How do I go about making a hollowed-out book for stashing my valuables in? I’m embarrased to admit my valuables would probably fit in the Cliff’s Notes with room to spare, but I’d like one for my passport and such.
Is there any secret to it? Is it done all at once or are you pretty much stuck running an X-Acto past a ruler over and over and over every ten or so pages? Should I glue the pages together beforehand?
It sort of depends on how real you want the finished book to look. You could probably use a sabre saw, but that would leave a tell-tale cut in the pages. Fine if the book stays on the shelf, but a dead giveaway if you leave it out.
If I were you, I’d buy a second-hand dictionary, hollow out as many pages as necessary with a razor or x-acto knife, and then glue the insides of the pages together with a piece of cloth, using the cloth to also glue the gutted pages to the back cover. That way, you can have loose pages in the front, or, if you want a really roomy book, one hollow all the way through.
I’m going to do the Pretend to Be a Real Guy here just to get going with ideas. Do Not Try This At Home (go to your neighbor’s house).
Most of these require creating two forms out of thin suitable material (depending on the method) with cut outs the size of the desired hole. Clamp the forms to the block of pages you will be cutting.
[Real Guy Cruft]
Use a Dremel Tool ™ with a size cutting bit. Punch down, zip around the edges of the forms.
Use metal forms. Take a standard mapp gas (tm?) torch and burn through 'em. The tighter the clamps, the less colateral damage. (But what’s the point without colateral damage?)
Use glass forms and an acid that eats thru paper. Hmmm, fumey.
Steel press with some sharp blades oughta do it.
If you got a lot a time, try bugs that eat thru paper. Silverfish are readily available but slow. Maybe get into some genetic engineering while you’re at it.
Water down the parts to be removed. Again takes time. Cf. torch and collateral damage.
You wouldn’t have access to a laser would you? One like in Goldfinger should be enough.
Wait for Norm to do a show about this.
[/Real Guy Cruft]
Though I did accomplish this feat I wonder if there is a better method than what I used which were razors. I then glued the pages together and put some fiberboard inside around the hollowed out area for stability.
It was, shall we say, a mess, but it did come out tolerably well.
Choose your book well. If possible: go for a hardback book with a good strong spine and good perfect binding or stitching which seems in good condition; which is at least a few years old, so that (a) it looks like a real, used book and (b) the pages have had time to settle down in their binding; which is at least an inch larger all the way round than the secret stash hole you want to cut; which is about three times as thick (or deep) as the secret stash hole you want to make.
You get best results if, in terms of depth, the centre of the stash hole is roughly the centre of the book too. For example, start at around the one third point, and make a stash hole about one third the thickness of the book. So if it’s 100 pages, you start cutting at around page 33 and stop at around 66. I’ll use this example from now on for clarity.
Make a cardboard template the size and shape of the rectangular hole you want to cut. Take a group of about 10 pages (e.g. pages 33-43). Secure them together with paperclips that do NOT grip so tightly as to leave marks behind. Place your template on page 33. Put a protective piece of thick plastic or metal under page 43. Carefully cut round the template with a new, sharp razor blade or similar.
Repeat with the next bunch of 10 pages until you’re done. Always cut in the same direction e.g. from the front to back.
Trim any rough or excess with scissors.
Close the book and it should look perfect.
Whatever variants on this you want to try, never get involved with gluing pages together. It’s messy; it never works; cutting through pages glued together in a block is hard.
Glue the pages (let dry) and use a router.
A simpler approach I have used: I totally took out the pages and then used wood strips glued to the rear cover to make the inside. Unless you look at the book closely you will not notice the difference and, since I place it above eye level, you cannot see it anyway unless you remove it. This is much easier and solid and gives you more space than cutting out the pages.
I have seen a couple of attempts at this that were very poor. Either the cut sheets look really bad or the whole thing turned into a sticky mess during the gluing. I think they were taking the wrong tack:
I would ditch the pages altogether. It sounds like you only want to disguise the “book” from the back. If you put it high on a bookshelf (or the top-to-bottom fit in the shelf is fairly tight) you will never see the pages.
Find a suitable book (you want to be careful here as a three inch thick leather bound beast will look out of place in a row of paperbacks). Carefully cut off the cover. Take a block of wood (or get cheap and use drywall) of suitable size and make your cavity. Glue the cover to the book (you may need to pad the spine to make it look right.
Forget all of the above & just pull a $20 bill out of your wallet.
Sorry, I love to make things as much as the next guy but this is one project that, based on the above how-to-do instructions, doesn’t sound like it’s worth saving $20 on.
Why does the book need pages?
Take all the pages out of the book. Use cardboard around the edges. You have more room and it is easier, plus you get to keep the book. It is not like haveing it look like pages is going to help if you put it high. If the person picks up the book it doesn’t matter if it looks good or not, you can tell by stuff rattling inside it is not real.
Thanks all. I think the “Get rid of the pages and just make a wooden shell” idea is the most practical. I think I’ll just use a few of those wooden paint stirrer sticks they give awat free at Standard Brands.
How about this:
Get a couple of boards that are the same width as the pages, cut a hole in one of them, the same size as the hollow that you want, use G clamps to sandwich them very tightly either side of the pages, drill through the hole in the front board to remove the paper within.
You’re all making this too complicated.
I just took a thick old hardcover and cut out a rectangle in middle of the pages with an X-Acto knife. No glue necessary. The inside of the cut-out area was not perfect, but it looked great from the outside.
I did glue my pages together first. However, since I only glued the edges of each piece of paper, I was then able to use a template (like ianzin described) to cut the pages out, in thin layers of 10-15 at a time. Worked great.
Glue all of the pages all over. you want a nice realistic book. turn the pages into a convincing board. bend the cover back, so you have the pages to work with., put these in a vice. Dril 4 holes in a rectangle where you want it. Use thesse holes to fit a keyhole saw in ther and cut out the rectangle. Glue one side of this to one of the covers. and viola! I hope that was clear, although im guessing it wasnt.
-PSM
Depending on the shape and size of the hole, this might help you out. It was successful, thanks to the help of many board members.