Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank Vault

VaultDoors

The staff at Jefferson University’s JeffDesign Lab are interested in restoring the old Philadelphia Federal Reserve vault door located at 925 Chestnut St. in the basement level. I showed them the see thru Remote Combination Viewer at the One King West Hotel (Toronto) with info placard and they would like to do the same. PM me if you are interested in the work or know someone in the area qualified to do the work, thx.

Old Philly Fed:

One King West RCV:

wylk

I can’t help directly, but some restored vault doors used a process called soda blasting. I think this was used for the Kansas City Public Library.

VaultDoors

Wow, the KC Public Library vault restoration came out great! I will pass along the soda blasting option to JeffDesign Lab folks. The finish on the vault door at 33 N LaSalle in Chicago is so uniform it almost looks painted. I wonder if this vault door was soda blasted too:

wylk

VaultDoors wrote
The finish on the vault door at 33 N LaSalle in Chicago is so uniform it almost looks painted. I wonder if this vault door was soda blasted too

It looks more like sandblasting, a matte finish. In comparison soda blasting seems more gentle and leaves a finish closer to the original. At least, that’s my impression.

[unknown]

00247

What was a normal maintenance schedule and procedure for the upkeep of the finish on these large vaults? I assume temperature and humidity control were of great importance. Any one have maintenance schedules, both cosmetic and mechanical, from any of the major builders?

VaultDoors

I asked one of the JeffDesign Dr’s to take pics of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Vaults and related items:

Round Vault Door and Emergency Door
Cylindrical Vault Door and mini-Cylindrical Emergency Door
Remote Combination Viewers (6)
Platform Controls
Locking Bolt Electric Contacts
Pressure Systems
Bolt-Throwing Push Pins
Tool Cabinet
Bandit Barrier
Builders Plates
Lock In Procedure

He took 129 high def pics and I uploaded them to the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Vault album. In exchange for the pics I agreed to provide a write up on the vaults that will be displayed near the round vault door, similar to the plaque above the RCV at the One King West vault. I will make a first pass then ask this forum to review and edit. Enjoy the pics and thanks in advance! :o:

VaultDoors

Can anyone help identify these vault door tools?

High definition versions of these pics can be found in the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Vault album

safecracker

Diebold has a guy that would know a lot about that particular vault door