Cheapy False Book Safe

You have seen them in the movies and on TV. Every kid wants one, heck, every adult wants one. What am I talking about? A book that doubles as a low tech safe! Yes, you heard me, I finally got around to putting together an Instructable for making one of these sneaky buggers; now you can hide important things from your housemates, like a stash of Cream Cheese and Chive crackers!

This project makes one of the coolest little hiding places. Are your socks still on? Time to blow them right off your feet. What would you say if I told you that this project didn't cost me a penny? Yeah, I thought so.

To get things started, let's gather our supplies:
Box cutter (Preferably with a new blade)
Metal edged ruler
Lots of superglue (One new bottle was enough for me, but my book wasn't too thick)
A junk** hard cover book of appropriate thickness.
An extra pair of socks. (Just in case you lose one when they get blown off)

** Note that college libraries do not want you using their record books, even if you could hide a small animal in the finished product.

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Step 1: Start Cutting

I found my book quietly waiting to find a new home in front of the college bookstore. It was out of print and in the free box - don't worry, I didn't get sticky fingers!

Start by finding a place in the book where you want it to open to. I went about 20 pages in and found the start of a chapter. Flip one page past that, we'll use this page later to give the book a more finished look.

Take your straight edge and box cutter and start cutting away at the pages. Be careful, fingers pop off surprisingly easy!

Once I got about half way through the book my knife couldn't go any further and still keep a perfectly vertical "wall". I am sure there is a better way to do this, but you can carefully flip the cut pages over to expose uncut ones. Be sure to press down the side of the book you are cutting so the compartment doesn't have slanted sides.