The Lockdown (Part One)

With just a couple weeks until December 25th I needed to ship the package soon to be sure of timely delivery. My blueprints for the entire endeavor were done, but nothing physical was completed yet. The idea was to create two identical safes, one to be opened in Reno, Nevada, by my brother Robert and the other in Moultonborough, New Hampshire, by my brother Duncan on Christmas day. I would use the three hour time difference so that the first safe opening, in Moultonborough, would garner the code for the one in Reno, which when opened would give the code back to the New Hampshire safe. I had no concrete plan for how to make the hints for each code work fluidly together, but I was not worried about that part because I knew I would find at least a makeshift way for it to all flow together in the end.

I had the entire Saturday off giving me plenty of time to make the Reno safe. This excess caused me to fool around and entertain myself with other things until it was already after two, which is when my workday would have ended. Having the day off still helped because I knew if I had worked I would have spent the first hour or two back home just winding down with Netflix, reading, or video games. I comforted myself with that idea as I began to construct my cardboard safe as the northeastern winter sun was breathing its last couple of hours before setting.

The template I used I found earlier in the week. It was a video about making cardboard safes, but I had yet to look into it more then categorizing the materials I would need. As I tried watching the video, with the intent to view it fully and carefully one time, I did the opposite. My want to finish the project, not because of a dislike for it, but for the mixture of timeliness, personality, and excitement caused me to try to follow the video frame for frame in real life. I started by cutting a paper into four equal rectangles, which I then rolled into three sizes of open-ended cylinders. Each rolled up paper was only a fraction larger than the next so they would fit tightly together when put into each other. Then I followed the video in making three equal circles with a compass and then cut them out of cardboard.

This feverish following of video to life created a problem: understanding. I made all these things, yet had no idea what they were for because I kept focusing on only a single idea. When I had to put the paper and the cardboard pieces together, despite only being a few each, I was confused. The video would skip around so that no single picture gave a great idea of how it should all be shaped. My failure gave the smack that made me watch the video and truly learn how a three combination lock works. I learned it had to line up three circles together so that a cutout in each circle would be adjacent to each other. To create this, you needed one circle which would spin as the person trying to open the lock spun the outside gear, while the other circles spun as they were pushed by the first circle (The second and third circle were moved by outcroppings of cardboard glued on each piece so when the first circle moved its glued on outcropping pushed the second's glued on piece which then drove the third's). Understanding how the safe worked through figuring out what made it lock, an extended piece of cardboard, how it would open, a stick would fit into the aligned circles indents and then when turned would push back on this extended cardboard so that it all came into the locking mechanism no longer blocking the door from being pushed out, allowed for a much easier time.

As I continued to make my safe there were hitches, hot glue ran everywhere, cardboard was uneven, pieces did not fit as precisely as they should, but through a lot of redoes eventually a safe like object was created. I ended up not having enough time to create a hinged safe, with this first one being a pull out safe (the entire locking mechanism would be pulled out to open the door). I got the safe into a box with the help of my mom, and we sent it out all the way to Reno, with no way to be opened, putting all the goodies inside at the fate of my brother Duncan back in New England.