Is an old safe with asbestos dangerous?

[bigwull]

yes i know..the one i showed is a safe..yours is a metal box with a hasp and no padlock....that over here in the UK might be worth $20 if you were lucky...but more often than not..would end up as scrap, and get sold as such...

[capn]

yes i know..the one i showed is a safe..yours is a metal box with a hasp and no padlock....that over here in the UK might be worth $20 if you were lucky...but more often than not..would end up as scrap, and get sold as such...

Thanks for the help with the questions I asked.

[mart]

I have been trying to see it but the first pic will not completely open !!

[KC]

Can you please post a picture of the front of it?

[capn]

Can you please post a picture of the front of it?

I'll try to post a few in the morning.
It has hand painted floral design over the whole thing, and on the very front says "fireproof" hand-stenciled.
All very very worn down. The "Patent" stencil and red paint inside is almost perfect though.

[cogar]

The mind boggles....$300..you say....well...this is what you,d get over here for $300

My opinion, $300 is pretty cheap "one time cost" for insurance to protect valuable documents, etc.

[Rauville]

Originally, these little “fireproof safes” were sold by mail order catalog companies to homeowners to be used for important documents and maybe some cash set aside for a rainy day. In the last few decades, Western memorabilia collectors seem to have adopted them as “stagecoach strong boxes”, and the prices have gone higher than they probably should be. The question of why a stagecoach needed a fireproof safe is never brought up.
It’s usually a mystery as to what drives the market for a particular item, but in this case it seems to be “selective fantasy”. And of course the memories of all those old TV shows where the bad guys order the stage driver to “throw down the gold”. 

[cogar]

“Gunsmoke’s” Marshall Dillon’s office safe had a hasp and padlock on it. 

[bigwull]

$300 pretty cheap you say...well, i,d say whoever paid that for this....should be hollering their heads off....I,v BEEN ROBBED!! ...its a piece of junk...the whole purpose of having a safe is to have one wherby the lock is protected...this one has a padlock that has no protection....there fore its not fit for the purpose....

[capn]

$300 pretty cheap you say...well, i,d say whoever paid that for this....should be hollering their heads off....I,v BEEN ROBBED!! ...its a piece of junk...the whole purpose of having a safe is to have one wherby the lock is protected...this one has a padlock that has no protection....there fore its not fit for the purpose....

I highly doubt that every person who buys antiques buys them for their practical use...that would be pretty stupid.
I would be going to brinks and getting a digital safe if that's why I wanted a safe.
I didn't buy this to protect anything valuable. I bought it because it's cool and because I could put anything in there. And honestly how hard is it to buy a padlock for it?

Modern safes aren't hand painted and make this way, and I think it's cool...and if you check ebay (the US version) a lot of other people think they're cool too.

I agree with Rauville, I think some people don't know exactly what they're buying, but I very well knew this wasn't a stagecoach box haha.

[bigwull]

Oh well!!

[capn]

Hi guys.
Sorry to bring this back up.

I live with my dad and he randomly just asked me if I used our vacuum to clean out the safe (which I did) and supposedly our vacuum shoots air out as it works...meaning it could have shot out some of the asbestos/mix into the air.

Now I'm paranoid.

How paranoid should I be? I live in a small apartment...

And sorry I haven't put up any other pics. I will try to asap.

Thanks for the help!

[KC]

I wouldn't freak out over it.  Asbestos used to be rampant in buildings and plenty of people survived without illness.  It was those that were in it day in and day out...heavy concentrations.

Get a better vaccum and vacuum well.  I still don't understand where the asbestos is....was it IN the safe?

[bigwull]

Exposure to Asbestos,..however small, does carry a threat,....not now, not 5 years from now...more like 30 years, but the threat is there...you obviously have a concern...or you would,nt be asking....as to whether this fireproofing material thats within the walls of the safe..is Asbestos...i can,t say, but..if it was...how did it leak out from within the sealed walls of the safe....is there a hole/crack.or any aperture from,whence it came....

[cogar]

Exposure to Asbestos,..however small, does carry a threat,....not now, not 5 years from now...more like 30 years, but the threat is there...

Naturally Occurring Asbestos
http://www.placer.ca.gov/departments/Air/NOA.aspx