Workshop Security

First of all, apologies if this is in the wrong thread, however I am sure it will be moved to someone more relevant if necessary.

Moving swiftly on..With the clocks going back and more hours of darkness during the day over the winter, there is never a better time to review your workshop security so I have included a few common 'hints and tips' to keep things safe and secure.

Be aware of what you have got..

This sounds relatively simple but that 6 foot square copper sheet you bought 30 years ago for a few quid is worth more than that now, so a quid wiggle around in the scrap corner should allow you to adjust you insurance (or in some cases include you garage/shed in your house insurance).

If you cant afford to lose it, dont leave it out there..

That 5" gauge copper boiler you have just finished spending 3 months non-stop making may well be a work of art, however it will be gladly welcomed with open arms by the questionable scrap dealer. In return you insurance company will more than likely reward you with a few hundred pounds in return for you effort leaving you to start again. Although somewhat light humoured, it is worth bearing in mind before locking up for the night, I am sure that the domestic boss wouldnt mind you part finished project living under the kitchen table overnight.  Unfortunately is someone is determined enough and has enough time then they will get in eventually, so it is best to thing of your locks and bolts as a deterant as opposed to making your workshop completely burglar proof.

Dont show off..

If your workshop is in view of the road/footpath be aware that as well as allowing a bit of natural light on your work, you are also showing off the contents of your workshop to members of the public walking/driving past. Allowing the unscrupulous to make the decision as to whether it is worth coming back after dark or not. The same goes for workshop photos on the internet, bearing in mind these forums are viewable to anyone, common sense would dictate not to publish you address. The same goes for hanging a sheet/curtain over the window at night making it a bit more difficult to see what is inside.

All singing/dancing products on the market..

There are plenty of products on the market for garage/shed security, however before purchasing adjust your mindset slightly to that of the burglar. You can spend a small fortune on a glow in the dark hi tensile welded to the floor device to stop the garage door being lifted up, however in reality all you are doing is saying to someone walking past "I have something in here worth protecting", and whilst the door is unopenable the small window/thin roof is not. Along similar lines are the smart all singing and dancing shed alarms, you know the ones from B&Q (or similar) that have a 20 second delay allowing you to enter the code before disabling it. Trouble is, it doesnt take 20 seconds to find a hammer/brick/rock to put through the alarm rendering it useless. Personally I use a wireless doorbell with a PIR sensor attached. The bell parts lives in my bedroom letting me know if someone is in my garage overnight (these are also especially good at letting you know at 3am that you have locked next doors cat in the garage overnight).

Security lights/CCTV...

Security lights are always good and recommended and usually relatively cheap and effective. CCTV cameras can be picked up relatively cheaply these days, however I would be somewhat dubious spending a small fortune on them as a hood/hat/balaclava renders them relatively useless. Also make sure they are nice and visible alerting any questionable characters that they are there.

Include some variations on your locks...

The bog standard garage door locks are not particularly effective to the seasoned professional and can be defeated in a short space of time. Therefore it is wise to include a couple of different types on bolts/locks such as a padlocked brenton bolt etc, or the simlar padlocked locks that protect the padlock from bolt cutters.

Speak to your neighbours...

Common sense really but a quick word in the neighbours ear before you go away for a few days means they will (hopefully) keep an eye on things whilst you are away.

Do your own detective work..

If you are unfortunate enough to have your workshop broken into, it is always worth having a quick phone around yourself. Anything metal related is more than likely to end up a scrap yard and the apple nevers falls far from the tree, so a quick ring around local scrap yards is always worth a try.

Repeat visitors..

If you have been unfortune enough a things have been taken it is worth bearing in mind, that common sense would dictate that those things would be replaced in a few months when insurance claims have been completed.  It is therefore worth while upgrading your security afterwards and it is definately not a case of it has happened and therefore it wont happen again

Edited By Dave Jones 1 on 07/11/2012 14:25:15

Know you weak points..

As mentioned above quick look around the workshop should point out any weak points, although the front of your garge door make look better protected than fort knox, the single pain window on the side is an easy target. A discrete grill over the inside of the window may make it look like you spend you time like a cage animal, however it stops other getting into your workshop then it is worth it.

Almost forgot to add, if you need any further advice or want to know what is useful to have security wise these days, a quick phone call/visit to your local police station is always a good bet as they are quite upto date on the latest and greatest devices.

Is this Dave(y) Jones' locker?

I recently had my garage door open for all to see in...pikey looking van drone past, then back parking straight at my workshop...two of them in the cab, couldnt see me. So I went and stood in the doorway to the garage, straight at them (2 people). Not bragging, but im 21 stone mostly prime ex para tissue, skinhead and very poor attitude! They proceeded to pathetically rev their engine and repeatedly lunge towards my workshop. I wrote their reg no. down and beefed up my locks, but these people are the scum of the earth and the law system seems to hold them in high regard....brave as a judge recently put it. If you get chance, put a bullet between their eyes and do society a big favour! They havnt been back...yet!

Most people who get done defending their property get done by the STATE

not the system

The state makes various threats "if you go to court then you're toast!"

In reality, if you go to court nowadays you'll get off because the scum are running Britain and ordinary people know that nowadays we are up against the state AND the scum

Thank you Dave, for a sensible warning and reasonable approach to securing the things we spend our time on. Most appreciated.

Edited By RobC on 08/11/2012 09:48:23

firstly labeling people pikey is un helpful...Scum are scum how cares what ethnicity.... but once YOU use those terms the police etc. think less of you and your complaint etc.

Worse thing is if said scrote breaks in and falls over in the dark, your kit and heaven forbid hurts them selves YOUR INSURANCE needs to cover for that.... maybe we need to ask who is worse theives or insurance companies/accident claim solicitors ?..

A friend was cycling home one night.. guy jumps out grabs her and threatens her with bread knife.....she stuck him withit and called ambulance.... ( she was 18 at the time and 5' 4" )

When SHE appears in court for assult...the judge says hears defense, and COMMENDS HER, dismissing case then and there.....yes it sometimes works out ..

If you have uPVC replacement doors you might think that you're safe with the posh-looking locks supplied. Apparently nothing could be further from the truth - they can be drilled, picked, bumped and snapped fairly quickly by someone who knows what they're doing.

I was advised to replace these by a policeman that I know and look for locks to overcome the threat. I chose CISA Astral S locks which are 'anti' all of the above threats. Theyr'e not cheap, but if you look around you can get some very good deals. Forget the DIY sheds and look for a specialist who can offer you a good service at what is probably a better price - I used a company called Barnsley Lock and Safe to supply my locks and had them 'keyed alike' for a small extra cost, allowing all locks supplied to be operated by the same key. Further explanation can be found on their website - no connection apart from a satified customer....

**LINK**!

Easy to fit but not easy to break into - well worth a look.

I am suprised that there hasn't been a model engineer out there that has designed his/ her own lock which dosen't look anything like what these people have come accross. How about a big boxing glove on a delayed swipe arm mounted just inside the door. Open door, pause a couple of seconds and wallop. Boxing glove floors Mr intruder. Alarm goes off. Wife goes out and sees you on the floor with a broken nose !!

Plan b) ...............

Incidentaly, and im not making a word of this up, I was in the workshop/garage late one night last March when a head in a hoody popped round the open door, had a look at me then dissapeared....my garden is completely surrounded by a 6 ft fence so you cant exactly find yourself there by accident (unless of course you fell out of the sky!). I soon located mr scrote and after a tussle dragged him roung my dog poo infested garden, head first for a while. Wifey had called police. I advised him that were he to try to escape I would break his leg, thus rendering his chances of success somewhat reduced. I didnt punch him, but fair to say he was experiencing severe pain! Copper turns up and asks if ive 'given him a few jabs' - no, i havnt. Me is thinking plod is trying to set me up. Plod exclaims that this is a big shame, and says (I quote exactly) 'so long as your not stamping on his head when I arrive I couldnt care less what you do to him - its your property and your allowed to defend yourself'. Still thinking he was setting me up I went indoors to wait for the burgalary squad to arrive. One extremely nice looking young lady and equally young chap - both asked if I had given him a good lap, and both commented that it was a shame I hadnt as I was well within my rights to do so. He got 120 days in prision!! I would like to state, for the benefit of those who care about such things, that this individual was a Smack head and was in no way related to the pikey scum who visited me recently. You might not think these people are so bad, but you will when 40 caravans park up 100 yadrs from your house and if it isnt nailed down it dissapears overnight!

A very simple answer to the burglary or invasion problem is, and assuming that your workshop is adjacent to your home, to connect the door and window handles to the household electricity supply. It's easy to do and it's very easy to turn off when you want to visit your workshop. I have done it and at that time the workshop was up a flight of stone stairs - an ambulance was necessary!

Love it!!

A fairly useful trick for your workshop door is to make a fairly hefty bolt (mine is 3 x 1 bdms) and cut a slot in the top to take the bolt of a 5 lever mortice lock. It is quite quick to use and anyone seeing it is in no doubt about its strength.

Edited By David Colwill on 08/11/2012 22:06:08

Get a cheap CCTV system, fit up a couple of cameras covering doors and windows, place the monitor in a window, also with a camera attached so anyone nosing around can see that they are being recorded.

MIght make 'em think twice.

When our property was burgled the perpetrator used a small shovel and broke the haft doing but not before he had lifted the sliding door off its rails even though the builder had said it was, 'Anti Lift'.

He did £2500 damage to door and wooden sub frame, its all plastic now and two doors. He got in by sliding in under the lifted sliding door and he got 21grms of scrap gold and one diamond earring but made a mess of the bedroom, every draw out.

His exit from the house was through a kitchen window by just snapping off the window handle,

(Mazac type crap) The window installers (Bright Lite) then abrogated the warranty because I took a window lock off upstairs and fitted it downstairs. Any excuse to get out of warranty but in fact all I asked for was new window lock, which I would have paid for anyway and they ignored my request. I hope now one of the glass panels fogs and see if they refuse to replace it under warranty (10 years). Then Ill get my own back.

In the garden he used the spade to shear off the padlock to get at the other tools he wanted. The same day the house quarter left of us was also done in the same way.

My garage does face the road and I worry about its security but if you were to include all the gear it would double the insurance premium.

Clive

loan you 2 of my rotwiers have a message at the start of the drive they can get to the end of the drive in 3 secs how fast can you go. seems to work Oh they are a pair of soppy King charles but make enought noise when anyone comes near.

Seriosly there have in the past been many threads on workshop security and safety for your workshop

Bob

I went to the motorcycle show today and saw a secure shed for motorcycles,I thought it may have some application for keeping our workshop equipment secure link to the secure shed company. I have no connection to the company but it seemed to answer some security issues. The website shows cages inside a shed or garage, but the display at the show was the whole shed with an internal cage.

Mike

Edited By Michael Poole on 29/11/2014 16:43:41

I see the hinge nuts are nice and easy to get at so you can unhinge the door. Why did they not use steel hinges and weld then to the cage?

A good point Jason, I think they would be obscured by the door cladding but shear nuts or a few weld tacks would give more peace of mind. As they build to order I expect it can be customized to the customers satisfaction.

Mike

Edited By Michael Poole on 29/11/2014 17:33:29