would have been due to the nature of the metal.

Anyway I will shut up, now, lest I be accused of hijacking the thread.

Tom Gordon

Chubby wrote
That’s the boy. I saw a dual control one many years ago that had been opened with OA. The person opening it had more or less melted his way in. I shudder to think how much gas he must have used. The doors wouldn’t burn properly. I suppose that would have been due to the nature of the metal.

Anyway I will shut up, now, lest I be accused of hijacking the thread.

[unknown]