COMBINATION VAULT

I’ve always been intrigued by wooden locks. I found these plans for a little safe, and decided to make it for my grandson, for a Christmas present. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail on how to make this project. I’ll just run through some of the steps.

For the vault container, I used some cedar to make staves for the cylinder. Sand the wood smooth before cutting the angles on the staves.

To make the inside cylinder, lay the staves flat and tape the outside all together. Turn the taped side over, spread glue in the joints, and wrap the staves in a circle.

Install a small dowel in the cylinder to line up with all 5 rings, and one dowel to line up with the back stationary ring.

I used a “Jasper” router circle cutting jig to cut all the rings. There are 5 cutting steps to each ring. The rings need to fit inside the adjoining ring, and there needs to be a groove for the ring to spin around the dowel on the cylinder.

One of the steps needs a little fine tuning on the router table, for the rings to spin easily.

Using a scroll saw, cut a notch for the cylinder dowels to slide through.

When completed, all the notches line up, for the cylinder dowels to pass through.

The combination uses a five letter word to open the vault. I purchased some stick on letters at a hobby store. In order to make sure the spacing for the letters came out right, I printed off a length of 26 spaces that equaled the circumference of the ring. Then I made slight score marks on the ring to mark where the 26 letters of the alphabet would go.

Now that you’ve got all the pieces made, glue up the front and back sections and cut the cylinder to length.

Now it’s time to put the finish on all the pieces.

After all the finishing is done, install the letter stickers, lining up certain letters with the notches, to spell a secret word. Then glue the assembly together. Make sure the assembly is square, when gluing it up.

#giftideas #woodencominationvault #woodensafe