Ultimate & One-off Freestanding Safes

[MartinB]

This Milner? Every piece of its gear driven bolt work was chrome plated and utterly over the top. Never let it be said "it's just a Milner...' I nearly cried when it was sent to the scrap yard! Glad to report it did put up a fight and nearly crippled the forklift and pallet trucks.

[oldlock]

I thought it had a crane hinge ?? I saw it when the collection was being sold. Stupidly I did not buy much as I was saving my limited funds for the Peter Phillips sale - DUMB !!

[Huw Eastwood]

Nice safe but I'd be surprised if that's a diamond- only 2 way boltwork and very basic. I'd expect a lot more than that on a safe above their Bankers and Branch banks. But, I've never seen one or seen details of one-they are supposedly VERY rare so who knows..

[Huw Eastwood]

forgot to add safeman will know!

[safeman]

forgot to add safeman will know!

The truth is out! This stuff is all too modern for me. My Milner knowledge seems to end around the time of their 1937
catalogue and the hurried scratchings I took from one of the huge volumes of the Chubb Collectanea in their archive in
or around 1991.

If I can read my writing ......

1919 List 2 Now 12 corner bent with rectangular bolts. Body 3/16" to 3/8" depending on size. Door 3/8" to 1/2"
depending on size. 3/8" ply steel over lock. Angle lockcase 2 1/4"x 2 1/4"x 1/4".
List 3 Still 4 corner bent banded. (Imp.patent) round bolts. Body 1/4" to 5/16" depending on size.
Lockcase 'T' bars 3 1/2"x 3 1/2" x 1/2". Wedge guards.
List 4 Door 1 1/2" DR sandwich, body 1/2".
List 5 " " " " body 1 1/8".
List 6 " " " " boby 1 1/4" 5 ply.
British Army Safe 22 x 15 x 16 3/8"body 7/8" door 318lbs.
Bank Safe As List 5 + 3 shelves, 2 drs. 1 cubd. 60" x 32" x 28".
Impregnable (liquid resisting joint) 12 bolts all round. Crane hinge. 60" x 34 1/2" x 28". 6160 lbs.



1937 Grade 1 12 corner bent with 1/2"door - rectangular bolts.
Grade 2 " " " 1/4" body 1/2" door with 1/4"angle lockcase - rectangular bolts.
Double Shell Cash Safe Made in 2 sizes (to compete with Duplex) 26 1/4" and 29" high. Door 1" thick over lock.
3 x 1 3/8" round bolts + 1 fixed at back.
Grade 3 12 corner bent 3/8" thick. DR over door, 1 1/2" over lock. AED.
Grade 4 7/8" DR body. 2" over lock. Outer plate DR AED.
Grade 5 Double Hinge. DR/ABP in body. 2 or 3 locks.
Grade 6 As above but thicker.
Branch Bank Double hinges. (Spiegeleisen)?

[Huw Eastwood]

thanks safeman- lots of nitty gritty info there. It must've taken ages to type that lot from handwritten notes! I knew you'd come up with something

[Safeone]

All things considered I put my top three forward. These are off the shelf ( yep I would also like to see the shelf ! ) free standers not special bespoke one off's.

I have the sales booklets for these three which shows they were available to buy or at least order from the respective companies.

Era wise we are probably in the mid 1970's to late 1980's. Non of that modern nonsense !

Anyway in third place I have :

Chubb Sovereign 6428/21
weighing in at 3.6 tonne/7,940lbs/3,601kgs

In a very close second place I have :

Tann Diamond 82/7024
weighing in at 5 tonne/11,199lbs/5,080kgs

So the one that gets my top vote is :

SLS Gem 6325
weighing in at 6.9 tonne/15,260lbs/6,025kgs

I know its not all about weight but I dont think you can deny that these three are definite giants amongest anyhing ever made in the safe world.

[Huw Eastwood]

Nice choices- think mine would be similar with 2 of those. The SLS Gem's were of course true specials, and not off the shelf, but that's the whole point of this thread!

The big 6325 Gem has got me wondering- did they ever actually make one? It's reputedly hard and fast that SLS only ever made 2 Gems. I think safeman mentioned that the one was sacrificed for the TXTL60 testing, and we know that the smaller 3525 survives to this day. Did they sacrifice the bigger 6.9 tonner for the UL rating or had they made more than one of the smaller sizes? Seems odd to me so wondering if they made a couple more than first thought. I hope so as this means your number 1 choice wasn't diamond drilled, oxy-acetylened and lanced to destruction

They also made the similar looking Sapphire, also in very small numbers which could possibly be mistaken for the Gem.

Also, the 3525 apparently went to a big diamond importer in the USA originally, so with another gone to testing I think the tales I'd heard of one for HM the Queen and one in the Middle East simply were just tales!

[Ian D. Lewis]

The net weight of the Sovereign 6428/21 was 3385 kg. 3601 kg was the weight including export packing.

[Safeone]

The net weight of the Sovereign 6428/21 was 3385 kg. 3601 kg was the weight including export packing.

Thanks for the exact details Ian. Just looked at the back of the Sovereign booklet and you are spot on with that weight.

Wow! 216kg of packaging...... Wonder what the Post Office would want to send that first classs signed for Might save a few quid if I just bubble wrapped it !