Mechanical DIY Safe

Product Description

Keep It Hidden, Keep It Safe! Create an eye-catching and imaginative self-propelled wooden mechanical model kit that can be assembled without glue. UGears designs are inspired by real-life mechanisms and embody our love of art and ingenuity building these beautiful working models should be fun, models provide an engaging and rewarding experience. Considering safe-cracking as a profession? This might be just where you should start. Build your own safe (made out of plywood and birch) with a personal lock combination, store your most precious items in the safe (jewelry or candy, your choice), and then promptly forget your combination! Follow the handy steps in the instructions to master the mix of slow knob twists and careful listening to tumbler movements that will open the lock. Will you retrieve your items, or will you have to hire a locksmith? Try it and see.For Ages 14+Specs6.1" x 5.5" x 4.1" - Once AssembledNumber of Parts: 179Assembly challenge: Medium (6-7 hours)

Features

• FUNCTIONAL AND FUN - Teens and adults aged 14 and up will enjoy building their own 3D wooden safe. Creating the safe is challenging and may take a few hours, depending on your pace and patience. Once you’ve finished, you will have a place to store valuables safely, with the pride of constructing a unique piece.
• EXPERTLY CRAFTED - The Model Safe Kit is a 3D wooden puzzle, made from durable plywood and birch. The 179 pieces includes are laser-cut for precision, so your pieces will fit together to be engineered without an issue. No glue is required for constructing your Model Safe Kit for the parts to fit together tightly, but some sanding may be required.
• CAPTIVATING HANDCRAFTED DESIGN - The Model Safe Kit is not only functional and fun, but it's designed beautifully, too! The three dimensional wooden puzzle has decorative designs that look captivating in the finished product. Display a truly unique wooden piece on your desk, shelf or nightstand.
• BRING THE FAMILY TOGETHER - Building this Model Safe Kit can be engaging and rewarding for the family to complete together. The complexity of this kit will bring families together for hours to create something truly unique to display in their home. This model is a perfect idea for handyman or anyone who enjoys woodworking.
• EXPAND YOUR MIND - This 3-D puzzle is classified as medium level difficulty and requires meticulous attention to detail and accuracy when assembling the laser-cut plywood and birch wood pieces. Use this puzzle as a brain teaser and crack the code with a mix of slow knob twists and carefully listening to tumbler movements that will open the lock.

Top Reviews

Love it! Took me about 4 hours to assemble ...
by rainny (5 out of 5 stars)
February 13, 2017

Love it! Took me about 4 hours to assemble it and it's my first puzzle. (Science major college student) It's reasonably challenging and you can see it's well-designed. It has a lot of decorative designs to make it look pretty. The pieces fit absolutely perfectly. I was misguided by some review saying some pieces don't fit well, so I forced two pieces in, and they turned out very loose and kept dropping out. You need to be patient and find the correct angle. Be very careful with the two axis, each is formed by 2 bobby pin shaped pieces. When you assemble the two pieces together, they tend to break, but most likely functional. The more annoying part is forcing the disks on the the axis, which tends to chip the end of axis. I wish they were made of metal, not wood.

Please note that the instructions doesn't give you the option of choosing whatever code you like, you only a few options. But you should be able to figure it out by playing with it. (assemble it once so you know what's involved) It can be difficult to disassemble the thing and start over, but certainly not impossible, as long you don't do it more than ~3 times.

A note for the ladies and the first-timers, you don't need sand paper. A nail filers is actually quite easy to handle and I think it would outperform sand paper. Nobody says you can't use scented candles or wax cubes for waxing. It is helpful to have a craft knife, but if you are careful, box cutters or even steak knives(you need to be extra careful) are just fine.
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This thing rules! So much fun to put together and show off.
by Nathaniel Moseley (5 out of 5 stars)
December 1, 2017

This thing rules!

The whole set is extremely well designed, with very tight tolerances and good machining. It comes with ikea-style directions, plus an outline of how to read the instructions in many languages, and it's very easy to follow. The pieces come laser cut out of flat thin plywood. It seems at first like it'd be easy to break a lot of the pieces, but I didn't manage to break any. You actually have to press pretty hard to break some of the smaller pieces out of the template. Some of the pieces come with extras, though I felt intuitively they weren't the ones that were easy to break.

One warning, make sure, on each page, that you didn't miss any pieces! I missed piece 51, a cosmetic piece on the door that goes through four layers, and it was a major major pain to pry things apart to get it in. Most pieces would be easy to get in if you missed them, that one was especially not.

I really like that the combination lock is actually functional, and it comes with a variety of different combinations you can use with it. I put it on my desk where my coworkers can see it and play with it, though many are scared to break it since it is wood and looks like it might be delicate (it's not, at all).

Definitely going to try other UGears stuff. I hope they're all as good as this one.
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Enjoyable puzzle kit
by Kenneth A Buckwalter (4 out of 5 stars)
January 1, 2017

This was a gift for my brother-in-law that I helped him assemble over the winter break. It is not for the feint of heart because it takes patience to assemble the pieces and there are many of them. Work slowly and diligently to complete the project. The pictures in the instruction book are helpful, but the text is limited. Look forward several steps before assembling the parts in the current step. I recommend lightly sanding the parts of the pieces that lock with other pieces to facilitate assembly. An emery board (nail file) works well. We waxed all of the interlocking pieces with a candle - use a birthday candle for the smaller pieces and a larger candle for the large ones. I recommend using wax on any toothpick parts to ensure that they assemble smoothly. The finished piece is impressive and the safe functions as a "piggy bank" for all of the loose coins you pick up during the week. I recommend this for people who enjoy puzzles and have a mechanical mind. I intend to purchase a different model for next year's break!
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Are you kidding me? Correction pages for the assembly???
by C. Claeson (1 out of 5 stars)
February 23, 2019

Bought for my very smart 16 year old grandson for Christmas 2018. In February, we finally had a chance to sit down at the table with time blocked out just for this (grandson, grandmother and grandfather). Many parts were very difficult to "pop" out, and some parts were almost identical to each other, but we FINALLY completed getting the parts out. We began assembly, studiously following the picture instructions, very challenging to begin with, and then we realized that there were loose pages inserted into the assembly book saying ATTENTION! THE INSTRUCTIONS HAVE CHANGED, informing us that these new pages of instructions were to be followed instead of the ones in the book. We had already proceded assembling past those points and now we have pages with different instructions, changing the part numbers. We tried to go back and disassamble some parts -very frustrating! We just quit for the day. Don't know that we will ever go back to finish this project, it turned to be more frustrating than enjoyable!
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Fun and functional project
by AvidAmazonBuyer (5 out of 5 stars)
January 30, 2017

Fun and functional! Works great, very sturdy. I would not put valuables in it, but there is an optional slot on top to use it as a penny bank. I would think it was perfect for that. Easy to medium difficulty, you must pay close attention to some steps, but overall, went together very easily. Instructions are pretty clear, not a lot of wording, mostly pictures (similar to plastic models). Very fun to put together, took me about a week working only a couple of hours a day, so it could be put together in a day or two if you really wanted to. Never had any problems fitting pieces together, unless you try to put them in the wrong way. Pieces are cut into planks, some of the smaller pieces can be a little hard to pop out, but with a little patience you should be fine. Had a blast building it, already ordered the train. Might buy all of them!
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Good quality parts and product. However, the instructions need some work.
by Jc2xs (4 out of 5 stars)
February 20, 2018

The puzzle was well made and everything fit correctly and tightly. My only complaint is the instructions. It is all pictographs and several updated and added pages via other added sheets. So the instructions really need to be redone to make assembly easier. Maybe an updated PDF that could be downloaded. The main issue I ran into is near the end when you attach the door to the front panel. I didn't realize there was a front/back to the piece and had a hard time putting the front panel on until I realized I needed to flip it over. And unlike the other side panels that all had numbers to be matched with other sides. This piece didn't have number to match up.
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Terrible instructions but great wood and great result
by Craig S. (4 out of 5 stars)
October 24, 2018

If you buy this kit, be VERY meticulous in following the instructions! This includes cross-referencing the correction addendum sheet frequently. Alternately, you can download and print out the most recent PDF instruction sheets from their web site. But IMHO why should you have to? Ugears really cuts corners on the instructions side. Also, proper assembly requires paraffin wax and sandpaper for preparation of the parts, and this kit doesn't include them.

Top quality wood and laser etching though! Pieces came out cleanly and assembled together well either with or without prep as appropriate. I am very pleased with the finished product and will be buying more Ugears kits in the future. I'll just be more vigilant in following the instructions slowly and carefully next time...
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A fun and challenging puzzle - requires time and patience and a few extra things to help build
by Beatrice P (4 out of 5 stars)
August 21, 2018

I bought this as a gift for someone who is a professional engineer and loves a challenging puzzle! He really enjoyed piecing it together. It took him just under 4.5 hours. Our set was missing a piece that was supposed to be for punching the pieces out and assisting in placing them... but at least it wasn't necessary for completing the safe! The instructions call for using wax (such as from a candle), sandpaper and a razor blade. I feel like the company could have included a small square of wax and like a 1 inch piece of sand paper. We ended up using the side of a large candle for wax and a nail file for sand paper. All in all, this is a really awesome gift. A lot of people are asking if this is a good gift for kids and maybe with parental help/supervision but it IS difficult and requires precision with placement and the force needed to place the pieces. The safe is super cool looking when finished!
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SO MUCH FUN
by keithmgould (5 out of 5 stars)
May 10, 2017

I spent a Saturday working on this, and it was an absolute pleasure. I loved learning how these types of locks work, and I loved the aesthetics. Its a fun talking point when I have dinner parties.
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Got stuck because parts aren't sized properly
by Heike O (1 out of 5 stars)
March 2, 2019

Out son was very excited to have recived this and started working on it immediately. Once it got to the point to insert the toothpicks for the gears, it all came to a halt because the toothpicks are too thick. He's concerned to push really hard, doesnt want to break it. Also, the toothpicks are supposed to turn I believe. So if they're in tight, they won't turn at all.

Very disappointed and hoping that the seller will do something about it since we were hoping for good working quality. And other than that it seems to be that.

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