AboutTerry Andreasen (Andy) Expertise Safe and Vault related Questions;
Antique Safe Repair and Restoration;
With over 37 years in the Safe & Vault industry, if I can't answer your question I know where to get the answer.
Current Project: Restoration of three, 36 ton steel vault doors and drop floors, in the old Federal Reserve Building, San Francisco.
Experience 37 years in the Safe & Vault Industry. Service Manager for one of the largest Safe & Vault companies on the West Coast. Graduate of Lockmasters Safe Lock Servicing, Safe lock Manipulation and Safe Deposit Lock Courses. Graduate of Locksmith Institute.
Certified Instructor for the California Locksmith Association teaching Basic and Advanced Lock Servicing, Basic Safe opening and Repairing.
Factory Trained by AMSEC, LORD Safes, LeFebure, Mosler, KabaMas, LaGard and Sargent & Greenleaf
Organizations SafeCrackers International
Education/Credentials Graduate of Locksmith Institute 1972
Graduate Lockmasters Safe Lock Servicing 1974
Graduate Lockmasters Safe Lock Manipulation 1975
Graduate Lockmasters Safe Deposit Lock Servicing 1985
Instructor Certified - California Locksmith Association - 1985
Awards and Honors Retired US Army, with many decorations and awards from Vietnam, Desert Storm and Op Iraqi Freedom.
Past/Present Clients Secret Service, FBI, Dept. of Homeland Defense, US Army, US Coast Guard, US Navy, US Marine Corps, Lawerence Livermore National Lab, Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, various local banks, credit unions, state agencies, Jewelers, and many commercial and residential customers.
Service Area is Northern California (Fresno to Oregon and Western Nevada)
The vault in the photos is located in a refurbished bank now used as a tourist information center. Visitors ask about the vault, and we're looking for information, specifications, weight of the door, original price, and other information.
Web searches have uncovered little. Your help and assistance would be greatly appreciated.
The signage on the door reads Herring Hall Marvin Safe Co., Hamilton, Ohio
Answer Keith,
Well you definitly have a Herring, Hall & Marvin vault door. HHM was formed when the three safe companies "Herring safe", "Halls safe & Lock" and the "Marvin safe co" merged in 1892. The company was bought by the Diebold Safe company in the late 1950's and the label was discontinued by 1964.
Your Vault door was probably built between the 1920's to 1930's. I have no idea what the original purchase price would have been, but knowing about the depression that hit in the late 20's it probably was sold for a lot less than we would think.
Without having better pictures and measurements of the door, vestibule and day gate doors, all I can do is give you a rough estimate on its weight. Steel basically weighs in at about 42.5 lbs per square foot 1 inch thick. figuring that the door is about 84" tall x 36" wide and at least 2" thick - this would put the basic door plate at about 2000 lbs. When you add in the rest of the bolt work, guide plates, gears, pressure bars, locks, handles etc. you would be in the neighbor hood of 4000 lbs. The frame, vestibule and day gate doors would probably add another 1500-2000 lbs depending on how thick the steel on these are. So the total estimate would be in the neighborhood of 6000 lbs or 3 tons.
To put this in perspective, I'm currently doing a restoration project for one of the old Federal Reserve buildings in San Francisco. I have three doors that weigh 36 tons each, just for the doors. The main plate of the door is 4 feet thick. Each of the round bolts is 6" in diameter and weighs about 100 lbs each. The doors are so large that the floor in front of the vault has to drop 10" to allow the doors to open or close.
I have an HHM vault door at my house that is from around 1905. It is a plate vault door, not any where near as nice as yours, mine only weighs around 600-800 lbs. It has a frame that would have been secured to the wall, but no vestibule or day gate doors. This kind of gives you an idea as to the variations in vault doors. Yours would have been built for a smaller bank or savings and loan type of building. This type of bank would have been the prevalent type of bank and your door would have been a standard vault door.
There are no documents or records from the factory still remaining so specific questions about the door may be hard to answer. Hope this helps a little.
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