I decided to share this present I will give my father for upcoming Sinterklaas (Dutch "Christmas"). This present needs some explanation. On this holiday, people give a gift to someone else that is specially "wrapped" accompanied with a poem. For my father I made this puzzle that is a bit sarcastic: the poem is about Sinterklaas being lost while coming to the Netherlands this year from Spain. My father is terrible at reading maps so this puzzle will be hard for him...

He has to start in Madrid (where Sinterklaas lives according to the official story) and every time step to the next nearest city. Every time he crosses an arrow, it must be aligned with the route of his path. Once he arrives in the Netherlands, the lock will open.

I wonder how long this will take him.

So this present is very specific for one person, but I can imagine other applications / puzzles can be made using the same concept.

Step 1: The Dials and Lid

1) I used my compasses to draw the dials on the inside of the present, and cut them out.

2) The hexagonal lid, dials and the inner circle were cut from scrap material

3) I connected the pieces. See the next step to see how this interlocks with the container

Step 2: The Container

The container was cut from a piece of board, I routed ridges and folded it into a hexagon.

The inner circle I connected hanging in the center of the artifact

In the second photo you can see how the lock works. Once all the dials line up with the circle, the present can be opened. This mechanism works pretty well and smooth. My father will not be able to feel the ridges of the dials in order to cheat

As you can see, I had to adjust the edges of the dials a bit for the lock to be openable