I don't do a lot of projects on this channel because our Focus here is on the workshop itself but occasionally I do and a little more than seven years ago I made a little weekend woodworking project video for this it's a wooden safe complete with a dial and a combination it's been sitting around ever since and every time I look at it I have a laugh because I remember some of the comments that I got on the original video most people understood its purpose it's a novelty but as tends to happen on YouTube Some People assumed that I was trying to teach people how to build a bank vault and I got complaints about how that the combination couldn't be changed later on so that isn't very secure or how easy it would be to break into it if you had a saw or an ax at least one guy I think maybe two called me out because he said a wooden safe isn't fireproof enough I suppose it could have been worse I could have had a big YouTube channel make three long videos complaining about how it's a bad place to store oily Rags but it was a really popular project because it's a lot of fun to build and it makes a great gift I got the idea a long time ago from an old Woodworking magazine but for the life of me I can't remember which one if you remember where it was I thought it was in wood magazine but I don't know leave it in the comments below now that original video had some music in the background which people didn't like and there were a few updates that I wanted to make so I'm going to present the build again here step by step with those updates just in case you want to build a wooden safe of your own and I really recommend it it's a fun project so let's get started the depth of your safe is determined by the width of your boards my boards were nine inches if you wanted deeper safe just use wider boards the side panels are nine and a half inches tall the top and the bottom panels are seven inches wide now I used an adjustable Finger Joint that I made for my table saw sled some years back I designed this cross-cut sled with a set of attachment jigs for cutting finger joints and tenons splines even dovetails it's definitely the most featured pack sled around if you want to build one use the link below this video to get your set of plants now you may notice I made my fingers a little proud when it's dry I'll sand them flush and smooth this is a great way to get a really nice Finger Joint assembly next measure the inside of the Box cut a back panel that fits right inside and glue it in place then cut out another piece but this one has to be a sixteenth of an inch shorter than the Box's inner height and a quarter inch wider than the Box's inner width that's going to be your door and you heard me right I said to make it a quarter inch wider than the boxes inner width that's to account for the saw curves when you rip that door into three pieces the left piece should be one and three quarters of an inch wide the center should be two and five eighths of an inch wide and the right piece should be around an inch and a half if it's a little wider than that we'll trim it to final size later the reason why we made a door panel is a single piece and then cut it into three pieces is because you're going to glue it back together eventually and you'll want it to look like a single piece again with continuous wood grain now take the center piece and cut it into two pieces measuring three and five eighths of an inch down from each end discard whatever remains in the middle next measure from the left edge of the lower piece 5 8 of an inch then a quarter inch then 5 8 another quarter another 5 8 and you should be left with the final quarter carry those lines down the face 3 8 of an inch from the end you'll have to cut away these wider portions leaving the narrow tabs between them here's the layout again if you missed it here's what it looks like after I cut the waste away with the bandsaw you'll also notice that the upper half of the door's Center piece got a similar treatment so now the two are mirror images of each other now we turn our attention back to the outer pieces of the door panel I'm using a center finding ruler to locate these Center points of the inner edges I'll put a link to one of these inexpensive but super handy rulers below this video just for clarification I marked to the center points of these two edges be sure to keep track of the orientation of all these pieces so you can get them back together in their proper order later a drill press is the best tool to bore half inch holes at each of those two marked Center points on the narrow of the two pieces the one that goes on the left of the door the hole should be one inch deep on the other piece the one on the right of the door the hole should go all the way through make sure you carefully locate these holes they have to line up later I don't care how you cut them out but you'll need three inch and a quarter diameter circles made from half inch thick material I used a band saw to rough mine out and then a Disc Sander to finish rounding them down to my compass line and their final size now I use the dimple left by the compass to strike a line from the center to a point 3 8 of an inch off center do this on all three discs then bore a quarter inch hole through each disc at your offset points I suggest using a clamp to hold them safely as you work next bore a half inch hole in the center you should be left with a large hole with a little quarter inch hole beside it creating kind of a notch use a chisel to clean up the waste between the two repeat this process on each of the three discs now remember the right side of the door assembly the one with the hole in the edge that went all the way through find its Center on the face from top to bottom and Scribe a line through bisect that line and Mark points a half of an inch from either side use a quarter inch bit to bore holes at these three points and down into the larger hole beneath as I turn the work piece you can see what I mean use a chisel to remove the waste and create a slot now the door parts can be glued back together starting with the left piece with its Edge hole facing inward the two center pieces align to the top and bottom of that left strip and finally the right piece is glued in place with its slot facing upward next I divided my discs into six equal parts and I used a stamp to emboss numbers along the edges you can write them on if you prefer this is when you have to choose your combination each digit that you want as part of the combination must be positioned opposite the little notch in the center of the wheel that would place it on this Edge once the door is dry slide a half inch dowel as deeply into the hole as you can use a pencil to Mark the location of each tab on the dowel then Mark the Left End of the slot finally Mark The Edge so you know where to trim the dowel to its final length after you've trimmed it bore three quarter inch holes right between the tab locations that yo
