How To - Secret Compartment Box I

in this video I'll go over what it takes to make this secret compartment box the wood I selected for this project has been drawing on my shelf for about a year that's maple and this is Purpleheart one piece of maple was slightly thinner than the other so I marked it with tape so I wouldn't be confused I'm laying out my cut lines and ensuring I have enough lumber to complete this project [Music] I'm using the width of the board to set the length for the next cut a marking the location of a small rabbit that goes on the inside bottom of the side panels the bottom panel will fit into this rabbit I'm using those side panels to double-check the cut lines on the bottom panel again I double-check measurements before cutting the end caps [Music] I modified the design of this box to make it more build friendly what you're doing is essentially building a very simple tray and then attaching a bunch of secret compartment junk to one side now that the tray is complete I need to mark and measure for the secret compartment the material for the secret compartment is exactly two blade widths thicker than the tray it's important to have that extra material because we're going to lose a little bit of width with the following cuts here's the only mistake I made on this build I didn't account for the thickness of the lid and I cut these two pieces down a little bit short [Music] [Music] here's where I realized I made my mistake but it's okay I have a solution I set the Box in the bandsaw with zero clearance and use the lid as a spacer to offset that cut that way it fits perfectly [Music] that's more like it here's where we lose those two blade thicknesses chop the one side off flip it over and chop the other side off mark everything here so you don't get confused knock the top off and make some room for the spring [Music] now I glue up the outside section I haven't sanded anything because I don't want to mess up the fit I use that bit of waste as a spacer to keep everything square you could also use the compartment itself now I'll build the compartment I'll mark roughly where the spring is going to sit and the rest becomes space for the compartment here I'm marking centerline of the compartment my CNC router brings out the anger in a lot of people so I'm just keeping it simple by using the drill press to make the compartments I make two shallow cuts here just to test the placement of the holes before drilling any deeper and once I'm happy I'll go down to a quarter inch from the bottom [Music] with the outside section dry I can work on fit mine just needed a light adjustment remember not to take off too much all these details will be in the plans but I'm just figuring out roughly where my lock spring is going to go back over to the drill press to hog out that excess material a chisel up the excess to make a perfect rectangle I'm going to use a small piece of scrap brass for my spring you can use any sort of metal as long as it have some spring or even wood if you get a little creative [Music] [Music] for bonus points in the style Department I'm going to give it a hammered brass look because it is hammered brass I hold it in place with a dab of CA glue and a square cut nail now I'll glue the outside section onto the side of the tray at this stage it doesn't matter what side you glue it on to I set the compartment in there to help with alignment but I'm very careful not to leave it in there or else it could be glued in place if you want double the fun you could put a secret Department on both sides but for this one I'm just going with a blank on the opposite side this is the most important part of the entire build even though everything's gone over in great detail in the plans you'll still want to mark the exact location of where your lock spring is going to have to fall into the knot I like to make my lock spring notch slightly higher than it needs to be so that I can file down the lock spring and fine tune the fit perfectly if you go too low the secret compartment will poke out the bottom and it's a lot harder to fix that problem I go down about a sixteenth of an inch and that's more than enough now I'll drill a 1/8 inch hole towards the bottom of the notch where my key can go in and poke the lock spring here I'm drilling a 3/8 inch hole about a quarter inch deep to accept my spring it doesn't need a lot of spring tension just enough to push it out and I cut my spring down to size a little CA glue to hold the spring in place and that's the hard part done this is optional but I like to brand my work and a place that would be impossible to do it unless you were the one building it and with all the secret compartment work done I can glue on the end caps on both sides [Music] I like using these small stop hinges they open up to about 95 degrees but that's where they stop so the lids don't flop over backwards I'm just marking those for layout right now I use a flat bottom bit in my trim router to remove most of the waste and come in with a chisel to clean them up after the only way to keep these small screws from stripping is to pre-drill the holes and lubricate the threads with a little bit of Wax [Music] I temporarily glue the lid in place so I can easily mark the location for the screws with the lid secured I'll flip it over and Mark the overhang and then I mark out a small handle for opening the lid [Music] [Music] for a finish I went with clear BRE wax and I did three coats over two days in between coats I let the Box sit in the Sun to allow the purple heart to oxidize which brings out that purple color it's just that easy to release the secret compartment on this box I'm using the folk key but any item smaller than an eighth of an inch would work thanks for watching as always more details can be found in the description plans are available on my website don't forget to Like share subscribe and follow me on Instagram reset

Channel: dustin penner

Views: 1,947,855

Rating: 4.8350191 out of 5

Keywords: router, woodwork, dpmakestuff, maker, make, diy, music, secret, hidden, compartment, stash, weed

Id: LU_X_TFG6kI

Length: 12min 13sec (733 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 10 2016