Introduction: Pencil Safe

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About: I'm a self taught troublemaking woodworker that loves scroll sawing and making other random stuff and love to get dirty while doing it. I also mess in metalworking and love making sparks fly.

When I saw the Safe and Secure Challenge I thought for quite some time on what would be cool and what would stand out enough to enter in it. So.. I made this pencil "safe". You can roll up money in it or use it to pass secret messages:) This is quite an easy, quick and fun project to make and use.

Step 1: Gather Materials

For this "safe" the only "real" tool you need is a drill, but all things used are listed below.

  • a drill (a drill press would be better) but I don't have one.
  • a 3/16 drill bit-or any size really as long as its a smaller diameter than the pencil you are using.
  • a wood pencil-a few is better than one, it took a few tries
  • a vise or clamp

Step 2: Drilling the Hole

This step is pretty tricky. First pull the eraser and silver colored band off. After that put the pencil straight up in the vise/clamp thing (or as straight as you can get it). Center the drill bit on the pencil. Then, being careful to drill straight into the pencil so the drill won't split the wood or go out the side, I drilled into it about 2.5 inches-This is enough to account for the height of the bill. Keep in mind the deeper you drill into the pencil the higher the risk is of splitting the pencil.

Step 3: Fitting the Bill Into the Hole

This also proved to be very tricky. I discovered that I could only fit one bill in it at a time which is okay because you could just make it a big amount like a 50 or 100 dollar bill. To be able to roll the paper up small enough took some time but eventually I got it small enough and it slid in with a little persuasion.

Thanks for reading and please vote if you think its worthy.