Digital BW, The Print

As a gun owner I've investigated gun safes over the years, with an eye 
to protecting both my guns as well as my (many shelf feet of) film 
negatives and more recently, CD-archived digital images.  An important 
point on "fireproof" ratings is that they are USUALLY based on how long 
before PAPER inside the safe catches fire or scorches  (roughly 450 
degrees F.)

I concluded on several occasions that consumer-grade "fireproof" gun 
safes wouldn't protect my negatives nearly as long as their rated time 
(they would melt the sleeves onto the negs, as I recall).  There is also 
the issue of safe location - in my case, it would have to be in a 
basement, and in the event of a fire a risk as great as heat is the 
collapse of the (burning) upper floors into the basement.  Even if the 
safe were keeping the heat out, dropping a few tons of burning house on 
it would breach both the heat and water seals, and probably ruin 
whatever was inside almost immediately.  In any event, I never made the 
investment of money and space. 

I have a feeling I would reach the same conclusion today as to my gold 
archive CDs, but I keep a duplicate set off site and so am less 
concerned about a local fire or flood.

Cheers,
Kip

Vinyl Graphics of Taft wrote:
>
>
> <snip>   I bought a cheap ($500) gun
> safe with a one hour burn limit to store all my important items in the
> shop. If it catches fire, my data will still be OK, as the safe is
> fire-proof and water tight.
>
> Uncle Dannie
>
> _._,_


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