|Project by RSmike||posted 11-23-2012 05:43 PM||4229 views||34 times favorited||15 comments|
I built these wooden toy safes as Christmas presents for the nieces and nephews.
I was planning to paint them bold primary colors (red, green, yellow, blue, etc) but my bride asked me to leave the MDF naked because of the interesting contrast. The outside and all the parts are sealed with 2-3 coats of water based poly.
The hinges and handle are made out of a raised panel scrap that was sliced up. I used a Festool Domino to make the fixed anchor points for the hinges/doors to pivot on. (If you have a whole bunch of money that you want to get rid of I highly recommend purchasing a Domino…or anything made by Festool.)
The numbers on the dials were made by printing out the text in reverse on regular paper. Then I used a gel medium to stick the paper to the wood dials. When dry a SMALL amount of water is used to SLOWLY rub the paper away….over….and over….and over; patience was important.
Because there are brothers and sisters involved everyone gets their own personal combination which is resettable by moving the pins in the wheels to different locations. They aren’t too complicated to ‘crack’; especially if you know how they are built. Just like a regular safe there are limitations on what adjacent numbers can be used. Also there are some limits to the combination because of the design and where the fence slides in to lock the door.
(Yes it’s wood so no one pointing out the obvious regarding the many easy methods to ‘open’ them.)