Things you find in your new garage!

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This never happens to me!

Not as good as a Colchester but I had a 250KG safe in mine (with a single wonky key)

Has made a great anvil for hammer work and I plan to weld a solid steel vice to it so it can do heavy workbench duties whenever required

Any idea what it was doing in your garage? Sounds like it came from a bank.

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 21/09/2016 13:02:50

The Colchester lathe is almost identical to one I had for years. . I got it second hand for £ 100-00 plus £ 10-00 for the bloke to forklift it on to my trailer.

I turned out to be a brilliant piece of kit once cleaned up. Sadly when i retired I had no room for it in my new house so it had to go

Does anyone know what model it is?

Any idea what it was doing in your garage? Sounds like it came from a bank.

No idea, it's probbly from a pub or a Jewellers or a bookies years ago.

Definitely empty, have checked numerous times lol

Was a bit ho-hum with it at first... but then found Model Engineering as a hobby and the rest as they say is history, wouldn't dream of selling or scrapping it now.

Had a quick check online about it and it's probbly Victorian, so maybe from a robbery around 1880, perhaps Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid?

Sam, it's a Colchester Master , 6 1/2".

Thanks

I'd imagine it might've belonged to a local bank like there used to be many of. 250kg is definitely not something you can walk off with, deliberately of course. It sounds like a piece that was made for the job. Does it have one of those fancy wheel lock handles you often see on a hefty safe?

Does it have any anchoring fixings on the legs? If you bought this, heavy as it is, i'd imagine you'd want it perminently fixed to the floor? (not that it's going to move but just to make sure!) 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 21/09/2016 20:22:05

Edited By Michael Walters on 21/09/2016 20:22:58

Every Methodist church used to have a proper safe in the vestry for papers, registers etc. We've closed a lot of chapels, so there are a few knocking around pretty much as you describe. Seen them in CoE churches too, so may be all denominations.

The top, base sides & front are probably bomb proof whilst the back can be opened with a tin opener.

What make ?  Chubb, Chatwood Milner, SLS ??

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 21/09/2016 20:33:10

Its a John & Joseph Taunton safe

Got a big brass doorknob instead of a handle, painted a modern myford grey kinda colour

Edited By Ady1 on 23/09/2016 00:55:03

Many years ago I used to work for a transport company who had a big old fashioned safe upstairs and they bought a new one to replace it.

So 4 very burly lorry driver were tasked with getting it downstairs to get rid of it. Due to the weight they got it downstairs, into the canteen and broke off for a cuppa and that's where it stayed.

We used it to keep the tea, coffee and sugar in. It was never locked in fact the key hug on a nail at the side of it.

So one Monday morning we rolled up for work and we had been burgled. can't remember after all these years what went missing but the safe was one of the items.

The police found it three days later on some waste land with the back cut off and the tea and coffee missing.

It was till unlocked

A mate of mine in the mid 1970s bought his first house. In the basement was a 500cc single Matchless left behind by the previous owners. He had great fun on that bike, his first sensible bike, and has ridden bikes ever since.

JA

Hi All ,

something similar.......my best friend moved into an large victorion property....

found the safe, huge bloody thing, took six of us to carry it out on doubled planks.......dumped it in the front garden, was gonna dig a hole and bury it.....u guessed it, gone in the morning......

we dumped 40 feet from the road and the garden was at least 12 foot above the pavement.......hahaha......

clogs

The "easy way" to move a 250KG safe on a flat surface is to use a decent industrial trolley

I have a good solid metal one and have shifted my safe around in the garage as required

Edited By Ady1 on 24/09/2016 11:01:48

After I sold my joinery business I found I still had 2 No 10ft lengths of light roller conveyors left.( no legs just laid flat on the ground) I used them for moving all sorts of heavy loads from sections of my timber framed house when I built it, to some RSJ's & pallets, plus my safe which is a bit more than 250 KG. Just a case of load it on, & a light push, & away you go. Just do not let it roll off the end !!!

You can get lucky with the things you find in garages. Back in the 60s a pal bought some premises off the official receiver following the bankruptcy of a small plant hire farm. He found a very big, nearly new digger bucket in one of the garages. Being honest, he informed the receiver, only to be told to please go away and not to make a nuisance of himself because the business had been wound up. And anyway, he'd paid for the buildings and their contents. The bucket was worth just short of £2,000, which was a tidy sum in the middle 1960s.

I have no problem moving my safe, I just take away all the gold in a wheelbarrow. The safe can be easily moved by one of the staff.

Most safes were used as fire safes rather than anti burglar proof. The large hand written cash ledgers were always kept in the office cashiers room. I think it was always easier not to move them on except the boss's whip was possibly inside. This is my first reply. Is it safe? Will do an intro shortly.